Greg leaned against the wall. “Have you told your friends about us? About our fun activities?”
“I told Lorna.”
“I’m not talking about Lorna. Your other friends. The ones we saw at the movies. Do they know? Or are you hiding me from them?”
Frustration stifled Ethan’s chest. Their perfect moment had evaporated. “That’s different.”
“Is it now?” For someone opposed to being a lawyer, Greg knew how to shift into interrogation mode all too easily. “Are you the same person around them and Lorna and me, or are there different Ethans?”
The crystal clear truth struck Ethan. He was hiding a part of himself to fit in. He was no different. Greg just did a better job of it. He wondered if that’s why he always felt distant with his friends. He caused it. Ethan worked so hard to blend in that he became invisible.
Greg enjoyed the moral victory. “Looks like we’re each other’s dirty little secrets.”
“So what’s your plan?” Ethan asked. “Are you going to keep me your dirty little secret forever?”
“Are you? Just give me time, okay?” Greg massaged Ethan’s shoulder. His rough hands knew how to work. “Let’s not ruin this.”
Ethan tried to enjoy it. He tried to keep the unease seeping into his mind at bay, but he got the scary feeling that this was their new status quo. Ethan thought he would be ecstatic when they began hooking up in private. He never realized that now, this made their relationship even more of a secret.
CHAPTER twenty-seven
In Con Law, Greg rubbed Ethan’s leg and stroked his forearm. When he smiled at him, a thoughtful stare laid just beneath his smirk. The spark of their relationship crackled between them.
Until somebody turned around.
The annoying girl in front craned her neck, probably curious why things were so quiet. The second her hair swished, Greg flinched back and tucked his hands in his lap. Things had changed, yet they’d also stayed the same. To Ethan, their relationship still reminded him a lot of their arrangement. Which wasn’t horrible, but it didn’t make him jump anymore.
A few nights later, Lorna invited Ethan to have dinner with her at her sorority house.
“Are you sure?” Ethan asked. “It’s okay that I’m not a member?”
“Well, there’s a reason you’re not a member of my sorority,” Lorna deadpanned. “I’m allowed to bring friends to meals. Tonight is fish tacos.”
Ethan’s grin stretched across his face. Not because of the fish taco part. Lorna calling him a friend. He supposed they’d been friends this whole time, with or without alcohol.
Lorna’s sorority was nestled in the corner of the sorority quad, which had a wall around it. A vast difference from the frat quad, which was an open space. Naturally, when the quads were built in the 1800s, the school built the wall to better protect chaste, innocent sorority girls from the ravenous, boner-centric fraternity boys.
She led Ethan through a living room still decorated as if it was in the 1950s. Ornate, old furniture. Flowery wallpaper. A girl reading on a fainting couch by the fireplace. It was funny to Ethan to think of Lorna fitting in here. Downstairs, the dining area was a step up from the regular dining hall. Silver serving trays held fresh food, and the real silverware was just as classic and well-maintained as the décor.
“Thanks again for inviting me,” Ethan said.
“Of course!”
“Has Jessica said anything to you about me?”
“That would require her to talk to me. So no.”
Ethan went up to grab some food. He quickly realized that he had the biggest appetite in this room. His plate was twice as full as those of his tablemates. Some of the girls giggled at his dinner pile.
“Sorry,” he said.
“Don’t be. This always happens whenever a guy eats with us,” Lorna said. She picked at her taco and poured salsa over it.
Ethan had a great time at dinner. Besides the delicious food, he really enjoyed spending time with Lorna and her sisters sober. They remembered him from the tailgate and praised his flip cup skills. The table discussed potential Halloween costumes for that weekend. He had never met people over the age of eight who put so much thought into a costume. He talked so much that he couldn’t finish his food. It ached a little to know he had wasted so much time being quiet and not making waves with Jessica and his friends. He wondered how many of these great conversations he’d missed out on in the past.
Soon enough, Halloween discussion turned to parties. One of Lorna’s sisters, who had cleavage that pulled you in like a tractor beam, turned to Ethan and bit her lip.
“So, Ethan, I have to ask. Do you have Halloween plans?”
