He could’ve asked her, but ever since he’d come to Acheron, Mateo had made it a policy not to ask the rich girls too many questions. They only got flustered and made something up, and at the end of it he was just as embarrassed as they were.

Now that he knew the truth about Maria, though, it was harder to hold back. Last week, Brandon had told him about her and Lily Boiten. They were “in loooove,” Brandon had said, giggling. Maria thought she was probably bi, Brandon said, but Lily was all-the-way gay.

Mateo didn’t believe it at first. Both those girls seemed way too uptight to like pussy. Now that he was paying attention, though, he was surprised he hadn’t figured it out before.

There was the way Maria was staring at Lily, for one thing. As if she wanted to shove everyone else out the door so Maria could have her all to herself.

There was something about the way they were with each other, too. An easiness. They looked like they could have whole conversations without ever needing to talk out loud.

It made Mateo kind of jealous, honestly. Not of the part where the girls felt like they had to stay closeted—which was kind of weird, actually, since for him, being gay had only upped his stud factor at school. Maybe Maria felt like she had to keep quiet since her mom was a state senator?

No, the part that made him jealous was that he’d definitely never been “in loooove.” He’d been hooking up with Brandon for a few weeks, but he didn’t see it lasting through the semester. He liked the guy, sure, but there just wasn’t that much there. It was more of a we’re the only two gay guys in this backwater school, so let’s screw already thing than a Romeo-and-Juliet one.

Or Romeo-and-Romeo. Whatever. Beer.

“Hey.” Mateo nudged Maria’s shoulder. Another dare was starting on the far side of the room. “You okay?”

“What? Oh. Yeah.” Maria shrugged. “Thinking about the match.”

Mateo smiled at her. She didn’t smile back. Caitlin and Emily had started a contest to see who could touch their noses with their tongues. All the guys except Mateo were watching, rapt.

“Don’t worry,” he told Maria. “You ladies have been working your asses off in practice. You’ll crush ’em.”

The girls’ soccer team was playing its league championship next week, and it was going to be a lot harder than the guys’ game had been. Mateo’s team had won easily, and a WVU scout even showed up to watch. Mateo had been checking the mail every day since, praying for a scholarship offer.