Page 80 of Out in the Open

“I’m so sorry, Greg.”

Every muscle in Greg’s body tensed. His short, labored breaths were the only noise in the room.

“Greg?”

With a sweeping arm, Greg knocked all of his bobbleheads to the ground. The pieces crashed and clanged against each other. Ethan felt a part of him crash with them.

“Just get out. GET OUT.”

Ethan raced down the hall, past the studiers and TV watchers, and bolted into the peaceful frat quad. He’d never thought the most drama in North Campus would stem from his own life.

CHAPTER twenty-nine

Ethan dreaded the awkwardness that awaited him in Constitutional Law class on Tuesday. Even standing on the opposite side of the room like he’d done before wouldn’t be enough to stifle the weirdness between him and Greg.

Luckily for him, it wasn’t an issue. Greg wasn’t in class.

Ethan sat next to his empty chair. He didn’t have to worry about being distracted by Greg on his phone, by his snoring, by his tart comments. Nope.

No distractions.

No awkwardness.

No Greg.

Ethan slumped down in his chair. He took notes, but only every third sentence or so. He wasn’t keeping track. He knew he could get the notes online, that Professor Sharpe never veered.

Greg had taught him that. Ethan felt cold all of a sudden, like he’d just discovered a hole within him. A frown weighed down his face.

The sound of the bobbleheads slamming to the floor reverberated in his head. Louder and louder. Like cymbals in a messed-up symphony.

Maybe Greg was right.I said I needed time, and you just pushed.

What they’d had hadn’t been terrible. But Ethan wasn’t happy, and he knew that, deep down, Greg wasn’t either. People with double lives were never happy; they were too exhausted covering their tracks.

The annoying girl in front of him turned around and seemed to be looking for something.

“What?” Ethan asked.

“It’s so quiet back here. It’s weird.”

Yes, it was. But weird would have to be the new normal for Ethan.

Φ

Ethan attended the off-campus Halloween party thrown by Lorna’s sorority sister. They trudged through downtown Duncannon in the kind of cold rain that was mere degrees from ice. Each drop pricked at Ethan’s skin. Lorna shivered in her sexy bee costume, while Ethan had chosen to wear comfortable overalls for a non-sexy farmer getup. He offered her his straw hat, but she declined.

“I don’t want to mess up my hair.” She clutched her umbrella to her chest. “Why didn’t I go to school in Florida?”

“Hurricanes, humidity, and hillbillies.”

“Right.”

They scurried past the quiet, darkened storefronts of the town. Ethan felt like he was one virgin away from being in a horror flick.

Music thumped from the apartment complex. Kids smoked on the back porch. This was the place to be on Halloween night.

“So have you spoken to Sahil?” Ethan asked.