Riley caressed Snow’s hair. “Think of all the time we wasted dreaming about each other.”
“In quantum physics, particles in contact become quantumly entangled. Perhaps we simply needed more time for the entangling to occur.” Snow smiled softly. This had to be a dream.
“I really like this physics stuff.”
“And I look forward to your tutoring.” The blush heated his ears and cheeks.
Riley leaned back against the new couch, taking Snow with him. “As much as I’d love to continue your lessons this minute, I don’t feel I have the right. I want to come clean and be free to take you out and be seen as a proper boyfriend for you. No sneaking around. So let’s finish our meal, get to know each other a little better, I’ll take my test, talk to my coach, and we’ll have our official first date. I hope that might be the homecoming dance.”
Snow swallowed. “That could be too big a statement for a first date. I mean, the chances are great that you’ll be homecoming king.”
“That gives me more reason to get this all done fast. I really want to take you to homecoming, Snow.”
Holy wow.
He shook his head. “I don’t understand why you’d pick me. There are so many men, guys, you can have.”
“You’re beautiful, special, and smart.”
“And there are plenty of people who exceed any of my attributes.”
Riley curved a soft smile. “I love how I feel when I’m with you.”
“How is that?”
His brilliant eyes flashed up. “Smart.”
“It’s not a question of feeling. You are smart.”
“And I love that you really mean that.”
“I do.”
“I rest my case.”
Snow needed to revise his thesis about dreams coming true. “Okay, go see Jenkins and set a day for your test.”
CHAPTER 7
RILEY STARED
at the computer screen. Courtney’s breath warmed his ear as she peered over his shoulder. “Holy shit, you passed.”
Riley opened his mouth like a fish.
Un-fucking-believable.
“He did it. Snow found a way to push that shit into my dense head.”
“With all due respect to your pretty friend,
you
did it, Riley. You passed that final with such flying colors, Jenkins gave you a fucking C for the semester. This is awesome.”
Riley grinned. “Yeah, it really is, isn’t it?” He pushed the chair back, causing Courtney to retreat to the couch. “I gotta call Snow. I barely believe I can finally ask him out.”
“Oh. Did you already tell the team?”
That stopped his forward motion like three linebackers. “No.”
“When are you going to do it? You go out with a guy, and you know somebody’s going to notice. Hell, neither of you is exactly unknown on this campus.”
“I better tell the team before I go on the date.”
She nodded. “Think so.”
“Maybe I’ll come out to the team and the frat first, which is pretty much the same thing, and then I can tell Snow everything at once.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
He flopped in his big easy chair. “But that means I need to do it fast, because if I don’t get Snowden’s cock in my mouth soon, I’m going to wither up and die.”
She raised both hands. “TMI, baby.” She grinned. “So when are you going to do it? Tell the fraternity, I mean, not suck Reynaldi’s cock.”
“Tonight. We’ve got a frat meeting. That includes a lot of the team. Good time. Nobody will be drunk until later. Well, most won’t be, anyway. I’ve got less chance of getting my ass kicked by multiple players.”
She shook her head. “I don’t envy you. What do you want to do about me?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Oh hell. My brain didn’t get that far. What do you think?”
She leaned back, her perfect breasts pushing against her cheerleader’s sweater. “I’ve got practice tonight. How about I tell the whole squad that we broke up because you’re just not doing it for me?”
“Oooh, harsh.”
“Yeah, but don’t you think it will seem strange if I never once suspected you were gay?”
“Probably.”
“So that would explain it, and tomorrow, after the news spreads, all the girls will come running to tell me why you weren’t exactly Bradley Cooper.”
“Okay. Yeah.” Man, this was tough. “It’s stupid for me to try to maintain my alpha male status when I come out. It’s just going to be hard, you know.” He sucked in a breath.
And maybe painful.
Courtney leaned forward. “You’re plenty of alpha for anybody, baby. You just happen to like to fuck guys.”
“Yeah. I suppose so. It’s weird when gay guys believe their own stereotypes.”
“As long as you realize that, you’re gonna do fine.”
“Thanks, Court. For everything.”
She stood and stretched, revealing the body that launched every freshman’s wet dreams. “Hey, I’ve enjoyed being the queen of the school.”
