Page 8 of Every Broken Thing

“Oh, uh, that came out wrong.”He grimaced and scratched the back of his neck. “You look fine. I mean, good.” His eyes widened, face flushing a deeper shade of red. “I mean, not that I’m—”

And ding, ding, ding! I’ll take insecure masculinity for two hundred.

“Dude, you don’t have to specify no-homo,” I muttered, already tired of this conversation.

If anything, Ben grew even more distressed. “Oh my God, no! No, that’s not—”

“Do you need something?” I interrupted him again, and his face fell.

“Shit, this is not how I wanted this conversation to go.”

I frowned. “Well, I don’t want this conversation to happen at all, so I’m gonna leave.”

When I tried to shoulder past him and join the flow of moving students, he stopped me with a soft grasp on my forearm. I stiffened and glowered at his hand, and he removed it.

“Sorry, I just wanted to talk.”

“Can we not do this?” I said under my breath, leaning into him so we wouldn’t be overheard. I instantly regretted the nearnessas his spring soap washed over me, causing an odd warmth to crackle through my chest. Shaking away the frustratingly calming aroma, I leveled him with a cool stare. “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. Last week, we were nothing but strangers. Let’s keep it that way, yeah?”

Without awaiting a response, I spun on my heels and shoved my way through the sea of teenagers drowning me. Yes, I was grateful for Ben’s help. No, that did not make us friends. I didn’t owe him shit.

Whispers and stares followed me most of the morning, and since this wasn’t necessarily a new development in my life, I didn’t waste brainpower over it. Of course, that changed the moment I passed a group of basketball players and caught Boyt’s and my names spoken in the same breath, and my stomach lurched.

Seriously?

Ben had a big fucking mouth after all! Why did it surprise me? How many times would I go through this before I got it through my thick skull not to trust anyone? My life was hard enough without him running his mouth about shit he didn’t understand. I was going to smash his beautiful face in when I found him.

Bubbling with righteous anger, I charged through the halls toward the cafeteria while I envisioned Ben’s expression as I smashed his perfect teeth to smithereens. I searched through the crowd, but I didn’t see him. Which meant he was still in the lunch line getting food. Or he wasn’t in this lunch period at all. Lucky for him.

Abandoning my plan for revenge, I changed course and headed toward the table where the theater crowd usually congregated. I wasn’t particularly close with any of them, but they didn’t talk shit about me behind my back, which was kind of the best case scenario for me as the only out gay guy in the school.

There were two lesbians in the choir who’d been dating since sophomore year, but no one bullied them because, according to disgusting, misogynistic straight guys, “lesbians are hot.”

I couldn’t wait to get out of Indiana. One more year.

Kim rose from the table and waved me over unnecessarily, and I slumped into the seat opposite her as the table fell silent. Everyone stared expectantly like they were waiting for a parlor trick or something.

“What?” I demanded.

Kim brushed a box braid out of her face and said, “I told them it isn’t true.”

“What isn’t true?”

She hesitated at that. “You haven’t heard?”

“Not the whole story, apparently,” I mumbled, and she cringed. “I’d rather hear it from you than some asshole in the hallway.”

Everyone continued to stare at me as Kim repeated the words circulating around the school. “Eric said he was smoking pot with his friends, and when he went to use the bathroom, you cornered him. He said…” She faltered, biting her bottom lip.

“Spit it out, Kim,” I instructed through clenched teeth.

“He said you begged him to let you blow him, and when he rejected you, you punched him and broke his nose.”

I literally felt the blood drain from my face, leaving me cold. This wasn’t the worst rumor to be spread about me, but it was somehow worse coming from a would-be rapist saying I asked him for it.

“Motherfucker!” The curse flew from my mouth, and I gritted my teeth, ducking down to hide from prying eyes. “Now I wish Iwasthe one to break his nose, along with every other bone in his worthless body.”

“I know. It’s sick,” Caroline agreed from her seat beside me as I fidgeted with the sleeve of my brother’s too-large hoodie. “Butno one believes him. I mean, you’d have to be crazy to want to get anywhere near his junk.”

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