Heart-Bound ✅

Chapter One

It was a Saturday night in late September. Tyler Lange had never expected to be moving back home at the age of twenty-six, back into a bedroom he hadn't occupied since he was twenty. But then again, he'd never expected to walk in on his boyfriend cheating on them in their apartment five hours earlier, either.

"It will only be for a month tops," he said over his shoulder to his parents as he climbed the stairs with his bags. "I still have my job, and I'll start apartment hunting tomorrow."

"Just take it easy, Tyler," his mother called after him. "Your father and I aren't going to rush you out the door at the first opportunity."

"If he pays rent, he can stay as long as he wants," his father added loudly from the den.

What's the point of charging rent when you already paid off your mortgage? Tyler wondered, but he didn't say that out loud. He entered his bedroom and found it eerily similar to what it looked like when he moved out six years prior. Still the same twin bed with flannel sheets. His high school posters of cars, video games, and anime were still up. His desk was the same. His dresser was the same.

It looks like Mom dusts in here, at least.

Tyler closed the door behind him, and came face-to-face with his own reflection with the full-length mirror hanging on his door. He stared at himself in silence for a long time. He needed a shave and shower, but otherwise he was happy with his appearance. He was tall and muscular, rough hands for his mechanic job but little body fat. Brown hair in a buzz cut and intense blue eyes. Maybe it was his ego talking, but Tyler knew that he was attractive. He knew that he was a catch. Any guy would want him, right?

But he didn't.

The anger flared up inside him once more and he turned away from the door. He fell face-first onto his bed, and immediately missed the queen-sized bed he had slept in less than twenty-four hours prior. But he knew he couldn't ever sleep in that bed again. Not after getting home from work early and walking into his bedroom to find his boyfriend, Kane Aron, in the middle of sex with some guy Tyler didn't know.

Tyler clenched his jaw as Kane's words echoed in his words. The gaslighting—how apparently Kane cheating was Tyler's fault because Tyler was a "shitty boyfriend". Tyler "wasn't home enough". Tyler "didn't say "I love you" enough". That last time Tyler treated Kane to anything nice was Kane's birthday.

"And when was the last time you did anything for me, asshole?" Tyler growled into the blanket. He clenched his hand into a fist and punched the mattress. "Three years. THREE YEARS!"

Three years committed to one person gone to waste because that one person couldn't give him the commitment back. But despite being wronged, Tyler was the one who had to leave. The apartment was Kane's; Tyler was the one who moved in with him, and Kane never got around to adding Tyler to the lease (despite the bills being split 60-40, with Tyler paying the 60 part).

Tyler rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. He wasn't a cryer; he wasn't someone who considered crying to be a weakness, but he just hated crying. Crying always gave him terrible headaches, and it always made his face a mess. He tried to avoid crying as much as possible. But seeing Kane with another guy...seeing another man screwing his boyfriend, and then for Kane to show no remorse—almost laughing at Tyler in the ensuing confrontation...Tyler had come close to crying. But he held the tears at bay. Kane wasn't worth it.