Page 87 of Matched By My Rival
“But why not? If we both want that, then—”
The click of the door opening, followed by a wash of light and noise, caught me off guard.
“Oops!” A girlish giggle drew my gaze to the door, where a hazy-eyed blonde was swaying in the doorway. “This isn’t the bathroom. Wow. Two guys. Hot!”
Simon shoved at me, cursing, and I fell to his side, bouncing onto my back.
Just in time to see Darnell’s wide-eyed gaze above the tipsy blonde’s head.Oh, shit.I could swear I’d flipped the lock, but it must not have engaged.
“What the— You two are— Are you two, uh,together?” he asked while steering the tipsy coed toward the bathroom without taking his eyes off us. “Like, you know—”
“Yes,” I answered, almost relieved to be honest.
“No!” Simon blurted at the same time, his voice nearly drowning out mine. “No, we were just drunk and goofing off. No big deal.”
“And Reed just lost his shirt by accident?” Darnell asked skeptically.
“He was overheated, and—”
“Just stop,” I said. “He knows, okay?”
“He doesn’t know anything,” Simon said harshly. “If you know what’s good for you, he’ll continue to know nothing.” He turned hard eyes on Darnell. “Right, D? You didn’t see anything. You don’t know anything.”
Darnell lifted his hands up. “No need to get all aggro, bro.”
My heart clenched at Simon’s adamance. Was it really so terrible that someone knew? Maybe Simon wasn’t ready for people to know his sexuality, even if I was eager to tell someone, anyone, that I’d met the best guy ever.
“He won’t tell anyone, Simon, if you’re not ready to be out,” I said, flicking a glance at Darnell. “Right?”
“I don’t gossip, and I don’t even want to be here right now, so…” He started to back out of the room.
“Wait!” Simon scrambled out of the bed. “I don’t care if you tell people about me, but leave Parker out of it, okay? He’s got the team to think about.”
Darnell nodded. “Yeah, like I said…Your private business is yours. That goes for Reed too.”
He was gone a second later, the door closing on a much less sexually charged atmosphere. But still tense.
“Fuck!” Simon raked a hand through his hair. “This was not supposed to happen!”
“It was a matter of time,” I said. “You can only sneak around so long before someone busts you.”
He shot me a dirty look. “You’re the one who brought me up here. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was stressed and worried, and you…you…”
“Go ahead and finish that sentence,” I said. “Idareyou.”
Simon picked up my shirt and tossed it to me. “Get dressed. You should go. I’ve got to check on the partiers. I’ve been neglecting my duties.” He chewed his lip. “I lost the plot somewhere. I should have remembered…”
“Remembered what? You’re not even making sense.”
“Remembered that this, you and me”—he waved a finger between us— “is a fantasy. You can’t afford to be outed. You need to think about the team and your future.”
“Fuck the team, Simon!” I exclaimed. “I don’t love the fucking team. I love you.”
My words seemed to suck the oxygen out of the room. Silence made my ears ring. His silence in the face of my love was hard to take. I knew he might not feel as strongly as I did, but I didn’t realize how much it would hurt.
I raised a hand to my chest, pressing it over the ache in my heart. It was hard to breathe.
“I should go,” I croaked.
