“Who’s getting together?” Charlie questions from the other side of our group, raising his chin and making a point of being far too nosey for his own good.
I grin back at him while he eyes Drix beside me. “You and Drix,” I tell him, watching as his brows shoot straight up.
Drix sucks in a strangled gasp beside me but it cuts off as Charlie focuses his heavy stare on her. His eyes drop over her body, hungrily taking it in and making a point of liking what he sees. His voice lowers, deeper than I’ve ever heard it before. “I’m down if you are.”
Drix squirms beside me and clenches her thighs while roaming her eyes over every inch of his skin, just as he had done to her. She shrugs a shoulder, acting impartial while every ounce of her body is screaming with desperation. “Yeah, I guess I’m down.”
Charlie grins and leans back onto his hands, watching her like she’s his last meal that’s going to be savored with every last bite being thoroughly enjoyed. Her cheeks flush and she lifts her cocktail to her lips, needing something to keep herself busy so that she doesn’t bound across the pool and throw herself at him.
Charlie laughs but their moment is cut short by Jess attempting to climb onto Milo’s lap. “Please, baby. Just give me one more chance. I promise I won't try and push a relationship. We can just keep hanging out like we’ve been doing. Maybe the feelings will grow with time or … I don’t know. Did I do something wrong? Just help me understand. I don’t want to lose you.”
Panic slices across Milo’s face as he attempts to push her off him but she’s had too much to drink and has clearly lost all sense of what’s socially acceptable. She keeps trying, refusing to be pushed away.
Milo’s panicked gaze flashes to me with a universal sign for help and I rise to my feet, taking a step towards them and placing myself right beside Colton. “Jess, come on. Maybe now isn’t the time. Why don’t you guys meet up tomorrow in private and you can talk there without an audience?”
“No,” she snaps. “I’m sick of not having any answers. I need to know what I did to fuck up because it’s driving me insane. One minute we’re good and the next thing I know, he’s pulling away. I just need … I don’t even know what I need but I know I need it.”
Colton raises his hand to my waist and I find myself clutching onto it as Milo meets my eyes. My heart breaks for him seeing the uneasiness building within him. He's lost and doesn’t know how to play this and then all of a sudden, defeat claims him.
“Jess, get off me,” he says, giving her a slightly harder shove than necessary and flying to his feet. He stares down at her in a panic and the words come rushing out of him before he gets the chance to stop himself. “I’m gay. I don’t fucking like you. I like dudes. I always have. You and I were just some twisted experiment.”
Oh, fuck.
Shocked gasps sound around the group as Jess stares up at him with wide eyes and then as if realizing what the fuck he just said, his eyes go wide with fear and I see the exact second he decides to run.
“Milo stop,” I demand, throwing myself in front of him. I reach out and grab hold of him, refusing to let him run. He's been hiding in the closet for too long. It's finally time that he embraces who he is. “Don’t run from this. Stand up and face it. There’s nothing for you to be scared of—not in front of these guys. They’ll have your back just like I do.”
His eyes flash over my head to the group sitting behind me and he instantly starts shaking his head. “I can’t,” he says. “If word got out …”
“It won’t,” I promise him. “You know these guys. They’re the good kind.”
“I …” he lets out a heavy sigh and squeezes my hand. “You really think so?”
“Well, you’ve kinda already said it so there’s really no going back now. Just own what you said and be your true self, and then maybe you can take Jess aside and apologize for that bullshit because if you don’t, you and I are going to have words, that was mean.”
His hands begin to shake as the nerves spread throughout him. “Okay,” he finally says. “You’re right. I can’t keep this bottled up anymore.” He pulls me aside and I turn to face the group, keeping myself right beside him and not allowing him the chance to back down. He's strong enough. He can do this.
The look on his face is terrifying. The self-doubt and fear of the unknown shining so fucking bright it nearly cripples me, but he raises his chin and takes a hesitant step towards them.