“I thought you ran because you knew how I felt,” Damon said after they’d caught their breath. “That you didn’t want me to ruin our friendship by telling you the truth.”
“You were upset only yesterday about being bi,” Elliot said. “The last thing I’d have expected would be for you to come to terms with your sexuality and find out you had feelings for me all in one day.”
Damon rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t freaking out about being bi. I’d already been trying to figure that out for weeks. I was freaking out because I realized I was attracted to my best friend and didn’t know what to do about it.”
“Oh.”
“You’re really not as smart as your GPA says you are,” Damon teased.
Elliot pushed his shoulders. “I’m not a mind reader!”
Damon grabbed Elliot’s wrist and held them over his heart. “Okay. Well, now that I know that, I’ll just have to tell you what’s on my mind.”
“A whole lotta nothing?” Elliot said under his breath, fluttering his eyelashes innocently.
Damon tried to give him a stern glare. “I’m thinking I must be as stupid as my best friend since only an idiot would fall for someone who constantly insults him.”
“That is rude,” Elliot said. “Would you like me to beat this guy up?”
“Actually, yes. It’d be entertaining to watch you kick your own ass.”
Elliot laughed and rested his forehead on Damon’s shoulder. “What if we considered the last four years of listening to the guy that I’ve had a crush on detail his every sexual encounter as punishment enough?”
“Jesus, Elliot. You’ve liked me for four years?”
“Maybe longer,” Elliot hedged.
“I’m so sorry. I wish I would have known.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah,” Damon said. “We could’ve been fucking this whole time. Think of all the mediocre blowjobs I got because you couldn’t man up and tell me how you felt.”
“Oh my god. I hate you so much.”
“No, you don’t.” Damon’s arms wrapped around Elliot, stroking up and down his back.
“I don’t,” Elliot whispered.
The locker room door swung open, the metal hitting the brick with a loudcrunch.
“Mr. Croft! Mr. Montré!” Ms. Benson yelled. “You’re both getting detention.”
Elliot’s heart stuttered. The ground moved under his feet. He couldn’t get detention. He never had detention. Would they revoke his college acceptance if they found out?
“Ms. Benson,” Damon started. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, checking a text. “It’s a quarter after midnight, which means the dance ended fifteen minutes ago. And if you check the sign-out sheet, you’ll see that my mom already signed us both out, so giving us detention would not really be fair as we haven’t broken any rules.”
She opened and closed her mouth, and then looked at her wristwatch. “I will not be sorry to see you graduate, Mr. Montré.”
Damon smiled. He grabbed the back of Elliot’s neck and turned toward the parking lot. “Same, Ms. Benson.”
Elliot held on to Damon’s waist as they walked. “I thought we were busted for sure.”
“Nah,” Damon said. “I got you covered. Always.”
“Were Madison and Chelsea mad that we lost their prime dancing spot?”
Damon grabbed his hand, interlacing their fingers. “You know what? I don’t actually think there was a prime dancing spot. I think they were trying to set us up.”
