“You left together?”
“What?”
“You and Zeke. Did you leave together?”
She shrugs. “I guess? I mean, we shared a car.”
A sneeze interrupts the conversation. Soft but distinct, coming from the direction of her bedroom. I freeze, eyes snapping to Alyssa.
“Someone here?”
“No.” She says it too quickly. “That was…I think it was the TV. I left it on in my room.”
I look at Gray. His expression hasn’t changed, but there’s a new awareness in his posture, a slight shifting of his weight toward the hallway leading to the bedroom.
“Funny,” I say. “Sounded like a sneeze to me.”
“Why are you being weird?” Alyssa stands, moving to block the hallway. “Maybe it was outside. These walls are thin.”
Gray catches my eye. I know he heard it too.
I start toward the hallway. “I’m going to check your room.”
“Wyatt, don’t!” She grabs my arm, nails digging in. “There’s nobody here, I swear. My room’s a mess.”
I shake her off. “Since when do you care about that?”
Gray steps forward. “Let me check first.”
That does it. The last thread of my patience snaps. “You’re not my fucking nanny!” I hiss at him. “Back off and leave me alone.”
I push past him and Alyssa, striding down the hallway with my heart hammering at the base of my throat. I’m not even sure why I’m so on edge. I just have a bad fucking feeling about it.
I throw open her bedroom door without knocking. The room is dim, curtains drawn, bed unmade. And sitting on the edge of the mattress, wrapped in nothing but a bedsheet, is Zeke.
My best friend.
He looks up, eyes wide, mouth falling open. “Wy—” he starts, then stops, clearly at a loss for words.
I just stare at him. My brain refuses to process what I’m seeing. Zeke. In Alyssa’s bedroom. Naked. The evidence laid out before me is undeniable, but my mind keeps rejecting the conclusion.
“Wy,” he tries again, voice cracking. “I can explain—”
But there’s nothing to explain. It’s all right there. The tangled sheets. The clothes scattered across the floor—his jeans, her bra. The guilty, deer-in-the-headlights look on his face.
My best friend and my girlfriend.
The numbness spreads from my head down through my chest, my arms, my legs. I can’t feel my fingers. Can’t feel anything except a strange ringing in my ears, like I’m underwater.
I turn around slowly to find Alyssa standing in the hallway, horror etched across her face. Behind her is Gray, silent witness to my humiliation. His expression gives nothing away, but I know he sees everything. My shock, my pain, the pathetic realization that the two people closest to me have been fucking behind my back.
How long? A day? A month? The whole time?
Does it even matter?
I look from Alyssa back down the hallway to Zeke, who’s still sitting there like a fucking idiot, clutching the sheet to his chest.
I don’t say a word. What is there to say?
