Asher rested his head on the kitchen table, hiding his face from my family. “I’m so embarrassed.”
Dad cleared his throat before adding, “Look, you boys are young. The hormones are raging, and I’m sure it’s hard to get in the mood when your folks are in the next room, but you don’t need to get down and dirty in a locker room shower. If you need some cash for a motel or something—”
“Are you fucking kidding me, Anthony?” Mom hollered.
“Language,Mom.” Reggie was obviously taking great delight in this moment of abject humiliation for me and reveling in the fact that Mom was losing it.
“Reggie, shut your trap!” Mom turned back to Dad and continued her rant. “You’re not giving them money so they can have sex in a motel!”
“What? That’s better than public indecency, isn’t it?”
“Can I have money for motel sex?” Reggie quipped.
Mom threw her hands in the air and screamed, “Nobody is getting money for sex!”
By that point, Asher and I were both hiding beneath our arms with our heads resting on the table.
Take. Me. Now. God.
Moments later, Roxy ran into the kitchen, her voice strained and frantic. “Guys, we have a problem.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake!“Aproblem?” I asked. The edge in my voice was palpable. “We already haveaproblem, Roxy. If you’re coming with more bad news, then we’ve got problems.”
Roxy looked me dead in the eyes, conveying the seriousness of the issue. “Well, then you have a whole bunch of problems. Look at this.”
Roxy handed me the phone, and the words on the screen hit me like a punch to the gut. It was a Facebook post fromRinkRumor Roundupthat read:
SCANDAL ALERT!!
Word is spreading fast after a wild incident in the West Chester Warriors’ locker room. Supposedly, Asher Lachlan and Teodoro Moretti were caught in a private moment TOGETHER after the game. A teammate snapped some pics of the boys in the act, and now those images are making the rounds on Snapchat.
Stay tuned for updates — this one’s nowhere near done!
#HockeyScandal #LockerRoomHeat #SummerLeague #GayHockeyPlayers
“Oh my God.” Asher’s voice shook me out of my trance. He’d read it over my shoulder, then slowly sat back down in his chair, sinking into a slouch and cradling his head in his hands. “I’m gonna be sick. I think I’m gonna be sick.”
Mom opened the cabinet door beneath the kitchen sink and retrieved a bucket before rushing over to Asher. “Gimme that phone. What’s going on?” She snatched the phone out of my hand and gasped when she read the headline. “They can’t do this! This has to be illegal or something. They can’t post your names like that! It’s defamation.”
“Mom, they actually did what they’re describing, so it’s not defamation,” Roxy explained.
Mom passed the phone to Dad, and he whispered, “Jesus Christ,” when he started reading it.
I rubbed Asher’s back while trying to internally talk myself down from my own panic attack that was rumbling within me.
Dad handed the phone to Reggie, who slowly approached while reading it. “Look, this isRink Rumor Roundup.They’reknown for posting this kind of crap. Their headlines are always salacious, and people don’t take them seriously.” She caressed my shoulder, and I fell into her touch. I wanted to be strong for Asher, but I was starting to lose it.
It probably wasn’t just onRink Rumor Roundup, though. It could be anywhere.Everywhere.
It was all too much. My nerves were shot, and I was going to explode.
I leaned over to Asher and whispered, “Baby, give me three minutes, okay?”
He looked up at me with unease in his eyes. “Where are you going? Do you want me to come?”
I shook my head. “No, baby, I just need three minutes, and then I’ll be back. Okay?”
He didn’t respond—just nodded and watched as I walked out of the kitchen and to the upstairs bathroom. When I reached my destination, I locked the door and looked at my face in the mirror.
