Page 8 of Strip Bare

"Surprise visitors," I said with a wince and then scowled at the way my sister was smiling at him. "Go put on a shirt."

He smirked and Saylor raised an eyebrow at me.

"He's too old for you," I protested and she snorted.

"I'm an adult, Leo. I can make my own decisions."

"Sure." I rolled my eyes. “Come back to me when you're legally allowed to drink."

Her eyes flashed and I smothered a grin. It was a sore spot for her because she was born early enough to be the oldest one in any classes she'd taken, but just too late to join the next year group.

"So you're thinking about college?" I said to her, trying to keep the peace as I handed out water and soda to her and my parents.

"Maybe." She shrugged. "I just finished my intern year, so I have to decide what I want to do next."

"Well, Radclyffe has a lot to offer," Xander said with a smirk as he walked into the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast bar. At least he'd put on a shirt.

"Noted," Saylor replied and I scowled at my roommate. My parents were big on real-life experience, so we'd both waited a year before going to college where we'd worked or interned for a company to get experience before deciding whether to pursue a degree. I'd interned at a small-town law firm for the summer before I started classes and loved every second of it.

"You don't mind if I steal him for a moment do you?" Kit said, his voice startling close to my ear as he smiled at my parents. I was probably the only one who noticed the strained edge to it and I felt a little queasy as my mom nodded and smiled. "We need to get your room ready," Kit said in explanation but I knew that wasn't the real reason he was pulling me away.

I followed him up to his room begrudgingly, my body tensing more and more the closer we got to the landing, until his door closed behind us and I braced myself.

It was quiet for a moment as Kit paced in front of his desk. It was a mess of art supplies and books that I knew looked too disorganized to me but probably made sense to him. I had no doubt that he knew where everything in that pile was.

"Kit—" I tried and he shook his head. "I'm sorry," I said anyway. "I can go downstairs right now and tell them that I lied."

He shook his head and I lingered by the closed door, unsure what he wanted from me. "What would that help?"

"Um, you?" I offered and he stopped moving to stare at me, his blue hair mussed from running his hands through it.

"Tell me," he said and I knew what he was asking.

"I told her we were together so she'd stop trying to set me up with people. She somehow got this one guy to approach me at Cocoa & Rum recently for a blind date she'd set-up without me knowing. It was the most painful experience I think I've ever had. So I told her I was seeing someone to get her to stop."

Kit was nodding and I tried to breathe out slowly, calmly, but it was hard when I felt like our friendship was on the line here. No matter what I felt for him, I wouldn't risk what we had.

"I thought it would be a little white lie, I swear I never expected them to show up like this."

He nodded again and I wanted to shake him.

"Can you please say something?"

"I'm thinking."

I wanted to snap at him, to ask why he couldn't think aloud, but I wasn't really in a position to be demanding anything.

"Okay," he said eventually, sitting down on the edge of his bed and tugging on a loose navy thread from the comforter.

"Okay?" I repeated disbelievingly. "What does that mean?"

"It means I'm mad you didn't tell me about this at the time so I could be a little more prepared, and I'm mad that the only explanation you gave me was just go with it. But," he said, letting out a heavy breath as he slumped backward, revealing a small stretch of his taut stomach beneath his tee. "I understand why you did it and I'll get over the other stuff."

That shouldn't have hurt. I knew the kiss hadn't meant anything to him, but it was different hearing him say it. "I'll come clean to them."

"No."

My face fell slack as I stared at him. "I really need you to tell me what's going on in your head."

---