Page 25 of Stop and Seek (Our Childish Games #1)

Suddenly, Theo regretted more than just whatever happened in the classroom. He regretted punching Noah. Because if Noah hit him back? He’d be a goddamn chalk outline.

“Play a game with me,” Noah said flatly, dropping his fork into the empty white Styrofoam box.

Theo cleared his throat. “I lost the last game I played. So did you.”

“There’s no winners or losers.” Noah slung his arm over the back of the couch and turned to face him. “Twenty questions. You ask ten, and so can I.”

Theo laughed—jerky and short. Forced as hell .

“Wait.” He put the noodle container to the side. “This is like, icebreaker shit. You wanna do this now?"

“What’s something no one knows about you?” Noah asked, instead of answering. He had that tone that made Theo’s heart skip one too many beats to be comfortable.

The question was an easy one, though.

“I hate being called Teddy. It drives me fucking bonkers.” He paused, wiping the sides of his mouth. Everything tasted like chili oil and ginger. He couldn’t feel his damn tongue. “Same question.”

Noah shot him a look. “Don’t ‘same question’ me. You can’t do that. At least rephrase it.”

“How about, what’s something you’d never tell anyone?” Theo fired back as he stood.

Holy shit , he needed a drink. Like, two minutes ago. Whatever Noah ate was spicier than anything he’d ever had. Even his throat burned. There was a fine line between enjoying heat and sacrificing taste buds.

“That’s a different question, but I’ll take it,” Noah said when Theo sat back on the couch and chucked a can of soda at him.

“How is that a different question?”

“You’re down two. You better keep track.”

“Asshole.”

Noah grinned. “Something no one knows is a secret you keep from yourself . The other is a secret you keep from everyone else. I—” He popped open the tab.

“— hate when people think I don’t do shit.

I’m a busy little bee behind the scenes, and most of it goes unnoticed.

There’s absolutely nothing I wouldn’t do for the people I care about. ”

Halfway through chugging his soda, Theo had to let that sink in. That sounded loaded . Plus, the way Noah was looking at him? That fucking manic intensity like he had in the game? It gave him goosebumps again, and he couldn’t decide if they were good or bad.

“What’s the one thing you regret most?” Noah asked.

Theo swallowed, eyeing the bright green can in his hand. The soda wasn’t helping.

“Does my entire life count?”

It wasn’t a joke, even if it sounded like one. His face was on fire.

The questions felt a little too personal. Less icebreaker , more third degree .

“Do you still play football?” he tried. If he could steer the conversation somewhere else— anywhere else —he’d feel a hell of a lot better.

Noah rolled his bottom lip through his teeth. Shrugged. “Not for years. Things went south for me in college and then my life blew up in my face. I don’t have the best luck. What’s the worst thing someone’s done to you?”

“Lie,” Theo muttered. He slumped back, the can caught between his knees. “I guess that’s the short of it. Are—are you sure you don’t want to do something else? I got console games.” He moved the soda to the floor, his heart pounding so loud he was sure Noah could hear it.

Everything was just fucking hot .

No air conditioner. His hoodie was killing him—

He knew it wasn’t from the food .

Noah didn’t respond right away. He slid closer until his knee lodged against Theo’s thigh. One hand splayed against Theo’s leg, and Theo didn’t fucking dare take his eyes off it.

The sexual tension was almost more than he could handle.

“Why is getting to know you such a big deal?” Noah asked after a minute. “I ask you a real question and you freak.”

Not expecting that one.

“It’s not,” Theo mumbled, but even he could hear how fake it sounded. That was a new sort of embarrassing. “Ask me something. I’ll answer.”

Noah’s grin was all teeth and it sent a shiver down his spine.

“Tell me your deepest, darkest secret. Think of it like,” Noah’s hand slid farther up Theo’s leg, thumb rubbing against the inside of his thigh. “A free-fall exercise. You trust me, and I promise I won’t let you fall.”

Falling was probably at the bottom of Theo’s concerns at the moment.

His mouth had gone dry, tongue too thick to move. Stuck somewhere between bone-shattering anxiety and the urge to beg Noah to fuck him again. Both options sucked. At least the second would stop the nosy questions.

“You…” Theo started. He licked his lips. “Do you remember Aaron Donaldson?”

Noah leaned in, close enough for Theo to catch the sugar-and-citrus tang of the soda on his breath. Theo didn’t move—he couldn’t.

“Running back Aaron?” Noah asked quietly. “High school?”

Theo nodded. Once.

Bad move. Bad, bad move .

His mouth brushed against Noah’s and all his damn thoughts spiraled straight to his dick.

Except, Noah didn’t kiss him. He smirked—cocky and annoying and hot as hell.

“Keep talking, Theo. I like listening. What about Aaron?”

God.

Dammit.

Theo swallowed, hard. “I—I met him at one of my friend’s parties senior year. He… uh… he offered me a blunt. We got high. He kissed me.”

“There’s—” Noah paused, eyebrows knitting together. “No way. Aaron was the straightest guy I ever met. All he talked about was girls he was screwing.”

Oh my god.

Every time Noah spoke —

“Either kiss me, or back the fuck off,” Theo whispered. “I can’t multitask.”

Noah snorted, finally pulling back—but not far. His hand moved down Theo’s leg to his knee.

“You win. Keep going.”

All the tension left Theo’s body in one fell swoop. Like someone punched out the oxygen and left him stranded.

“Aaron—maybe he’s straight,” Theo started, unsure of how to phrase the rest of it. “Maybe he was going through a phase. I have no clue. He’d tell everyone I was tutoring him in calc, but we’d go to his basement and fuck around and get high.”

He paused, dropping his hands to the blanket to mess with the frayed edge. “Someone caught us in the first-floor bathroom and it—it went bad. Then I snapped. ”

That wasn’t the truth, though.

Bad didn’t begin to cover it. None of the words were good enough. It had been one slow, long, catastrophe. Something inside him had split wide open that day, and he’d never been able to find all the pieces.

“Jesus,” Noah murmured, hand tightening on Theo’s knee. “I heard about this. The ambulance—was that you? The police questioned the entire team. We all figured Aaron and Keith knew… something , but they wouldn’t talk. We were told someone tried to...”

There was so much fucking blood. The floor, his hands, his jeans. The damn pocket knife stung so bad. His arms wouldn’t stop bleeding, and he had no idea how it happened, or where the gashes came from.

Theo glanced from Noah, to the blanket. “It’s not a bad word. I just wanted the shit in my head to stop for a second. Killing myself sounded like the easiest way to get that to happen.”

Silence. Louder than the quiet. Louder than anything he’d heard in fucking days.

Then—gently, Noah’s hand caught his jaw. Turned it back to him. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

Too much.

The burning in Theo’s eyes. The way he had to clench his jaw to keep it from shaking.

All he wanted was Noah’s hands on his body, mouth on his. He didn’t have to think about this goddamn nightmare when he was high, or drunk, or fucking.

It was too much.