“You’re still the queen of the school.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Snowden Reynaldi might give me a run.” She laughed.
TWO HOURS
later he stood in front of the coach’s office, holding his breath and praying not to barf. Step one. Holy shit, he was scared.
He walked into the outer office and found Danny lolling in the desk chair, reading a sports magazine. “Yo, Prince. How’s it hangin’, man?”
“Good, thanks. I, uh, called the coach, and he’s expecting me.”
“Sure. Go on in.”
“Uh, do you work here?”
“Nah. Just like hanging out around the coach.”
Not much could make Riley laugh right then, but he did. Danny was so laid-back it was amazing he could stay upright.
Wonder how he’ll feel about me being gay?
He rapped on the inner door, waited for the “Yeah,” and pushed inside. “Hey, Coach.”
McMasters nodded. “Riley. I heard directly from your physics professor. Congratulations are in order. You did it, and I’m proud.”
“Thank you, sir. I owe it all to Snowden Reynaldi.”
“Yeah, when that guy Erhlinger failed, I just couldn’t let it go. Reynaldi said you could learn physics, and I believed him. How did he do it?”
“He used football.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. I’ll show you sometime in case you want to use it on the team. Great stuff, actually.”
“Well, thank God that’s behind you.”
“Uh, yes, sir.” Riley stared at his shoes.
“Sooooo….”
He took a huge breath and looked up. “I want to come out.”
“Out of where?”
“Out of the closet, sir. I want to tell the team that I’m gay.”
“Shit.”
“I know.”
“Is it okay for me to ask why?”
Riley nodded. “I, uh, met someone.”
“You’re in love?”
“Well, not yet, but it’s pretty special to me.”
The coach sighed and leaned back in his desk chair. “Is it by any chance Snowden Reynaldi?”
“How did you know that?”
“When I heard you’d been showing up at chess matches, I knew something was up. I guess if you like ’em pretty and very, very smart, he’s your guy.”
“Yes, sir.” He’d never quite known he had a type until he saw Snow.
“I don’t want you to think I’m not supportive, but I have to ask if you’d consider waiting until after the championship game.”
Riley blew out a stream of air. “Because throwing a shit bomb like ‘your quarterback happens to be gay’ into the middle of a well-oiled machine could be bad.”
“I’d like to think it won’t make a difference.”
Talk about challenging his newly formed convictions. “I thought about it a lot. I feel like it’s not fair to ask Snow to sneak around with me. I want to date him. In fact, I’d like to take him to homecoming.”
“I’m sure he’d understand.”
“Yes, sir. He’s a great guy. But I think maybe it’s not fair to me either. I’ve been living this lie for a long time. Maybe knowing who my real friends are before I graduate wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”
The coach stared at the top of his desk and suddenly slapped it. “That’s a pretty well thought out line of reasoning, Riley. Go for it, son, and let’s see how much of a shitstorm it creates.”
Riley stood and extended his hand. “Thank you, sir.”
Hope that line of reasoning doesn’t bite me in the ass.
“I guess I’ll find out tomorrow at practice how it all turns out.” Coach McMasters laughed, but it sounded kind of forced.
On the way out, Riley stopped at the reception desk and stared at Danny sleeping on top of his magazine. Should he wake him up and tell him?
Nah.
He stopped in the cafeteria for some milk and sat out in the sun while he drank it. What he’d told the coach about why he wanted to come out now was all true, but not the whole truth. Actually, he kept noticing that Winston always hung around Snow. Plus, he’d talked a lot about Snow when he was trying to tutor Riley. Obviously Winston had the hots for Snowden. The guy might be geeky, but he was kind of cute, and they had lots in common, while Riley wasn’t in the same brain universe as Snow. If Win tried to stake a claim, who knew what Snow would do? No, Riley needed to come out, declare his interest, and try to prove he was the man for Snowden Reynaldi.
Still, the last swig of milk tasted kind of sour going down, and every minute until his frat meeting felt like the last mile of dead man walking.
He didn’t drag himself up the steps of the frat house until five minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start. Fighting with himself about maybe waiting until later in the semester had taken all his energy. He felt like he’d been whipped with a stick and didn’t want to go in at all.
