Page 72 of Every Hidden Truth

“Of course you do,” he drawled with a smirk.

“Naturally. Now lose that God-awful sweater.”

With red cheeks, he shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck. “How about this? For every question of mine you answer honestly, I’ll remove an item of clothing.”

Oh, things were getting interesting. “Like Strip Truth or Dare?”

“Strip Truth or Truth,” he corrected, and I laughed.

“Okay, Casanova, ask away.”

He pretended to ponder, tapping his chin. “When did you know you were gay?”

“Not the question I expected.” I ran my hand through my hair as I thought back, trying to pinpoint the moment. “I dunno, I guess in middle school. There was this girl, Candace Schrock, and she liked me. All my friends told me I should kiss her during recess, but I never did because I didn’t want to. I wanted to kiss Cameron Matthews. He was a grade above me and really cute. Unfortunately, Cameron had a girlfriend, so…” I splayed my hands mournfully, and Ben grinned.

“Ah, unrequited love.” I motioned for him to remove his sweater, and he chuckled as he obeyed. I grunted in annoyance at his undershirt, and he winked. “Your turn.”

I leaned back on my palms and contemplated. “You said you had a boyfriend in Cali, right?” He nodded. “How long were you guys together?”

“A couple months. He was a senior on the football team, and I was the poor foster kid. I figured I was some charity case, but, uh, he ended up being a pretty good friend.”

“How’d you break up?” He arched a brow and pointed to my hoodie, and I huffed as I ripped the sweatshirt from my body. “There, happy? How’d you break up?”

Worrying his bottom lip, he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, he was already accepted to a college near San Francisco, and I was coming here for a year before, hopefully, attending MIT. I didn’t want long distance, so we broke up. Figured it was better to do it sooner rather than later, before one of us got hurt.”

My heart sank, my insecurity flaring to life. “Well, shit. I was hoping he was a loser so I’d look better.”

Ben shook his head with a condescending smile and approached my perch at the edge of the bed. “We broke up in March. You don’t need to worry about him.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a hick loser.”

“Shut up.” He framed my face and kissed me thoroughly. “I like you, remember?”

When I nodded, his lopsided grin slid over his face as he helped me out of my shirt. “My turn. How did you come out?”

Well, shit, that wasn’t a story I liked rehashing. I pursed my lips sourly and shook my head. “What happens if I don’t answer?”

“I put my shirt back on.”

“You don’t play fair!” Playfully, he lifted the hem of his undershirt, revealing his dark blond happy trail, and I growled. “Fine. But this is incredibly embarrassing, so I expect you to lose two articles of clothing.”

“I can work with that,” he agreed, and I pouted for a moment before sighing heavily.

I scratched my scalp and tugged on my hair, then slipped my fingers under his shirt to warm them on his flesh. “My brother kinda outed me by accident, I guess.”

“What?”

I frowned sternly, and his mouth shut with an annoyedclack. “It was an accident. He caught me…” I waved my hand superfluously. “And then told a friend who told another friend. Eventually, someone who didn’t give a shit about me found out, and then everyone knew.”

“Your brother’s an asshole! How do you accidentally out your younger brother?” His anger on my behalf was sweet, but I forgave Will a long time ago and didn’t share the resentment.

“He caught me, and apparently, it was rather scarring for him. He wasn’t thinking straight.”

His wrath faltered. “He caught you with a dude?”

Embarrassed, I ducked my head. “Um, not exactly. He, well, he saw me, uh…” I gave him a meaningful look, along with a very obvious hand gesture, and his eyes widened.

“Oh my God, for real?”

---