Page 152 of Fight or Flight
Not only was I right about Jace manipulating me so he could fuck me, he was also the one who broke into my room and stole my shit, including the flash drivehegave me.
“So you guys aren’t a thing?” he asks tentatively. “I don’t care if you’re… if you’re into that, but it just seems really weird that he’d say that stuff to his brother if it wasn’t true.”
“It’s true,” I tell him distractedly. “The hooking up with him part, not the us being a thing part. It was…convenient. That’s all.”
Dan nods slowly. “Do any of the other guys know?”
I shake my head. “I’m going to tell them at some point, but I just… I’ve got other stuff I need to deal with and?—”
“It’s cool, man,” he says quickly. “Like I said, it’s your business, and I totally get not telling people. I won’t say a word to anyone. I promise.”
“Thanks.” I scrub my hand through my hair. “This whole thing is…complicated.”
“Yeah,” he says. “I get it. And your secret is safe with me. I just hope I didn’t make things harder for you. I know you’ve been struggling since the fire, and it probably brought back all sorts of shit for you.”
I give him a sharp look, but before I can go on the defensive, I remember that KJ and Dan’s older brother are the same age, and they started at Silvercrest at the same time, so of course he’d know about the fire and what happened.
“And it’s probably been even worse finding out you’re going through the same thing KJ did,” he adds sympathetically.
I stare at him for a few beats. What the fuck is he talking about?
“The getting outed thing,” he clarifies.
“Outed?” I blink at him like a moron.
He gives me a weird look. “You didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“That he got caught hooking up with a guy right before Christmas break.”
“He what?” I ask stupidly.
“Yeah, it was a whole thing.” He gives me another strange look, like he can’t believe I don’t know this about my own brother. “Apparently someone recorded him and the guy he was messing around with and was trying to blackmail him with the videos. Then school went on break and he…”
“He died,” I finish for him.
Dan nods, looking as uncomfortable as I feel. “I thought you knew about all that. He didn’t tell you?”
KJ and I were super close, but he was also almost five years older than me. He didn’t talk to me about his dating life or his sexuality, and he never would have told me if he was being blackmailed, not when I was only thirteen.
“And now it kinda sounds like Jace is going to do the same thing to you,” Dan says. “It’s just really fucked up, and I figured you should know.”
“Thanks,” I say woodenly, my mind spinning with a crush of disjointed thoughts.
“Are you okay?”
I nod. “Fine. I was just on my way out.”
“Yeah, of course.” He steps back so I can pull open my door.
“You sure you’re okay?” he asks again as we step out of my room.
“Fine,” I repeat. “Just have something I need to do.”
He gives me a little wave, and I wait for him to start walking back toward his room before I go down the hall in the opposite direction and head toward the side stairwell.
I’ve spent the past week on pins and needles waiting for the chance to put my plan into action, and now I have no choice but to do it so I can figure out what the fuck is going on and answer the million questions spinning around in my head.
