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Dean frowned. “The door was unlocked.”

“Yeah, I knew you’d be coming.”

Well, that solved that mystery, at least. And with that, Dean’s temporary worry faded, and his anger slammed back into place.

“Well, at least you know why I’m here,” Dean grunted, shoving the door closed.

Sloane appeared in the doorway, wiping his hands with a hand towel. “There really aren’t that many reasons you’d be here right now.”

Dean cocked his head. “Yeah, you’re right. Especially when the guy who’s supposed to be my best friend, and support me in shit, decides to act like a complete dick for no reason.”

Sloane’s brow shot up. “Really, we’re going to pull the best friend card now?”

“Yeah, Sloane. I am. Because last I checked, that’s what best friends were supposed to do, back each other up. What you did last night was the complete opposite.”

Sloane chucked the towel somewhere out of sight. “Yeah, and best friends aren’t supposed to keep things from one another, but guess what you did?”

Dean motioned to Sloane. “Wow, I wonder why I was so worried about telling you? Maybe it’s because of the exact way you acted last night?”

Never had he been so frustrated with Sloane. Dean wasn’t so blind he didn’t see that Sloane could be excessively grouchy and more than a little aggressive at times. For the most part, Dean was willing to shrug it off, knowing most of it was all bark, and sometimes, he even found it amusing. Typically, Dean could pull Sloane back from the edge if his friend grew too aggressive or mean, and it hadneverbeen focused on something or someone close to Dean.

Until now.

Sloane crossed his arms. “You’ve been seeing this guy for weeks, keeping it from me. Then you tell me, and just what? Expect me to be instantly okay with you keeping shit from me?”

“You were the one who said you were perfectly fine with meeting him!” Dean shot back.

“What the fuck else was I supposed to say, Dean? One minute everything is fine, then I find out you’ve been seeing someone and doing it for weeks without so much as a mention.”

Dean growled. “What the fuck does it matter?”

“It matters because you were keeping it a secret.”

“Again, we go right back to you being a giant dick to someone who didn’t deserve it! If your issue was with me, you should havesaid something to me instead of taking it out on Marco for no good fucking reason.”

“Maybe I don’t like him.”

“Maybe you’re an asshole.”

Sloane’s nostrils flared. “We already knew that.”

Dean narrowed his eyes, stomping up to Sloane. “Which was fine when you weren’t doing it to someone I gave a shit about, and you fucking know it. You knew damn well I was into Marco and that it meant something to me, and you werestilla giant asshole to him.”

Sloane glared, his jaw tightening. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have kept him a secret from me.”

Dean let out a cry of frustration. “AndmaybeI shouldn’t have to report every little detail of my life to you in order to make sure you aren’t a bastard to someone.”

Sloane dropped his arms, balling his hands into fists at his side. “And why is this any different, hmm?”

Dean hesitated, accusing finger drooping as he felt the weight of Sloane’s question fall around him. “What...what?”

“Why is this suddenly different from anything else? Why can you tell me about when your mom found you with your boyfriend before you enlisted? Why can you tell me about how you secretly hate guns? Why can you tell me about, fuck, I don’t know, the last time you hooked up, but you can’t tell me that you’re seeing some guy?”

Dean’s chest tightened, and he brought a hand protectively to it. “How do you have the balls to ask me that after last night?”

“Don’t change the fucking subject, Dean.”

“The entire subject was about you acting like a complete and utter asshole in the first place!”