Page 51 of The Other Side of Paradise

“Ah… yes, well,” she said, her words carefully picked. “I’m having my fun.”

I elbowed her. “No, you are not. Come on. After this, we should go to a bar or club or something and you can at least tell me if any of the guys there are attractive.”

She plastered on a thin smile. “I’m good, thanks.”

“Comeon. What’s the holdup?”

Oscar sighed. “Stella, she’s hooking up with Brooklyn,” he said, and Ryan choked, putting a hand over her mouth, and I whipped over to face him.

“What?” I scowled. “Ryan’s not a lesbian.”

He shrugged, like I was being unreasonable. “I don’t know how she would choose to describe herself, but they’re very obviously a thing.”

Oh, god. There was no way. “What?” I turned on Ryan, who still wasn’t looking at me. Oh my god. Was there a way? “Are you—huh?” I fumbled. “Are you hooking up with Brooklyn?”

“Yep.” She inspected her fingernails, dripping awkwardness.

Oh my god. I was going to kill her. My jaw fell to the floor, staring at her, before I looked over to Oscar, and across the gym at Brooklyn—at my sister’s lesbian hookup—before I looked back at Ryan. “Huh?” I shook my head. “Oh my god. That’s why you won’t go talking about boys or flirting or anything, because you’re already—?”

“Uh… uh-huh.” She refused to look away from her fingernails. I gestured vaguely.

“But—but you were with Shane and everything, and now…?”

“Yep.”

God, she was giving me nothing. I blinked fast. “So you’re… what?” I said. “You’re like, bisexual or something?”

She spoke in probably the most awkward voice I’d ever heard her use. “That’d be the term for it, yeah, pretty sure that’s generally what people call it.”

Oh my god, Ryan was bisexual. And hooking up with the bartender. “Oh my god, you never told me.”

“You never asked.”

This damn woman. I threw my hands up. “Who the hell asks? When was the last time you just dropped on someonehey are you bisexual?”

Oscar spoke like he wasn’t paying too much attention. “It’s been kind of obvious for a long time now,” he said, and I shot him a look, but Ryan joined me this time, glowering at him with me and speaking before I could.

“If you knew, you could have said so earlier and savedmea lot of trouble wondering if I was supposed to say it.”

Oscar raised his eyebrows. “I thought that was how we were all just acknowledging it. Figured you weren’t really looking to talk about it.”

Ugh, Jesus Christ. This damn family again refusing to use their damn words. I gestured wildly between them. “Wait, so did everyone know about this but me?”

Ryan laughed awkwardly. “I honestly think it was just Oscar,” she said. “Given some of the things Grandpa has on his Facebook, I don’t think he suspects the… the horrors of a single non-straight person in his family.”

Okay, thank god. Probably just Oscar. I could see that. Harder to slip something past your twin. Just Oscar. And now me. Knowing that Ryan was gay. I stared at her, and I laughed breathlessly. “Oh my god, so you’re hooking up with Brooklyn,” I said, and she scratched her head.

“We’ve covered that part, yeah…”

I laughed again, louder this time. “Oh my god, I can’t believe you,” I said. “You’ve been introducing me to your hookup and you didn’t even tell me.”

“You… didn’t ask.”

“Shut up,” I laughed, just about ready to vibrate out of my skin. I hadn’t given hernearlyenough credit. She’d been hooking up already. With someone ten times more interesting than some random volleyball guy on the beach. “Oh my god, I love it,” I said. “She’sreallyhot.”

She gave me a weird look. “I’m not looking to share, sorry.”

“Ew. I’m not sharing a hookup with my sister. That’s disgusting.” I laughed. “I can’t believe you’ve been doing this right under my nose and you never said.”