Page 122 of Dark Little Game

I kept something from my best friend, and even though privacy has its place, I know that I would be hurt if I were him, too.

There’s no fucking chance I’m going to let the wound fester.

I’m going to put honesty overfuckingeverything, the way I should have been doing the whole time.

And it’s all going to come out tonight.

“Wes, you are the first to know, and I was planning on telling you very soon,” I say to him before he can walk off into his room. “It’s not a one-off. It’s not a fluke. I… I’m hooking up with Hunter. I have been for weeks. And that’s my choice to make. But Iamsorry for not telling you sooner. I’m so fucking sorry, Weston?—”

He walks past us, not even looking me in the eye. “Go be with him, then. We’ll probably both be dead by the end of this week, so get your fill.”

I set my jaw. “You know that’s not true.”

He heads into his room and I look back at Hunter, who is just as defeated, leaning against the wall in the hallway.

“One second,” I mouth to Hunter, before following Weston into his room.

Wes is staring out his window, with his eyes wide. “Mybrother, Rayne. Myfucking brother. Were you doing this in high school, too? How long have you been going behind my back?”

“No, we weren’t doing this in high school. And is it going behind your back? Do I need to tell you every single thing I do, and every move I make?”

“Fucking my brother isn’t the same thing as telling me what kind of coffee you drank in the morning.”

He’s right.

I know he’s right.

But I feel my own indignant anger eating away at me, all the same.

“You’ve been like a brick wall all semester anyway,” I tell him, and I regret the words the moment they’re out of my mouth.

He looks up, furrowing his brow at me. “Excuse me?”

“Ever since this school year started, you’ve been acting different. How often do we havefuntogether anymore? Why don’t we have late nights up talking like we always have?”

“Maybe because you’re too busy putting your tongue in Hunter’s mouth?—”

“Stop. You can’t tell me you haven’t been different, Wes. It’s like there’s this invisible wall between us. Like you’re not telling me something.”

He’s gripping the ledge below the window so hard his knuckles are white. “Almost as if my asshole of a brother joined Onyx and I don’t like it. Almost as if I know my father is going to give him everything to inherit, and leave me with nothing.”

I shake my head. “Is it just that, Wes? Or is there more?”

“You’re fucking blind, then.”

“Blind to what?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Tell me,” I roar at him.

Wes looks me in the eye. “When you first came out, and got with Mikael, I thought I was just being possessive. I saw you with him andknewhe wasn’t good enough for you. When you two broke up, I realized that it was something different than that.”

My chest suddenly feels hollow.

I turn away, trying to recall every interaction I’ve had with Weston this semester.

The way it seemed hard for him to look me in the eyes, sometimes. The way he fucking hated it anytime I talked about Mikael. And the specific loathing he had when he was forced to acknowledge that Hunter was my roommate.