Suddenly my phone rang. Thanking God for the interruption, I answered it quickly without looking at the caller ID, “Hello?”
“Did you ask him out?” came West’s voice, but it was loud, too loud.
Blushing, I pulled it away, fumbled it around, near dropping it, all while West continued, “Come on. You said you were going to ask him out. I’ve given you a day—”
“West,” I shouted, just as I switched it off speaker. I held the phone to my ear and ducked my head. “Now isn’t a good time.”
“Lucas, you can’t tell me Gregory didn’t give you his number. I thought you would have done it before you chickened out.”
“West,” I whispered harshly. “Now really isn’t a good time. I’ll call you as soon as I get home.”
He groaned. “Fine, but if you don’t call me by nine, I’m calling back.”
“All right,” I snapped, and then hung up the call. I shoved at Zion, who was laughing. I could also hear a couple of other chuckles. Thankfully, my brother moved, and I slid out of the booth. At the side, I pulled out some money, threw it on the table, and then mumbled, “Bye. Wreck, I’ll give Zion your phone once I’m done. He’ll get it to you.” With that, I quickly walked out of the café.
On the way home, all I could think about was burning myself in the backyard. I never wanted to see any of them again. It was fine for them to know I was gay. Heck, I was completely fine with it since Zion gave me the confidence to be myself around them. Kylo also helped since he didn’t hide who he was. However, for my private life to be shoved in their face was embarrassing. They didn’t need to or want to know about my dating life. I also didn’t want them to know since it was hard enough when they thought Kylo was into me.
It was safer I kept my private life behind closed doors. Safer for them so I wouldn’t kill them if they said or did something I didn’t like. Safer for whomever I chose to date, and safer for me, so I didn’t die of mortification.
I kicked at the rocks on the walk home, finding for once I wanted to curse. I could swear at myself for being such an idiot for having it on speakerphone in the first place. Somehow, I must have run my finger over it when I answered. Not only was I stupid for that, but for agreeing to help Wreck with his phone. I should have said it would be better for Benny at work to fix it. Then again, I hadn’t known it was for Wreck when Death asked.
“Idiot, idiot, idiot,” I ranted as I hit my palm against my forehead. Sighing, I stomped up the stairs and unlocked the front door.
All right, I just had to push it all back and distract myself with something. The best thing would be studying, and while I did that, I would plug Wreck’s phone in to see if I could fix it.
It was an hour later when I remembered to check if Wreck’s phone had finished charging. When I’d first checked it, I found all it needed was an upgrade. I also did a virus protection scan and found a couple I had to delete. I’d been surprised when I bypassed it that his phone didn’t have a passcode to get into it. Wreck didn’t lock his phone at all. Although, it was Death or Zion who said he didn’t have anything of importance on there. It made me wonder what he did have on there. However, I’d put it aside until it finished charging. Now it was staring at me, just asking to be checked out, much like his ass did.
Would it be bad to snoop?
Could he find out?
If he found out, would he kill me?
I kept reaching for it only to stop short and pull my hand back. I ran a hand over my face and groaned. It was such a temptation.
My phone sprang to life, and I yelped at the sudden sound. My heart raced in my chest. Grabbing it, I looked at the ID, and when I answered, said, “West, I nearly peed myself. Maybe text before you call to warn a guy.”
He laughed. “What were you doing that was so distracting to get scared in the first place?”
“Nothing,” I said.
“That was too quick. You were up to something. Tell me.”
“I was studying.”
“Sure you were. Wait, were you jerking off? I can go if you need to finish.”
“Heck, West, that’s… just no, and I wasn’t.”
“All right,” he drew out, sounding like he didn’t believe me. “Anyway, where were you that you couldn’t tell me if you asked Gregory out?”
The memory had me cringing. I tried to deflect the subject instead with “Just because you’re happily in love doesn’t mean I’m going to jump on board right away.”
He snorted. “Please, I knew if I didn’t hound you, you would chicken out.”
I huffed. “I won’t chicken out. I’ll ask him tomorrow when I see him.”
“Great, I want to hear all about it.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“Awesome,” I snarked. “Now, I better get back to work before I need to sleep.”
“Wait one second, you still didn’t answer me on where you were when I called.”
Damn it all.
Heck, why not just tell him? So I did, and then I hung up on him laughing.
Only then, I went back to staring at the phone on my desk.
A small look would be okay.
Slowly, I reached out and picked up the object. It felt heavier for some reason. Maybe it was the guilt I was projecting into the phone that made it heavy.
Did it stop me though?
No.
A nervous flutter filled my stomach when the screen lit up. Earlier, I’d noticed he didn’t have a background picture, just the standard
