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And a legendary dick.

HORNY DEVIL: To the team, you brat.

Oh, right. Well, there are worse things to be known for.

HORNY DEVIL: I spent half my flight reading the email Forrest sent me about some theory that Earth is nothing more than an alien zoo.

Damn, that’s a really long email.

HORNY DEVIL: You have no fucking idea.

You enjoyed reading it, didn’t you?

HORNY DEVIL: That’s neither here nor there.

You did.

HORNY DEVIL: Are you packed for our trip, little wolf?

Attempting.

HORNY DEVIL: Good. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Ihadn’t actually told Wyatt that winning Rhodes back had been a success. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. It was more that it was difficult to share it with him, considering he didn’t have the whole story—well, Jude didn’t have the whole story either, but at least Jude knew I was gay. It felt gross to secretly talk about Rhodes as if he was some college girl. I couldn’t do it anymore.

Which was why I was trying so damn hard to focus on the suitcase in front of me instead of Wyatt with his notebook on the other end of the room. He prattled on about this thing or that thing. I honestly wasn’t paying enough attention. Jude was sprawled out on the floor, surrounded by the array of M&Ms that had missed his mouth. He kept tossing ones up in the air and tried to catch them in his mouth, but he missed more than he caught. It took everything I had not to go clean up after him.

“Maybe you need to run to her at midnight and confess your love to her,” Wyatt was saying. “Gives a whole Cinderella Story vibe.”

“Or maybe that’s dumb because no one likes to be woken up at midnight,” Jude retorted. “If some chick woke me up at midnight to tell me she loved me… straight to the stalker file.”

“You have a stalker file?” Wyatt asked.

“I have a lot of files,” he said. “Stalker file… don’t hook up with again file… definitely hook up with again… sexiest ass file… hot but a little unhinged file… there’s way too many in that file. Apparently, I like the unhinged ones.”

“We need an Operation Get Her Back file,” Wyatt replied. “If we—”

“I can’t do any more of Operation Get Her Back stuff,” I interrupted loudly. He paused, giving me his full attention. Even Jude stopped to listen as another M&M skittered across the floor. All eyes on me made the room temperature skyrocket. Well, fuck. I was doing this. “See, the thing is… it’s just… I’m not…”

I could do this. Why was I so worried? It was just Wyatt.

“Theo’s gay,” Jude said for me.

“Cool,” Wyatt replied, as if it was just that simple. His pen dropped right back to the notebook, scribbling on the cover.

I stared at him dumbly. That was it? No awkwardness. No questions. He didn’t even seem particularly surprised by the announcement. He just kept writing, completely unfazed. My chest tightened. I’d spent so much time agonizing over this conversation that I was beginning to think I’d imagined up the whole problem. I’d pictured some grand announcement where it mattered that I was gay instead of it being a random part of some ridiculous conversation involving Wyatt’s notebook and Jude’s metaphorical files.

And maybe I just hadn’t trusted my friends enough to realize it didn’t need to be such a big deal.

“So, Operation Get Him Back, got it,” Wyatt continued. “Is it a secret operation? Am I hiding this notebook—”

“You should always hide that fucking notebook,” Jude cut him off. “No one needs to see that notebook, even before this conversation.”

“I haven’t told anyone besides you two,” I admitted. And Rhodes, but he had a front-row seat to that realization. “I should tell my parents, but I haven’t figured out how.”

I knew I needed to, but I just didn’t know how. With them, it felt like one of those conversations I had to plan out. I couldn’t just wing that conversation. My parents would have way too many questions.

“You know,” Wyatt began, “you could’ve told us earlier. It probably would’ve made this whole thing less awkward—calling your guy a girl. When I was in high school, I hated the assholes who called my boyfriend my girlfriend.”