He’d gone through what he’d thought of as a phase when he was a teenager. He’d almost forgotten about it, chalked it up to being young and so desperate for approval that he would have wanted anyone who so much as smiled at him, but that didn’t mean…
Shit.
Maybe itdid.
He’d always wanted approval and attention from other men. Anyone he liked, anyone who showed the slightest hint that they cared about him… he’d wanted to be closer to them in some indescribable way. And there’d been so many. Too many to count, too many to number.
He just hadn’tthoughtabout it in a long time, because up until now, everyone he’d been attracted to had been completely out of his league one way or another.
Even Connor, who he looked up to so much.
He’d had a crush on him, too.
He had a crush on Reid.
And he’d screwed up his chances of thatevergoing anywhere in the space of five seconds.
Reid should also have been completely out of his league, but he was actually gay and he was so kind to Gabriel. Apparently, that was close enough for whatever repressed desires were resurfacing right now.
This was more than Gabriel was ready to process. He sighed the forms at reception in a daze, realizing as he walked away that he’d put down completely the wrong date, walking out into the afternoon light outside and blinking at how bright everything was.
His life had been change after change, adjustment after adjustment since he got back to Earth, but this was… bigger. More intense. More personal.
Too much. Way, way too much to worry about right now, when he had so many other things on his plate.
It took him until he got to the bus stop to realize he’d been running. Or jogging, at least.
His lungs were burning with the effort, his mind still racing.
He had a crush on Reid, and he’d screwed it up.
The thought made him feel sick.
