Page 20 of Out in the Open

But Greg’s loud voice was the last of Ethan’s problem.

“You took that from my notebook,” Ethan said. That could’ve been him. He could’ve saved the class, received a compliment from Professor Sharpe, hadlatecomerexpunged from his record.

“You weren’t saying anything,” Greg said.

“Since when do you need brownie points?”

“I don’t. But now it’ll keep him off my back.”

“Thanks to my notes.”

Greg cocked his head to the side and gave Ethan a “now really” look. Hair fell into his eyes. “It’s not like you were going to shout it out.”

“What?”

“The answer. You had it there. But you weren’t going to shout it out to the class.”

“Yes, I was.”

“You weren’t.”

Ethan didn’t know why he still let himself get offended by Greg. By now he realized that every word that came out of Greg’s mouth was designed to tear him down. That didn’t make it any better.

“I saw you. You were too scared to shout out the answer.”

Ethan turned back to the professor. Why was he letting Greg suck him in once again?

Greg’s face softened a bit. “I’m sorry for taking your answer. I’m just joking around with you, dude.”

“Stop. Calling. Me. Dude.”

Greg held up his hands in surrender, but that smirk was still there. “Let’s just call it even.”

Another explosion of anger burst onto Ethan’s face. “Even? Even for what?”

“I sneaked a peek at your notes, and you sneaked a peek of me in the locker room.”

Ethan felt his cheeks turn fifty shades of red. A lump of air caught in his throat. Panic zipped across his face.

“What are you talking about?” Ethan squinted, acting as confused as possible.

“I caught you checking me out as I walked to the showers.”

“No.” Ethan shook his head. He had visions of getting beat up, of the news spreading around the school. “I thought you said something so I turned around, but you didn’t.”

“Sure, sure. You turned and waited a good long moment.”

“No, it was only a second.” Heat rose up his neck, burned inside his head.

“Don’t try to deny it, dude. I caught you red-handed. I’m flattered, by the way.”

Ethan’s hand trembled.Just keep denying, he told himself. He could never admit to that. “I turned around and saw you for maybe half a second. I wasn’t staring, and there wasn’t much to look at.”

A total, complete lie. But this was not a time to stroke Greg’s ego.

Greg’s eyebrows leapt up. “Not much to look at?”

“Yeah.” Ethan let out a mini-laugh. He could see this was pinching at something within Greg. “It was so small, I could barely see anything.”