“Off your game there, Isaac?” she teased.
Isaac did his best to smile back. He might have had a reputation for being a sore loser—hell, maybe hewas—but he wasn’t about to show it. Not right now.
“It’s day five of training after coming back from an injury,” Isaac said, tapping the ball with the end of his racquet to bounce it high enough to pick up without bending. Once he had it in hand, he tossed it back over the net. “Serve.”
Adriana obliged, and he hit it back this time without any problem. He ran back and forth up and down the court, meeting every move Adriana made. She was good, and she was fast, but he’d played with her enough times to know her weak spots, and he was just a little better and faster.
On the third return, Isaac watched the ball bouncejustinside her court, and then out of it again. She’d left it, thinking he was going to hit it straight out.
He didn’t laugh, since the sting of it coming from her was still sitting uncomfortably. He was turning over a new leaf. No more Asshole Isaac.
Julian made him want to be better. Even just as a friend, Isaac wanted Julian to be proud of him. Now, he had even more reason for that.
“So are the rumors true?” Adriana asked as she collected the ball this time.
“Probably,” Isaac said, shrugging. “Which rumors?”
“That having women fall at your feet just isn’t enough to you, and it’s gotta be men now, too.”
Isaacdidchuckle at that, grinning broadly at the thought.
Right up until he realized Adriana wasn’t smiling. His face fell, and his heart sank with it. For a glimmering moment, he’d actually thought she was going to say she was happy for him, or something.
“Problem?” he asked, unsure he really wanted an answer.
Adriana’s face changed, her features hardening. “Were you cheating on me?”
“What?” Isaac asked, shocked. She’d accused him of a lot of things, but never that. Not until now, anyway. “No, never.”
Adriana narrowed her eyes, clearly not ready to believe him.
“Look, I know I go through relationships like clean underwear, but only ever one at a time. I’ve never beentryingto hurt anyone. And I know the whole… thing is a character flaw, and I’ve got a lot of those, but cheating isn’t one of them. I wouldn’t. I thought you knew me better than that.”
“So did I,” Adriana said. “But as it turns out, you like dick, so… guess I didn’t know you all that well. Guys like that cheat.”
A thousand responses raced through Isaac’s mind, fromwell, you like dick too,to confessing that he hadn’t known then, that this was all new and he could use a little compassion, actually.
Fear stopped him from getting any of them out. Cold dread that someone he knew, someone he’d been close to once, was mad at him for being who he was.
It was probably only the faintest sliver of what Julian had felt when he came out to his parents, but Isaac suddenly understood how much that hurt, at least partially.
Julian reallywastougher than he looked. Hearing something like that from his mom, in the icy tone Adriana was using, would’ve broken Isaac’s heart.
“I didn’t cheat on you,” Isaac insisted.
He was happy for people to think a lot of things about him, but that one stuck in his throat. The thought of doing it made him feel sick.
“Hard to believe when it’s pretty clear you’ll screw anything with a pulse,” Adriana said, serving the ball. “That’s what bisexual means, right?”
Isaac let it go right past him, paralyzed by what he’d just heard.
Having a reputation was one thing, but this… this was something else entirely. This was cold hatred, and it chilled him to the core of his being.
This was the other side of what he’d been trying to do. He could be a hero for some people by letting them believe he was bi, but…
That made him the villain to others.
Isaac’s stomach turned. He hated the thought of that, even if the people he was the villain for were objectively, unquestionably wrong.
