AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Yeah. You are.
Fuck. Seriously, if I ever saw Keith again, I swore I might take a swing at him. I wasn’t a violent man by any means, but it seemed only fair after he’d been living rent-free in my head for this long. I just needed to learn to ignore him and—
“Hey, hey.” Darren appeared beside me. “You ready for—” He stared at me. “Whoa. Shit. You okay?”
I dropped my gaze. I had no idea what he’d seen in my expression, or if I was some shade of pale, green, or pale green, but I didn’t have the energy to pretend it was nothing.
My friend inclined his head. “Dude. What’s up?”
I swallowed. “It’s this thing with Nick.”
“What about it?” Even without looking at him, I could feel his intense gaze locked on me. “I thought things were good with him.”
“They are. They… It’s…” Fuck. Where to even start?
Darren put a hand on my shoulder. “Man, what’s wrong with you? Ever since you met him, you’ve been kind of…” He furrowed his brow. “I don’t know. Weird. And now…”
I swallowed. “Yeah. It’s—”
Naturally, the bell rang. Because of course it did.
“Damn it. Listen.” I faced him. “It’s a, uh, long story. If you don’t have plans, let’s do lunch in my classroom.” Normally, we’d both come here to the teachers’ lounge for lunch, but these walls had ears, and this wasn’t a piece of gossip I needed getting around.
His eyes widened with alarm. “Okay. Sure. I’ll see you then.” He squeezed my shoulder. “You going to be good between now and then?”
I forced a laugh. “Guess we’ll see.”
He didn’t look even the slightest bit convinced.
“I’ll be fine.” I gestured with my coffee. “We should get to class.”
He grunted in agreement. “All right. Hang in there, man.”
“I will.”
And I would.
But thank God Darren and I had the same lunch period.
I barely madeit through first, second, and third periods, but the bell finally rang, and my students cleared out to head to lunch. I breathed a sigh of relief. I wouldn’t have to be “on” for the next hour, and I’d have my friend to help me untangle my thoughts. Not a moment too soon.
Darren was right on time, too. His classroom was at the opposite end of the hall from mine, and he’d had to wade through throngs of students to get here, but not five minutes after the bell, he strode in and shut the door behind him. He sat on a desk in the front row and put his lunch bag on the one next to him. As he unwrapped his sandwich, he said, “Okay. So. What’s going on with your guy?”
“Um. Well.” I eyed my own sandwich, but my appetite was MIA. Instead, I leaned back in my chair and laced my hands behind my head. “Soo, it turns out there’s some, uh, chemistry.”
Darren’s eyebrows flicked up. “Oh yeah?”
I knew damn well I was blushing, and I wasn’t surprised. Sighing, I nodded. “Yeah. We got together again last night, and…” I whistled.
He chuckled. “Nice, dude.” But then he sobered. “So, what’s the problem?”
I chewed my lip. I wasn’t sure how much I should say. Darren knew “Nick” and I had met on social media, that we shitposted sometimes and got into political debates with people, but he wasn’t on social media himself. He didn’t know either of our usernames. If I tipped my hand—and Tanner’s hand—to Darren, there really wasn’t any way for him or anyone else to tie us back to those burner accounts.
I took a deep breath. “So, the first time we met, when he dropped me off at my car, he said he really wanted to kiss me. But… he couldn’t.”
The confusion on my friend’s face was almost comical. “Why not?”
“Because he has some stitches in his upper lip.” I gulped. “From getting hit by a puck.”
