Chapter 11 #3
“Cool,” Nico whispered to himself. “A secret passage.”
And without hesitation, he slipped into the shadows, holding the trophy in one hand.
Inside was another room. It was darker and there were no automatic lights.
In the center of the room was a large glass box with a football on display inside with dim yellow lights painting it in a soft glow. Nico stepped towards the box, but couldn’t decipher anything special about the ball other than the fact that it was a college ball.
There was a black leather couch on opposite sides of the room, perched across from each other. Nico took one step forward before noticing the photos framed on the left side of the wall. Portraits of Cooper and Luke Davies, his best friend and Stassi’s twin brother.
Public photos of the both of them taken at games, at events, and in locker rooms. But as Nico continued to search the room with his eyes, a chill fell over him.
A portrait of Luke kissing Cooper on the cheek.
A portrait of Luke kissing Cooper on the lips.
A portrait of Luke sitting on Cooper’s lap, with Cooper wearing a smile Nico had never seen before.
A painting of Luke nude, his soft cock hanging between his legs right next to a painting of Cooper in the same position.
A portrait of Luke lying in Cooper’s lap, sucking his cock.
A portrait of the two of them in bed, lying side-by-side and staring into each other’s eyes.
A portrait of Cooper and Luke facing the camera while Cooper fucked Luke from behind on the same bed Cooper had just fucked Nico.
And one final portrait, a close-up of their hands.
Tangled together, with rings engraved with diamonds on their ring fingers.
Nico’s heart sank, and it raced at the same time. Speeding towards needing to get the fuck out of that room, out of that place, out of that… shrine.
He took a step back, his feet sinking like he was stuck in quicksand.
Took another step back and ran into something.
Someone.
Nico dropped the trophy. It landed against the ground with a thud.
“If you tell anyone about this, I’ll kill you,” Cooper said.
Nico cocked his head over his shoulder to see Cooper standing there, frozen and stoic.
“That’s a real threat, by the way,” Cooper continued with a silent inhale.
“This is my life, my secret. Luke’s secret.
Stassi’s secret.” Cooper couldn’t even make eye contact with him, but he swallowed something silent.
Rage? Sadness? “And now it’s your secret too.
It will go to the grave with the four of us. ”
Nico just nodded.
“Now,” Cooper gritted his teeth, “Get the fuck out of my house.”
Nico just nodded again, but this time he didn’t wait around for what came next.
He couldn’t get out of that house fast enough.
When Stassi arrived home early in the afternoon, the front door was cracked open.
Cooper had stopped answering her texts over twelve hours prior and she steadied herself for what she might find inside.
She pushed the door open and called out for her boyfriend, but there was no answer. On her way to the stairwell, she took a quick glance into the living area to see a bottle of wine and an empty wine glass sitting on the counter. She gripped the railing of the steps and prepared herself.
She found Cooper in the shrine, sitting against the wall with his feet kicked out beneath him and his arms limp.
She’d seen him like this once or twice before, right after the first time Cooper and Luke broke up and then again right after the accident on the morning of Luke’s funeral.
Cooper’s face was reddened and puffy, with dry tears staining a trail down his cheeks.
Stassi knelt down in front of him, slinging her purse onto the ground. “How long have you been here?”
Cooper could barely speak, only edging out a very soft, “Don’t know.”
She took inventory of the room. Everything was the same as it had always been.
Nothing was out of place. All of the photos she had no business seeing.
All the photos she hated seeing. Photos that meant the world to Cooper but made her own stomach churn because it was her flesh and blood in the photos with Cooper.
No, nothing was out of place except the Rookie of the Year trophy lying sideways on the floor.
Stassi looked back to her boyfriend, the man she loved more than anyone in this world. “What happened?”
“I…” He snorted, wiping away snot from the bottom of his nose. The tears started again, his eyes straining at the corners. “I… Uh… I don’t…”
Stassi nodded in understanding. “You miss him.”
He looked her dead in the eye for the briefest of moments and nodded back, his lips curling inward.
She missed Luke too. She’d never stop missing him.
She’d never stop missing how happy Cooper was back then or how the cage was so much easier to live in when all three of them were still alive.
But she also knew Cooper better than anyone in the world.
He was too careful, too guarded to break like this.
There was something else.
Somebody else.
“But, this isn’t about Luke, is it?” She shuffled over to meet him against the wall and took his head into her chest. “Not really, right?”
“I fucked up,” he sobbed into her lap. “I fucked up bad.”