Made it back. Thanks for tonight.
My heart did something stupid in my chest.
Alex. Texting me. Like this was normal. Like we hadn’t just—
Noah saw my face. “That him?”
“Yeah.”
I stared at the message. My thumbs hovered over the keyboard.
What was I supposed to say? What did this mean? Were we—
Fuck it. It was all broken anyway.
Liam
Yeah. Anytime.
I hit send before I could overthink it.
Three dots appeared immediately. Disappeared. Appeared again.
Alex
We should talk about what happened.
We should, but not tonight. I was too raw. Too confused. Too guilty about Emily and too terrified about what talking to Alex would actually mean.
Liam
Tomorrow?
Alex
Tomorrow.
I put my phone down on my chest.
Tomorrow I’d figure out what the hell was happening between us. Tomorrow I’d start dealing with the Emily situation.Tomorrow I’d start being honest about who I was and what I wanted.
But tonight... tonight I’d just come out to Noah. I’d admitted it. Not explicitly, but close enough.
And what if he told someone? What if it got back to the team? What if Emily found out I’d kissed Alex?
“Hey,” I said, voice rough. “Noah.”
“Yeah?”
I sat up. Looked at him.
“Just... don’t say anything to anyone. About this. About Alex. About—“ I gestured vaguely. “Any of it.”
Noah’s expression softened. “Dude. Of course not. That’s not my thing to tell.”
“I’m serious. If the team found out—“
“Liam.” He cut me off. “I’m not gonna say anything. I promise.”
