Chapter 8 #2
“I’ll just… I need some time to process this. It’s like trying pineapple on pizza for the first time, and everyone’s always told you it’s awful, but you taste it for yourself, and it’s the best thing on the planet. Actually better than the other ingredients you tried before.”
He shoots me a skeptical look. “Pineapple on pizza is revolting. Being gay is…” he trails off, and I’m glad even he doesn’t have the capacity to put it into words. “Keep talking, I’ll go wash this off my face.”
He enters the bathroom, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Doors bang in the corridor, and I hear people having fun, but all I can feel is the whirr of emotion deep inside. And while it keeps spinning, there’s no outlet for any of them.
Could it be that Cass and Logan had broken up just before the party, and I was meant to be his rebound?
“Guess what, by the way! Logan was cheating with the other Spartan guy.” I snort and roll on the bed, hugging the blanket.
“Typical. Guys like him always go for their twin,” he says from the bathroom, but I wait with my answer for the water to stop making noise.
“They do?”
“Yeah. There’s some guys who think only one type of person looks good.
This is why they try to look a certain way and then get together with a dude that has the same style.
And then it looks like they’re fucking their own twin.
No judgment, of course,” Aaron says judgmentally as he steps out of the bathroom, still drying his face with a towel.
Do I think Aaron's hot?
I cock my head, shocked by the doors now opening in my mind. To rooms I never knew existed in there.
“Is that why I’m not your type?”
Aaron blinks away excess water, staring at me like I’ve just grown a second head. “Excuse me?”
“Because you want a slender… err… poet?”
“I never said I want my twin, I said some guys do. And Cass isn’t exactly your carbon copy, so you should understand the concept, right?”
“Okay, okay! Jeez…” I raise my hands in surrender. “I’m just, like… My mind is racing, you know? Do I have the hots for other guys? Do I want to suck a dick? I have no idea.”
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Aaron says, and his hand makes a wave-like motion toward the door.
“If that’s what you want to know, download a gay dating app and meet up with someone tonight.
But if you want Cassian, calm down and see what you can get out of him.
What would he do if you casually dropped that you think you might be gay? ”
The thought of saying that to him makes me curl into a ball around the bunched-up blanket. “I don’t know. He’d be understanding. Probably. But giving someone a pat on the back is different to wanting to kiss them. Or do… other stuff.”
Aaron lets out an exasperated breath. He opens the cabinet with tiny wooden legs, then opens a…
hidden compartment inside. There are several bottles in there, and different types of glasses, two sets of each.
Aaron takes out two large goblets and fills each with red wine.
He offers one to me before settling in the swivel chair with the other.
“It is, but you aren’t that different from Logan, type-wise.
You’re both tall, fit, stereotypically masculine guys.
If he knew that maybe you’d be open to a man—” He ends on a high note and opens his eyes wide as if nothing else needs to be said.
“I’m not a stereotype.”
“No, but stereo—Never mind.” He massages his forehead. “What I’m saying is that you might be his type. But I’m hardly pushing you to do anything rash. Go ahead and digest what you learned about yourself tonight.”
“And then we’ll destroy Logan…” I mutter as I swirl the wine in my glass.
Aaron does a similar motion with his drink, and in that swivel chair, wearing a black turtleneck, he looks like some old-school villain. He just needs a cat in his lap.
“Yes, then we destroy Logan. But why am I supposed to hate him so much? I want him to like… get his ass handed to him, but he doesn’t deserve to lose his job and right hand. Let’s just be clear on that, okay?” he asks, as if he expects me to go and chop off the dude’s limbs.
“Well… Yeah. What I’m saying is that we need to expose him for what he is.”
“Which is…?” He cocks an eyebrow.
“A cheater! Get with the program, Aaron!” I drink more wine in frustration. The idea that some stupid cowboy is hurting my Cass boils my blood.
“Technically Cass is a cheater too.”
I’m so annoyed I jump to my feet. “Yeah, but Cass is…” I gesture with my hands incoherently hoping that’s enough explanation, but Aaron just stares at me with those pale eyes of a know-it-all. “He’s my best friend, and he can do no wrong, okay?”
He shrugs. “Okay, that’s fair. In any case, I advise against rushing into things. This is all new for you. And revenge is a dish best served cold anyway.”
I nod, though the thoughts clouding my mind are darker than the bottom of my goblet.
When my phone buzzes, I flinch so rapidly the wine almost spills all over Aaron’s bed, but I manage to hold myself together and glance at the screen.
My heart beats faster when I see a message from Cass.
It’s just a picture of him dressed as Robin Hood and about to shoot an arrow toward the camera, though one side of his small mustache is missing.
It’s only then that I realize there’s something unfamiliar on my cheek, and when I grab it, the missing facial hair is no longer lost.
Aaron lets out a soft sigh and leans in to clink our glasses. “To a new, gay, Matt.”