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And then what?
That’s why he looked familiar. It was the youngest Cash brother!
Because it was all being recorded live, his face and the other guy’s face were plastered across every screen at the fair.
The crowd saw them. Even people nowhere near the Ferris wheel stopped to look up at them.
And not just because it was two guys kissing (something that really shouldn’t be a big deal nowadays), but because one of them was Aleixandre, which blew people’s minds because he usually acted like a heterosexual Casanova.
That’s why people were stunned. Aleixandre was your typical womanizer; the kind of guy who could end up in bed with two or three girls after a party; a notorious ladies’ man. What was going on?
I didn’t have the answer, but I noticed something others hadn’t. Aleixandre looked horrified. I could tell by his expression that he’d been completely caught off guard.
I was about to do something terrible to Aegan, but it felt like a low blow that Aleixandre had been outed like this.
It reminded me of what Aegan had said about my mom in front of everyone at the party.
I understood the shame and anger he must be feeling, even though he had nothing to be ashamed of.
Who had been behind this? Because it had obviously been planned. Aleixandre’s reaction made that painfully clear. Someone had wanted to out him; that’s why this event had been put on the program, approved by the chancellor. But there was no way she could have known that Aleixandre would be there.
Was Aegan behind this? No . . . he’d had no clue either. Dash? He looked as stunned as everybody else. No . . . with no idea who was behind something so horrible, I pushed my way through the crowd toward the Ferris wheel. I jumped over the security fence and made my way to the guy operating it.
“Get it moving,” I ordered. The guy looked at me like he was lost. As he didn’t budge, I had to shout at him. “Get it moving!”
Dash, still dressed up as Tood, heard me shouting.
I barely noticed him looking at me; I gestured with my hand for him to stop the little show.
He snapped out of it and started asking everyone to move toward the stage area to hear the speech, but most people didn’t listen.
The rest watched as the Ferris wheel spun, and people started getting off.
They were waiting to see Aleixandre. The fact that everyone wanted to get a close look at his embarrassed face was sick.
I looked for Adrik among the crowd. I wanted to study his expression after seeing his brother had been outed.
When I picked him out of the crowd, I saw him staring, serious and almost indifferent, at Aleixandre’s seat.
He didn’t look surprised or concerned. Maybe he already knew?
Did he always know Aleix was in a secret relationship with a guy?
If we were still speaking, I would have asked him.
As soon as Aleixandre got off the Ferris wheel, he bolted out of there. He weaved through the crowd, head down. Hundreds of eyes tracked him, judging and whispering, until he was out of sight. And no, his exit wasn’t exactly triumphant. Adrik didn’t chase after him to console him either.
“All right, all right, it’s not like you’ve seen something you haven’t already seen online before,” Tood said into the mic, trying to break things up.
I went up to him.
“Dash, who’s behind this?” I asked.
“No idea. I was just given the program with this activity and the instructions. I was told the chancellor wanted something fun.”
I wanted to punch him.
“Think again! Somebody else had to have come up with the idea!”
“You’re right . . . well, like, he’s a Cash, and the Cash brothers are used to playing dirty. Maybe he deserved it.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what Aleixandre did and didn’t deserve.
“But I could try to find out,” added Dash.
Just five minutes until the speech . . . Fuck, five minutes.
It’s showtime!
I sprinted toward the sound booth by the stage, where Lander was supposed to be. Making my way through the crowd was kind of tricky since everyone had slowed down after Aleixandre was outed on every screen. It was all anybody was talking about.
When I reached the sound booth, Regan was already on the stage.
Dressed in a sky-blue three-quarter-sleeve shirt and brand-new-looking jeans, he was like an actor about to shoot his big scene.
His blond hair was perfectly disheveled.
Meanwhile, Aegan was near the bottom of the stairs, ready to unexpectedly steal the spotlight.
Three minutes to go.
Okay, in three minutes I’d get the USB to Lander so he could play the video.
I stepped into the sound booth, careful not to trip over the cables snaking toward the stage.
I took out the USB and gave it to him. The red-haired guy was busy shifting his hands back and forth between a button and the laptop.
“Here it is, put it on please,” I asked him nicely, although I was losing it.
My shortness of breath wouldn’t hold me back. I was going to do this.
“It’s just that . . .” Lander started saying as he took the USB, “Aegan just told me to start the live stream.”
I was stunned.
Oh, fuck, no. Nononono.
Maybe he . . . ?
“A live stream?” I blurted out, now getting a really bad feeling about this.
“Yeah.”
Did he have a counterattack up his sleeve? My heart started pounding.
“A live stream,” I spat out, bewildered. “No! This is more important! Play it!”
I edged closer to him, trembling, trying to persuade him, but Lander shook his head, absorbed in what he was doing. His fingers hadn’t stopped moving.
“His order was pretty clear, and now I’m—”
Fuck!
“Lander, play what’s on the USB!” I shouted at him, ready to push him out of the way and do it myself if I had to.
But with a click he said, “Ready.”
Here comes the third part of the night: “The Shocking Revelation.”
Yeah, it was a counterattack. An almost deadly one.
An Instagram live stream started playing on the screen. At first, I couldn’t see anything, but Aegan, who’d just quickly jumped onstage with a mic in his hand, started to talking, taking Regan’s place.
“Before getting into the speech, which will always be a tradition at Tagus, I’m delighted to announce that someone very special, who—like me—comes from a long line of graduates from this university, will share a live message with us.”
How had I not seen this coming? Maybe because I was overly confident that I’d have the upper hand just this once—that I could pin something on Aegan without anybody realizing.
I wanted to be clever, but I felt like the stupidest person ever because as soon as the screens started showing what Aegan had announced, everything took a turn.
Someone appeared onscreen a few seconds later, greeted the students warmly, mentioned that she was on a spiritual retreat, and then started talking about Tagus, its history and legacy. And that someone was none other than Eli Denvers.
Eli, with her red hair, radiant caramel skin, upturned nose, honey-colored eyes, flawless mouth, and dazzling white teeth. A really beautiful girl.
And she was alive. Very alive.