Page 93 of The Locker Room

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Xander had to laugh, and he and Chris pressed their foreheads

together while Leo ran off cackling to call the real estate broker and start

pulling up contract models on his laptop. For a moment Xander just

stood there, happy, and then the reality of it set in.

“We"re going to be lying to the whole world,” he said in sort of a

horrified wonder. “I mean, most guys, they stay in the closet, they"re

only lying to the people around them. We"re gonna be… you know…

this place. Only part of it"s going to be our home. The other part is like…

you know. A movie set. That"s awful. That"s like… likeour lives.And

it"s going to be like… like our lives have fake tits or something, Chris!”

Chris didn"t laugh, and an awful sort of grimace crossed his face.

“Xan… look, don"t kill me, but, um, I don"t think a house with fake tits

is going to be the worst thing we"re going to have to do.”

Xan looked at him, waiting, and when Chris was done talking, he

ran to the pristine bathroom with the real estate broker"s vanilla candle

and pretty soaps, and threw up.

Chris was right. It wasn"t the worst thing they"d do by a long shot.

80

Amy Lane

Taint

Five Years Later

XANDER came awake with a start, shaking, sweating, desperate to catch

his breath. Next to him, Chris did what he"d been doing for the past five

years—rolled over, threw his arm around Xander"s waist, and murmured

softly to him.

“"S okay, Xan. You and me, we"re good.”

The first few times he"d done this, during their first road trip to

UNC, when they"d vacationed together during the summers afterward, or

over Christmases, when they stayed with Chris"s folks, Chris had

thought that it just happened whenever Xander changed rooms, or beds,

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