“What friend? You don’t have any friends that aren’t my friends.” He actually sounded hurt.
Bowing my head, I shrugged and fiddled with a loose thread on my sweatshirt. “I have friends now. You know how the Glaciers are doing that whole…play hockey with the blind guys thing?”
He scoffed. “Yeah. They tried that with the Titans and us, but Ben told them to eat a dick.”
If it had been three months ago, I would have been seething with jealousy, but I wasn’t now. Everything was different since the whole circus brought me Alexio.
“I’ve gotten to know some of the Glaciers. Uh…Alexio Zeki?—”
“That dickhead D-man?”
“He’s not that bad,” I said quickly. “I mean, okay, yeah, he’s a dickhead. But you’d probably like him. And Ivan Maximov.”
“Oh. That dude’s a whole bag of cats. A bag of wet cats.”
“He’s sweet,” I defended. I wasn’t going to let Micah talk shit about Vanya. “You should meet him.”
“Fucking pass.”
My brows dipped. “What is your problem, dude? And don’t say it’s about Dad because you haven’t done anything to help me with him, so I know none of that is on your shoulders.”
“Yeah, because he doesn’t fucking deserve jack shit from me,” Micah spat. “He let Mom make our lives a living hell, and you’re out here frolicking in fields with him and shit?—”
“I’ve been killing myself trying to find a fucking facility to put him in because instead of getting him treatment, Mom dumped him in an apartment in the middle of the city and chose to forget he existed!” I fired back.
“And? I mean, he wouldn’t have lifted a finger if she’d done the same thing to us. He wanted to fucking sell you on the internet to some rich, childless cult members because you were blind.”
I couldn’t really argue there, though I doubted they would have been cult members. But still. Micah wasn’t wrong. My dad had wanted to give me up.
I swallowed heavily. “He’s a person. He’s sick. I’m not tripping over myself to coddle him, but…fuck, man. Everyone deserves dignity in the end.”
He was dead silent.
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I just wanted you to know what was going on. And that I—” The words died in my throat.
“What?”
I took a breath. “I’m…I…” Fuck, why was this so hard? Micah was gay. He wasn’t going to care that I was bisexual. He’d probably guessed before I did, just like everyone else. My exhale shuddered.
“What is it?” he asked, softer this time.
I passed a hand down my face and groaned. “I like guys.Aguy. I’ve…I mean…I touched a butt—and a penis. I liked it.”
He made a soft choking noise. “Serious?”
“Yeah, uh… I’m serious. The relationship isn’t. Well, I don’t think. It’s all very confusing, and it happened at the worst possible time.”
“I’d fucking say so,” he said with a harsh laugh, and then he stopped and touched my knee. “Jonah, are you okay? I mean, with not being straight?”
I smiled to myself and put my hand over his. “Yeah, I am. I was probably the only one who actually believed I didn’t like dudes.”
“Well…”
“Don’t rub it in, okay? I’m bi. I don’t think I actually care about gender or whatever. I just never let myself think too hard about it.”
“Too many pucks to the face. Scrambled your brains.”
I set his hand over mine and flipped him off, and he burst into laughter. “Seriously, fuck you. But, um…after I talk to him—after I figure out what the fuck this all is—maybe you can meet him.”
