He knows who, but he asks it anyway.
“Erick. The ones of me that you took. Naked.”
“Oh my god.”
“He threatened to leak them.”
“What does he want?”
“I don’t know. I think he’s going to do it to hurt you, to hurt me. This could ruin things for you, Colton. Your future in soccer.”
He blinks and then turns forward, his eyes closing.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Colton—”
“I don’t want to. I don’t want to think about it, of what this means.”
I don’t either, but we need a plan. We need to come up with something. We’re fighting back, but I don’t want any harm to come to him. Such a juxtaposition to how I felt when I saw him at that party. At that time, I wanted to see him knocked off his high horse. Now I want to do anything I can to protect him, to keep him up there for as long as he wants.
“I think we need to figure this out. Together. Because I might have told him I don’t care if he leaks them.”
“Jesus, Myles.”
“But I don’t care. I’m done caring. But I also don’t want this to harm you.”
“It will hurt both of us.”
“Not if we don’t let it.”
His eyes open, and he stares at me. “How? Because ever since that monster came into my life, he’s done nothing but hurt me. So tell me how wedon’t let it.”
Those words cut, but I hold on to him tighter.
“If he leaks them, we won’t be ashamed. Not of who we are. We’ll just own it.”
His hand slips from mine, and he runs it down his face. I feel the absence of his touch, of what this small break could mean for our future—one I was planning on without realizing it.
My chest constricts, and I feel a pain radiating through my heart.
It’s starting to fracture.
Only he can mend it.
“I don’t know if that will work.”
My hand grips the console between us.
“It has to. We’ll fight back. In our own way, united. But not if you don’t want to. I don’t think you were ever in those pictures. Just me. I can take it…”
“I’m sure he has more than the photos on my phone. I bet he has videos of the two of us fucking in my room.” His face is buried in his hands, and he grunts in frustration. “So fucking stupid! God, I’m so fucking dumb! I should never have dragged you into this. Into my fucked-up life. I can’t do this to you. I can’t do any of this.”
“Hey,” I say, reaching out and touching him gently, but he pulls away slightly.
That fracture starts to open wider, slow and painful.
“Don’t touch me. Not right now. Oh fuck. I can’t believe this is happening.”
