Page 123 of Game Changer
At nine-thirty that night, Scott said, “Are there pictures of us online? From the museum?”
“Um... I don’t know,” Kip lied. “Why?”
“Carter just texted me one.”
Fuck. Kip pulled out his phone and made a show of opening Twitter, as if he hadn’t checked it all day.
“Oh. Yeah, there are a few. Nothing... I mean, they’re mostly pretty blurry. I don’t know why people are even bothering to post them.”
He waited for Scott’s reply, and hoped Scott didn’t notice how flushed he was. He had already lied to Shawn about these dumb photos; now he was lying to Scott about them. In truth, Kip just wanted to look at them, and be a little proud of them. He had never seen a picture of the two of them together before.
“Why was Carter sending you one of them?”
“Just...making fun of me, or whatever. He knows I hate this kind of attention.”
“So he doesn’t think—”
“I don’t know! Fuck!” Scott threw his phone down on the couch and started pacing. “We shouldn’t have gone! It was stupid. I just wanted... Fuck. What I was thinking?”
“Hey,” Kip said, trying to sound soothing. “It’s not a big deal. It’s nothing. It’s not like we’re making out in the pictures.”
“What if wewere? I mean, not making out. But what if I touched you in some obvious way by accident? Or what if I...looked at you the way I know I always do?”
Kip hoped to god that Scott never saw the photo that Shawn had sent him.
“It’s too fucking hard to be careful,” Scott said. “I should never have...”
“Right,” Kip said tersely.
It was fucking ridiculous. Their “date” couldn’t have been more chaste, and here Scott was having a meltdown over the fact that they had been spotted standing near each other in a public place.
For the first time, Kip seriously considered leaving to go home for the night. He was filled with so much more than irritation with Scott. His usual fear that there was no way this was going to work between them in the long term was overtaking him.
He loved Scott so much, and he would do almost anything to stay with him. But he couldn’t lie about who he was. And he didn’t want to lie about who Scott was to him.
“I think... I’m gonna head home, all right?”
“What?” Scott seemed completely caught off guard by this. “Why?”
“I just...” Kip chewed his lip. He didn’t want to get in a fight about any of this, but if he stayed theywouldfight because Kip couldn’t pretend he wasn’t upset. “I’ve got stuff to do at home.”
It sounded like the lie it was.
“Please don’t go,” Scott said.
Kip was going to insist that he needed to leave, but then Scott said, “I’m sorry.”
Kip sighed. “You don’t have to apologize, Scott.”
“Well... I feel like I do, all right? And I wish I could promise things will be better, but the truth is...” He scrubbed a hand over his face and swore under his breath. “I’m trying. I swear, I’m trying. It probably doesn’t seem like it, but every tiny step we take is a huge leap for me.”
“I know,” Kip said. He did know. Scott even attempting a public outing with him had been a big deal. They had only been dating a fewweeks; how much could Kip really ask of him?
“Things are going to get more hectic for me when the playoffs start,” Scott said. “I just want to know that we’re okay.”
Kip nodded. “We’re okay.”
“Please stay,” Scott said. “I love you so much, Kip. I need you. Please be patient with me.”