Inside, the guys sat on every available piece of furniture, plus three of them lay on the floor. “Hey, Prince, how ya doin’?” Weird that Roget should be the first one to say hi.
A couple of his teammates slapped his butt as he walked by. He perched on the windowsill.
The fraternity president, Fred Furness, called them to order. Fred managed to combine the huge strength needed to be a guard and the brains to be premed. People respected him. Still, Fred grew up in South Central LA, not far from Roget. No way of knowing how he’d react to Riley’s declaration, and that could make all the difference in the other guys’ attitude. Shit, his hands were actually sweating.
Fred led them through old business, then launched into the new business of sprucing up the fraternity house in time for homecoming. “We’re gonna have a ton of alums here, so we need to look good, man. We want all the happy alumni support we can get for the chapter.”
Oh damn, he hadn’t thought about how the alums might penalize the chapter for having a gay guy.
So much to think about.
Hell, why hadn’t he just done this when he first got to school?
Chickenshit idiot.
Fred looked around. “Okay, so if there’s no other new business, I guess we can adjourn.”
One of the guys in back by the dining room yelled, “I’ll get the beer.”
Riley’s hand flew up by itself.
Fred nodded. “Yeah, Prince, you got something?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Bill Ruth, the tight end, slapped a hand on Riley’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, man, we’re all voting for you for homecoming king. Let’s drink.” He laughed.
“Uh, thanks, but that’s not it.”
“You have new business, Riley?” Fred piled up his papers.
“Not new, exactly. I just wanted to tell you all something.” He swallowed. Jesus, he’d been a lot braver at sixteen.
The tone of his voice must have stopped some of the guys and made them look around, because suddenly it felt like the whole room was staring and the walls were closing in.
“Yeah. What?” Fred smiled, but he obviously wanted to move on.
“I never told, I mean—”
I should have practiced.
“I never told you before, but I’m gay.”
The guy next to him slapped his shoulder and snorted. “Funny you’re not, Prince.”
Someone back near the kitchen door said, “What did he say?”
Another voice replied, “He said he never told us, but he’s gay.”
“Nooo shiiit.”
Fred frowned, a scary sight on his big face. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Fred just stared, although the whispering at the back of the group got louder.
However hard he’d thought this would be, his fears had been one tenth of what it actually was. Riley shuddered. “I figured before I graduated you ought to know. You can’t kick me out because of the antidiscrimination crap, but I’ll quit the fraternity if you want. Since I don’t live in the house, that should take care of it.”
“Like hell.” That icy-cold voice quieted every other sound in the room. Rog stepped out of the group he was standing in and faced Riley. “I still got to get your slimy fag sweat on me every time you pass. Fuck if I’ll do it.”
LeRoy, the second-string running back, pushed past Rog. “You can pass to me, Riley. I figure you were my friend yesterday, and you still are today.”
Bill raised a finger. “Pass to me, man.” Riley gave the tight end a nod.
“Outhouse” Oliver Hanson, the biggest damned guard on the team, pushed between two other guys. “For that matter, you can pass to me.”
A voice from the back Riley couldn’t identify said, “Pass to you or make a pass at you? Fags in the fraternity are bullshit, man.”
Somebody else yelled, “Yeah.”
Fred crossed his arms. “You just decide you’re gay?”
“No. I’ve known for a while.”
“So you been lyin’?”
Shit. Facts are facts.
“Yes. I mean, I never exactly said I was straight, but I lied by implication.”
“You tell Courtney you’re a fag?”
Double shit.
“She must have suspected something, because she broke up with me.”
“But you lied to her.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“Against the honor code.”
Riley frowned. “I never lied on a test.”
“Still, Zetas aren’t liars.”
The front door opened, and Danny slouched in. He glanced around. “What the fuck’s going on?”
“You’re late for the meeting.” Fred scowled, but Danny could ignore King Kong.
“Why’s everybody look like they want to barf?”
LeRoy said, “Riley just told us he’s gay.”
“No shit?”
“Yeah.”
A smile spread like warm maple syrup across Danny’s handsome face. “Hey, man, that’s dope. Never knew there was any other gay guys on the team.” He walked across the floor and stuck his hand out to Riley.