Page 129 of Dare To Take

“That means they must have been in the cafeteria earlier.”

“Most of the school was in there. It doesn’t narrow it down,” he points out.

“Wouldn’t it need to be someone who was close enough to hear you?” Miles joins the conversation. He’s sprawled out across the bed, with his head on Kellan’s thigh.

“I wasn’t paying that much attention to the surrounding tables.”

“Me either,” Kellan says. “I was watching to see how Arabella reacted to you.”

“We’re back at square one, with no fucking clue who it could be, other than it’s someone.” I throw myself off my bed and pace the room. “There must be some fucking way to figure it out.”

“Who hates you?” The swim captain earns a glare from me.

Kellan snickers. “Everyone hates him, you know that.”

“I’m serious,” Miles says. He pushes up, away from Kellan and looks at me. “Look, Eli. I know you and Kellan are friends, but I’ve got to be honest. I’ve always wondered whether you were holding something over him to keep him close.”

Kellan laughs, and Miles frowns at him.

“Oh. You mean it. The only thing Eli holds over me is his car keys when he wants me to drive.”

“Stop joking.” He takes out his cell and fiddles with it. “When the first video of Arabella was leaked, I got a text message telling me I should distance myself from her.”

“You never told me that.” Kellan sits up straight.

“Because I thought it was from Eli. I told her I couldn’t continue pretending to be her boyfriend, but we could still be friends. But we had to be careful.”

“I knew I wasn’t broken!” Kellan crows.

“You were hiding the fact you were gay?” I turn to face him, and he nods.

“My parents … let’s just say there’s only one kind of relationship in their eyes, and it’s not two guys together. Letting them think I had a girlfriend kept them off my back.” He holds my gaze. “When you tried to call me out for being with Kellan, I was convinced the text telling me to keep away from Arabella was you. When I didn’t stay away enough, I got another text with a video of me with Kellan, and a message that they’d send it to my dad if I didn’t cut Arabella off.”

“Why would I do that to Kellan?”

“Kellan doesn’t give a fuck what people know about him. I knew that video getting out wouldn’t bother him, but me? Eli, you have to understand that being on the swim team, being the captain, is all I have. My family would cut me off if they knew I was gay. I thought that you were using the fact I was sneaking around with Kellan as a way to control how much contact I had with Arabella.”

“You have to admit, it’s a good theory,” Kellan says.

I can’t argue. If I had carried on with my original plan to ruin Arabella, I would have absolutely used Kellan’s relationship with Miles as a means to get him away from her.

“Whoever is doing this is targeting you, and using Arabella as their weapon,” Miles continues. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Could it be the guys she’s with in the first video?”

Kellan chokes on the mouthful of Coke he’s just taken. Miles slaps his back until he has control of himself.

“Are you okay?”

He shakes his head, but his shoulders are shaking with suppressed laughter. I sigh.

“It’s me.”

“What is?” Miles frowns.

“In the video.” I rub a hand over my jaw. “It’s me … and Kellan.”

Miles’ eyes widen. “You … both of you?”

Kellan shrugs. “I told you I’m a slut. But I was really just there as Eli’s wingman, a distraction to stop her from focusing too much on Eli’s voice.”

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