“Please say something,” Hayden said miserably. “I know you hate me. Just say it. I deserve it.”
Shane opened his mouth, then closed it. He wanted to say something before Ilya said something worse.
“It is okay,” Ilya said quietly.
Hayden looked at him with wide, surprised eyes. “What?”
“It is okay,” Ilya said again. “You have been a good friend. Kept our secret for years. This was an accident, and it is our fault for not being more careful.”
One of the knots inside Shane’s chest loosened. He forced himself to nod. “Ilya’s right. Of course we don’t hate you.” He managed to finally swallow and breathe. “So how bad is it?”
“Bad,” Hayden said. “The video is fucking everywhere.”
“What are people saying?”
“Mostly, like, ‘what the fuck?’ or ‘holy fucking shit’ or ‘is this a fucking joke?’ That kind of thing.”
“Oh god,” Shane said, and buried his face in his hands.
Ilya placed a hand on his back. “What are your teammates saying?”
“Mostly the same sort of thing,” Hayden sighed. “Practice is gonna be weird this afternoon. No question.”
“If I’m even allowed at practice,” Shane moaned.
“There are definitely people on the internet who think you shouldn’t be,” Hayden said. “But, y’know. Fuck ’em.”
“I don’t ever want to look at my phone again,” Shane said to his hands. “I’m going to throw it in the river.”
“We should call Farah,” Ilya said wisely. “She can help.”
“Right. Yes. This is definitely a job for our agent.” Shane dropped his hands to his lap. “God, this sucks.”
“Yes, but it is not so different,” Ilya said calmly. “We were going to tell people ourselves, but now we do not have to.”
“Because they saw uskissing on the internet.”
“At least they know we are great at kissing.”
“Itwasa pretty top-tier kiss,” Hayden agreed.
Shane refused to acknowledge that. “The playoffs start in two weeks. This is such bad timing.”
“Especially since it’s looking like our teams will meet in the first round,” Hayden added. Then he hunched his shoulders and said, “Sorry. Not helping.”
Shane stood and started pacing. “Fuuuuuuck,” he said, and kicked a dog toy that hit the wall with a squeak. Anya stared at him in what looked like admonishment, like Shane had no right to take out his frustration on innocent dog toys.
“Jesus Christ, what are we going to do? Fuck, what does J.J. think? Oh god.”
“Yeah, you’re gonna have to talk to him,” Hayden said. “He’s, um, not into it.”
Shane met Ilya’s gaze for a moment, and saw concern there.
“He’ll come around,” Shane said, mostly trying to convince himself. “It’s a shock. I get it. I don’t expect everyone to understand, but J.J.’s one of my best friends.”
Hayden stood, then bent to scratch Anya’s ears. “He’s not too happy with me either right now. I think his feelings might be hurt for being left out, y’know?”
Shit. Shane should have told him sooner. “Well. That’s on me. I’ll talk to him.”
