Page 42 of Bend Him, Break Him
Shock filled Colton’s face, his stance turned shaky, and he nearly stumbled backward. Isaac swept in faster than he realized, faster than he should have, but it was too late. One hand was already wrapped around Colton’s waist and pressed to the small of his back while the other gripped his shoulder.
“It’s a lot, I know,” Isaac said, keeping his grip firm until Colton’s breathing eased. “I had this sinking feeling when you shared your story with me.”
“You just came up and asked about me?” There was a tremble in Colton’s voice.
“No.” Isaac gritted his teeth, ashamed of how he’d prioritized keeping his arrangement with Colton a secret, which clearly meant he was no better than William or anyone else Isaac despised for a lack of morals. “I addressed my concerns about a few rumors, rumors which tied in well when adding yours to the list. Like I said, this isn’t the first time Will has been suspected of having a hand in someone’s coming out story.”
“Was it all a con from the start?”
“No,” Isaac lied because he hadn’t asked William for that clarity, but he knew his friend was more opportunistic than calculating. “I think because your hookups were recurring, he just saw a way to have fun and exploit someone else in the process.”
“Fuck.” Colton ran his hands through his hair, a gesture Isaac noticed him do when nervous and trying to think more clearly.“You know, I always assumed this was my fault. My bad luck and reckless behavior catching up to me, leading to my big scandal.”
“You don’t have to worry about William anymore.” Isaac grimaced as if William were the worst of Colton’s problems. William’s actions were reprehensible, but his grievances were old news, no longer a wound that pained Colton. “He’s gonna step away from GSA for a while. He wants to focus on his theater credits.”
“He just chose to step away?”
“Carlos might’ve noted a few other instances where he also heard rumors.” Isaac let Colton absorb that comment. He didn’t need to further elaborate how Colton wasn’t the first, merely the biggest fish in William’s sordid history. “Jazz is a very accepting person, very open-minded and forgiving, but she won’t allow someone on the GSA committee who had a hand in outing people, in taking away that choice from them.”
“Like a morality clause.” Colton nodded. “I have one of those in my contract.”
“Not exactly.” Isaac shrugged. “There’s official ways to remove someone from their role as a club officer, but between Jazz laying down the formalities of officially bringing up sanctions to Mina threatening to break his nose a second time and Carlos reminding folks that he’d picked IT cybersecurity for a reason—so whatever dirty secrets William still had, might not remain so secret.”
“Yikes.” Colton made a playful face of fright, which quickly dissolved into genuine concern. “So, everyone’s gonna know he outed me?”
“Maybe. Folks will likely just speculate. Like I said, Carlos mentioned others. Quite a few, apparently.” Isaac shrugged. “Members will know William had a hand in outing guys oncampus or outing members to their families accidentally before they were ready.”
Colton’s eyes went wide at that. It wasn’t like his family didn’t already know his sexuality, but Isaac imagined it was still a difficult topic to broach.
“I can’t believe you exposed him, connected those dots.”
“Studying people is what I do,” Isaac said, thinking about how his paranoid mind always tried to imagine the worst-case scenario in every possible situation so he could prepare for the inevitable painful outcome and brace himself. It’d served him well and helped him avoid awful fates since his incident junior year. “Part of me considered keeping it quiet, threatening to expose him, in exchange for the tapes, but he claimed not to have access to them.”
And Isaac knew that was the truth, considering the private and brutal beating he unleashed, threatening with all sincerity to do so much worse to William unless he convinced Isaac he wasn’t lying.
“You do blackmail like no one else.” Colton chuckled, more amazed than frightened.
That gutted Isaac. He couldn’t stop seeing himself as any different from this reporter, hungry for a story, or William, who enjoyed the rush of puppeteering people’s lives. But he buried that feeling like he buried every feeling that struck when nearby Colton.
“Since William was a dead end on your outing, I looked up the name of the reporter who did your first story.” Isaac scoffed. “You realize, you have like a thousand coming out articles.”
“Only a thousand? That’s a bit disappointing.” Colton shot Isaac a weak smile. “You should check out how many reaction posts there were.”
“Just know, I’ll get back the tapes and ensure—”
“Don’t. There’s no need.” Colton was too calm about the situation, likely still not fully registering exactly how manipulated by the situation he’d been. “He never planned on releasing the tapes. Just wanted the exposé on my coming out story.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. Once he had my story, he gave me the copies, and I burned them.”
“You’re sure he doesn’t have others?”
“If he does, he’s made no move with them after months.” Colton shrugged. “Releasing a vid like that after we won The College World Series would’ve been a huge blow to my career.”
“Pun intended.”
“Huh?” Colton stared, either not realizing the humor in the comment or registering what a pun was. “Besides, it’s not like he could post the tape on his news site. They’re all professional and shit. It would’ve just been leaked online. No profit for the guy.”
