Page 58 of Fall of Us
“I was moving in until he refused to acknowledge what was really happening.”
Joe’s eyebrows shot up as he sucked at the ring through his lip. “What was really happening? Because if you think the two of you fucking around is news to anyone, you’re fooling yourselves.”
My eyes rolled as I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t get to say anything as a little girl came running around the corner.
“Uncle Joe! You came out of the cave.”
Joe hurried to catch the child as she launched herself at him. He lifted her above his head before pulling her down into a hug. She squealed in delight and then kissed his cheek when he lowered her in front of him.
“Hey McBug. I’m working today. I need to get back to the cave. Maybe we can do something later?”
She giggled and nodded, squirming out of his grasp. She ran off down the hall.
Working? Joe was working?
“You have a job?”
Joe’s eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights. “Don’t deflect, asshole. You going to own up to you and Brandon?”
I looked up and down the hall, shifting my weight. Teresa had to know about Joe’s sexuality, but I still didn’t feel super comfortable talking about things with her daughter running around.
“Can we go downstairs and talk about it?”
Joe’s face turned red. Out of all the years I’d known the guy, I’d never seen him embarrassed about anything, so it was unusual to see. He was proud of anything he did, down to the time he got busted jerking off in a dressing room at the mall.
“Give me a minute.”
He disappeared behind the door. If I thought talking to Joe’s sister had been uncomfortable, it didn’t compare to standing around awkwardly in the hall. There were pictures on the wall, so while I waited, I looked at them. Most of them were of Teresa and her daughter, but Joe was in a few of them. He looked so carefree and happy. Then again, there wasn’t a time that I could recall him being in a bad mood. I knew he wasn’t happy about his parents kicking him out when he couldn’t find a job, but he had an amazing relationship with his sister and niece if the pictures were anything to go by.
“McKenzie was three in that one. She had insisted on getting this giant ass ice cream cone from the ice cream truck. Way too big for a kid her size. I tried to tell her it’d make her sick, but the kid wouldn’t listen.Get it for me, Uncle Joe. Like a fucking sucker, I caved. She threw up immediately after finishing it.”
I laughed at the story. Joe had been so quiet when he came back. Or maybe I’d been that engrossed in looking at his family pictures. “At least she had a good time while she was eating it.”
Joe grinned. “She sure as shit did. Now come on.” He waved for me to follow him, and we began our descent to the basement. Everything seemed so normal. There was a desk in the corner where a laptop sat open with a lamp on next to it. The bed stood in the far corner, and Joe had pushed back the sheets as if he had just gotten out of bed. However, what surprised me was the tripod that Joe had stuffed into the corner with a camera mounted on it.
“You doing something with photography now as well?”
Joe said nothing at first. He looked over at the camera and sighed. “Aiden showed me a few things, sure.”
It was evasive as fuck, but I wasn’t here to talk about what Joe was doing.
Once we got to the bottom of the stairs, Joe pulled the chair from his desk and held it out for me. He sat on the edge of his bed and motioned for me to sit down.
Now that I was here, the idea of opening up after Joe had teased us so much was intimidating. Maybe he wouldn’t judge since he seemed to know already.
“The relationship thing... It’s... new.”
Joe raised a skeptical eyebrow but didn’t interrupt me.
“Brandon and I have been friends since we were kids. Never anything more. We were the first people we came out to and we’ve supported each other through everything. Part of that changed freshman year.”
“I thought you said the relationship was new.”
I shook my head. “It is. But he had that really bad breakup freshman year and came over. He’d asked if I’d ever thought about what it would be like if it were him and me. Of course, I’d thought about it, but he was my best friend, and that was a line I wasn’t willing to cross.”
Joe leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He was back to sucking on his lip ring and his icy-blue eyes stared at me through his dark fringe. “It sounds like a line was crossed, anyway.”
My face heated as I looked away. “Yeah. We, uh, kissed. But then he freaked out and ran away. We never talked about it and he seemed content to pretend it never happened.”
