“Nothing to forgive,” Adam said. “It was hard. Seeing you with someone else. Like someone hit me in the gut and then reached up to yank out my heart. I’ve never felt like that before. But I knew it wasn’t now. That it was the picture you mentioned. It didn’t really help. And then I thought if you didn’t tell me who you were, what else weren’t you telling me?” Adam’s gaze flicked toward Tommy.
“Kris was ages ago, and he messed me up.” Ru glanced over at Tommy, who was engaged in a conversation about electronic keyboards with Bas. “Tommy is my family. He’s the only one who has ever been okay with me. This place is his. He was the one who sent me here to escape from all the chaos. He’s sort of the reason I found you.”
Adam squeezed Ru hard. “My family is yours now too.”
“Even though you had to out yourself for me?”
Adam pulled back enough so they could stare each other in the eyes. “That was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Bas came over ’cause he got a call from one of the computer kids, who is the younger brother of one of the jockstraps, who found out from Nate. The whole school will know by tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry.”
Adam shrugged. “Whatever happens happens for a reason.” He pointed at Bas. “He suspected. I’ve been a bad friend. Kept him away. We were friends in junior high, until I started realizing that I liked guys. He also encouraged me to come here, even drove. Parking around here sucks.”
Ru smiled. “Wouldn’t know. Binks does all that for me.”
“Totally makes sense why you have your own private driver, you being famous and all.”
“He’s bodyguard-trained too, but I haven’t really needed him for that yet. Well, until word gets out from Nate that I’m here.”
“That’s the weird thing,” Adam said. “Nate didn’t pass on anything about you being here. He just told Jonah that I admitted to being gay, and that’s why I left the football team. Which is a total lie. I left ’cause I hated football.” He looked at Sebastian and Tommy. “I think I just realized today that I really don’t have any friends at school except maybe Bas. I mean, I never trusted anyone. I was afraid they’d know I was different if I got too close. I have no right to be mad at you. And maybe now that it’s out in the open, I can start over.”
“I wish I could be there with you at school.”
Adam laughed. “Apparently you’re a big deal, so you’d have girls chasing you everywhere and all the guys wanting to kick your ass ’cause their girl looked your way.” He sobered a little. “What about the media? I mean, are they gonna start pounding on my door?”
Ru shrugged. “I really don’t know. With Kris they did, but he was in Diego with me, and he wanted the spotlight, so he would call and tip them off as to where we’d be. It took me ages and our breakup to figure out why the paparazzi could always find us. You said that Nate wasn’t saying anything about me being here. Maybe that’s a good thing. It will give us time to spin it, keep the paps away. I’ll call Katie—she’s my manager—and get her take on it.”
“It must be horrible having to live with cameras on you all the time, everything you do recorded and then analyzed twenty different ways.” Adam reached out and grabbed Ru’s hand.
“The fame is nice sometimes but mostly just lonely. It’s hard to know who to trust. Even harder to let someone get close. Guess you and me have that in common.” Ru glanced at Bas and Tommy. “It’s late, but how about we sit down for a civilized meal? There’s a Thai place around the corner that has the most amazing lettuce wraps.”
Adam tugged at Ru’s oversized T-shirt. “You gonna get dressed, then? Or we hiding out?”
“I’ll get dressed.” Ru glanced at the bag Adam had dropped just inside the doorway. He hadn’t noticed it before, but it looked like his overstuffed book bag.
Adam followed his line of sight and smiled. “My stuff for school tomorrow and some clothes. Mom and Dad said it’s okay if I spend the night as long as you can get me to school on time tomorrow.” His cheeks burned bright red. “They gave me a little ‘care package’ too, but I haven’t opened it.”
Ru had no idea what to say, so instead he pulled Adam into a kiss deep enough to leave them both panting. It was Tommy who interrupted them. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! We’ve got a guest, boys!”
Adam’s flush was sweet, but Ru winked at Tommy. “Let’s go get some food, and then Adam and I can continue this later.”
“Okay, okay. I can take a hint. Get dressed, sailor boy. Adam, you should ask to hear the song he just recorded. I’m not sure there was a swear word in existence he didn’t use.”
“Shut up,” Ru growled at him as he went to find clothes.
Dinner at the little Thai place was good. Ru found having Tommy, Bas, and Adam with him made for light conversation and a good selection of foods, since they all ordered something different and were willing to share.
He spent the entire time sitting next to Adam, their hands nestled firmly together, laughing and sharing an occasional kiss. They joked about California weather and the Minnesota snow.
Bas never once asked for an autograph, though he did confess to being a Vocal Growth fan. No one bothered them, paparazzi didn’t show up, and other than Tommy’s phone ringing once, no one interrupted. He wondered if being with friends was supposed to be like this all the time. No one looked to him at the end of the night to pay. Instead, everyone ponied up a share, and then they boxed up the leftovers and walked back to the condo in relative quiet.
“I’m gonna walk Bas to his car,” Tommy said as he bumped shoulders with Ru. “Probably going to spend some time in the studio tonight.”
Ru nodded, knowing he was just planning on giving him and Adam some time alone. The idea made him nervous and excited all at once. They made their way upstairs, Adam waving good night to Bas, and Tommy smiling like a goon. When they’d finally stripped out of their winter clothes and made their way to Ru’s bedroom, his heart was racing. He closed the door, locking it.
He picked up his favorite acoustic, glad Tommy had put it back where it belonged, and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Can I sing for you?”
“Sure,” Adam said. “Is this your sailor song?” They had joked about it over dinner.
