“Oh, I’ll finish it,” Becca said through his fingers.

“No, I’ll finish it,” Nick snapped. He stood, grabbing his tray so roughly that he almost dropped half his food on Chris. “An asshole,” he said to Gabriel. His throat felt tight, and it hurt to talk. “You’re being a royal asshole.”

Then he stormed away from the table and slammed the tray onto one of the waiting carts.

“Hey, Nicky,” Gabriel called after him, “remember what I said about drama?”

Fuck him. Nick slammed through the double doors leading out of the cafeteria, choking on emotion. He pinched his fingers over his eyes.

He wished he could take it all back. Adam had trusted him with a terrible secret, and now Nick had crapped all over it. Making what they’d shared into a joke.

He wanted to storm back into that cafeteria and shake some sense into his brother.

He wanted to call Adam and apologize.

He wanted to stop hearing the derision in his brother’s voice. The way he’d said creepy.

Most of all, he wanted to stop crying.

Creepy. Creepy creepy creepy.

Like he was some kind of pervert. He’d known his twin’s rejection would hurt, but he hadn’t realized it would hurt like this, a subtle stabbing a hundred times over.

Nick ducked into the restroom. Empty. Finally, a break. He went into a stall anyway. He swiped at his eyes and dug his phone out of his pocket.

There was Adam’s message.

Will I see you tonight?

Nick squeezed his eyes shut and had to swipe at them again.

Then he typed back.

We’ll be there at 8.

Adam’s response appeared almost immediately.

Can’t wait.

Then a second later, another message appeared.

U OK?

Nick sniffed. He started to type back, Yeah, fine, but they’d found this path of honesty, and he didn’t want to veer into the unknown.

Gabriel said gay guys are creepy.

As soon as he hit SEND, he felt ridiculous. He might as well have typed, My brother is a big meanie. Wah.

But his phone buzzed almost immediately.

You told him???

Oh, shit. No. Nick shook his head, like an idiot.

No. Said in passing.

The phone didn’t buzz with a new message. But the end-of-lunch bell rang. Nick sniffed again and got himself together. He spent a minute splashing cold water on his face, until some freshman guys came through the door.

His phone buzzed before he made it into his next class.

You are not creepy. You are great good fine. And brilliant and patient and gentle and kind.

Jesus, he was going to start crying again.

Before he could, the phone buzzed.

And frankly, you’re kind of hot. Do you know how hard it was to keep my hands off you last night?

Nick laughed before he could help it.