Page 113 of The Locker Room

opened, the jag had needed to run its course.

“We have to,” Chris whispered. “We have to do this. He"s talking

about trading us.”

It was absurd—and it was true. Xander was having the season of

his life, second in the league in points and rebounds and Chris was going

to the All-Star Game right with him. The two of them had the team on a

playoff pace, it was undeniable, and this time, it looked like they might

make it past the first round, but Wallick wouldn"t leave them alone. He"d

started calling them “Ho” and “Mo” on the court, and the name had

caught. More than one shock jock had taken up the cry.

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(Penny had told Christian secretly that his parents had stopped

watching the news or turning on the radio in the morning. “Dad actually

figured out how to use an iPod and Netflix. It"s unreal!”)

Xander"s heart caught in his throat. Trading them? Oh God. The

one thing that made the lie bearable, theonlything that made the lie

bearable, was coming home to Chris at the end of the night.

He took the condoms from Chris with shaking fingers, and Chris

closed his hand over Xander"s in comfort.

“Our contracts come up for renewal at the end of the season,” he

said quietly, and Xander looked up, startled. He"d offered to quit, to out

them, to scream the truth to the heavens and obliterate the lie. He"d

almost done it without Chris, about a thousand times, but he couldn"t. It

was Chris"s dream too. But this….

“What do you have in mind?”

Chris shrugged. “Retirement? A press conference? Having Leo say

we still want to play here, but that Bigot-man"s got to shut the fuck up? I

don"t know, Xan. I just know that….” Chris ran his hands through his

short-cropped hair. Xander missed his curls—he"d kept it super short,