“Jess, get off me,” he says, giving her a slightly harder shove than necessary and flying to his feet. He stares down at her in a panic and the words come rushing out of him before he gets the chance to stop himself. “I’m gay. I don’t fucking like you. I like dudes. I always have. You and I were just some twisted experiment.”
Oh, fuck.
Shocked gasps sound around the group as Jess stares up at him with wide eyes and then as if realizing what the fuck he just said, his eyes go wide with fear and I see the exact second he decides to run.
“Milo stop,” I demand, throwing myself in front of him. I reach out and grab hold of him, refusing to let him run. He's been hiding in the closet for too long. It's finally time that he embraces who he is. “Don’t run from this. Stand up and face it. There’s nothing for you to be scared of—not in front of these guys. They’ll have your back just like I do.”
His eyes flash over my head to the group sitting behind me and he instantly starts shaking his head. “I can’t,” he says. “If word got out …”
“It won’t,” I promise him. “You know these guys. They’re the good kind.”
“I …” he lets out a heavy sigh and squeezes my hand. “You really think so?”
“Well, you’ve kinda already said it so there’s really no going back now. Just own what you said and be your true self, and then maybe you can take Jess aside and apologize for that bullshit because if you don’t, you and I are going to have words, that was mean.”
His hands begin to shake as the nerves spread throughout him. “Okay,” he finally says. “You’re right. I can’t keep this bottled up anymore.” He pulls me aside and I turn to face the group, keeping myself right beside him and not allowing him the chance to back down. He's strong enough. He can do this.
The look on his face is terrifying. The self-doubt and fear of the unknown shining so fucking bright it nearly cripples me, but he raises his chin and takes a hesitant step towards them.
Milo glances around our small group, watching the way they all sit up straighter in dead silence waiting to hear what he’s about to say, all except Jess who looks nothing short of broken. “So, I, uhh … didn’t mean to just blurt it out like that but, yeah …” He looks back to Jess with his heart on his sleeve. “I’m really sorry Jess. I think you’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever had the pleasure of getting to know, but I’m gay. I’ve always been gay, and that night at the party, I was trying to cover it up. People had been whispering about me for weeks, assuming they knew but didn’t have the proof, and when you kissed me …”
“You used me.”
Milo’s gaze drops to the ground. “Yeah, I did,” he whispers, “and I’m so fucking ashamed about that, but then things kept happening between us and for a short minute, I thought maybe I was bi because, girl, damn … you knew what you were doing. You’re a fucking rocket in the sack and that tongue. Fuck, baby. You’re a man’s dream come true.”
“Just not yours.”
Milo shakes his head as Colton’s questioning gaze meets my eyes, realizing that I knew this all along and didn’t say a word.
Jess lets out a heavy sigh as her eyes begin to fill with tears. Drix scurries over and squishes herself beside Jess, holding her tight, just as a best friend should. She looks up at Milo with a fierce stare. “That’s really low of you, Milo. I get that you weren’t ready to come out and tell people yet. This world isn’t exactly accepting of gay people, but using her like that … it’s fucking wrong.”
“I know,” he says, “Which is exactly why I cut things off with her. She doesn’t deserve that and I could see that she was starting to have real feelings for me. I couldn’t morally let it go on. I’ve been so far locked in the closet that the thought of coming out has made me physically sick, and believe me when I say that in this world, it’s safer to pretend to be straight than to be who I really am.”
Jess looks down at her lap. “It’s fine,” she whispers. “I should have known. No straight man has the right to be that manscaped. You’re practically a work of art down there.”
“Hey,” Charlie snaps, throwing himself to his feet. “There’s nothing wrong with a bit of manscaping. I’ll have you know that my junk looks like a fucking treat.”
Drix raises her chin. “Prove it.”
Charlie’s brow arches as his hands fall to the front of his shorts and within the blink of an eye, his dick is out and gently waving around, showing off every inch of manscaped skin.
“Fuck me,” Colton groans, standing up and looking anywhere but at Charlie’s dick. He walks over to Milo and pulls him in for a tight hug. He claps him on the back and a warm smile spreads across my face. “You’re all good, man. Your secret is safe with me. That couldn’t have been easy.”
Milo pulls back and gives him a grateful nod. “Thanks.”
“I got to say, I feel a shitload better about the bullshit with you dating my girl before I got to her now. It finally makes sense why you didn’t put up a fight when I stole her away.”
Milo laughs. “Yeah, I wasn’t about to stand between that shit. I have a feeling you would have taken me out if I kept her from you.”
Colton’s eyes flash down
