Page 66 of Flipping the Script

Cameras weren’t allowed in the back room. Who the fuck was taking pictures in here, and who were they taking them of?

Footsteps pounded against the floor, and someone rushed past us.

The sound of a body hitting another was immediately followed by Sebastian’s loud “Fuck!”

Still blind from the flash, I felt more than saw Sebastian tipping to the side as someone barreled right into him. Instinctively, I grabbed his arm.

We teetered for a moment, but I managed to throw my weight backward and change his momentum.

That caused him to crash into me, and we slammed into the wall.

“Motherfucker,” Sebastian growled. “Not you,” he added preemptively, sensing that I’d thought that was directed at me.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked as we struggled to stand up straight, both of us overcorrecting so we were essentially canceling out what the other was doing and ended up flailing.

“Some asshole took a pic of us.” He gripped my shoulders and held tight. “Stay still for a damn second.”

I did, and we finally untangled ourselves from each other and stood up straight.

“Are you sure it was of us?” I looked around the room to see everyone else’s reaction.

Most of the crowd was on the far side of the room, but the low murmur of voices and buzz of angry energy told me we weren’t the only ones who’d noticed the intrusion.

“Fucker was three feet away from us. You see anyone else he could have been trying to snap a pic of?”

Shit. He sounded panicked.

“Hey.” I gripped his arms and gave him a little shake, forcing him to look at me. “Even if it was someone trying to get a shot of you, there’s no way they did.”

“What?” He blinked at me, some of his anger fading.

“They were behind you. Only my face was visible.”

“Are you sure?” He chewed on the corner of his lip. “I can’t be outed like this.”

The panic in his voice was understandable. I’d been outed in high school, and it had been horrible. I couldn’t even fathom being in the public eye and my sexuality out there for anyone to look up and gossip about.

Not thinking too much about what I was doing, I pulled him closer to me. “Keep your face turned to the wall. We’ll give everyone a few minutes to get back to what they were doing, and we’ll slip out.”

“What if he’s out there waiting for me? I can’t have pictures of me coming out of the back room at a gay club on the internet. I can’t.”

I rubbed his arms. He was moving past panicked and getting close to hyperventilating. “That’s not going to happen.”

“But what if it does?”

“It won’t.” I pulled him against me and wrapped my arms around him.

“What are you doing?” he asked, loosely holding onto my hips.

“Comforting you.” I held him a bit tighter. “Now get your head out of your ass and relax.”

“This is so weird.” He snaked his arms around my waist and hugged me back.

“Yeah, but these are extraordinary circumstances. Don’t get used to it.”

He snort-laughed, already sounding more like his annoying self. “Yeah, that’s not something you need to worry about.”

“Okay. This is the plan.” I put my mouth next to his ear. “I’ll leave first and wait around until everyone near the door has left, then text you when it’s all clear.”

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