“Please,” Aamee said. “It’s obviously her.”
“Obvious to who?” I asked. “You can see the tops of two people’s heads in the dark. You can’t even make out what clothes they have on. It was a good try, Aamee, but you’ll have to do better than that. Destroying your opponent’s image just to get a few votes is pretty dirty.”
I watched her lip twitch up into an evil grin. “I bet you and Brody like it dirty.”
“You’re disgusting.”
I couldn’t help but cringe at the idea that Brody and I would ever make out with each other, even though she’d actually been talking about Drew.
“You’re calling me disgusting after I caught you sucking on your brother’s tongue?”
She laughed, directing it at her audience, who now seemed captivated by the show.
“I told you it wasn’t me,” I responded.
“Well, if it wasn’t you, who was it?” She looked around the room for anyone who might step up to say they were the one on the video.
“It was me.”
The words had come from Taylor. So anxious about what to do, I’d forgotten she was even here. And in basically the same outfit as me. Had I been first to think of it, I would’ve tossed Taylor’s name out there from the start, knowing she would have my back.
She held up her hand from across the room, and Aamee looked over.
It took her a few seconds to place who Taylor was, but when she did, she said, “That’s convenient. Your friend just happens to be the one who’s kissing Brody? I think it’s more likely she’s covering for you.”
“Is it?” I asked, now talking more loudly so others could hear me. “Is it more likely I made out with my brother or that my friend did?”
“If it was you in the video,” Aamee said to Taylor, “why didn’t you say that right away?”
It was a valid question and one I hoped Taylor had an answer to because I sure as hell didn’t.
“Because she didn’t wanna out me,” Drew said. Aamee looked completely confused. “As straight. Or bi. Or…whatever.” Drew waved a hand around as he explained. “I don’t really know what I am. That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“So you were worried people would find out you might be straight?” Aamee asked skeptically.
“Yeah. I’ve known Taylor since we were kids, and we’ve always been close. I figured she was a safe person to experiment with. You know…to see if I felt anything…sexually. Or emotionally.”
“And did you?” I wasn’t sure why Aamee asked the question because she had no way of verifying if Drew’s answer was true or not, but I found myself wanting to know the answer too.
“I did. I felt a lot, actually.” His eyes darted briefly to mine as he said it. “I think it’s time I’m honest with myself and admit I like women.”
“I knew it!” Emma called from across the room.
“Prove it,” Aamee said to him, and then she looked at Taylor to let her know the directive was aimed at both of them.
“How am I supposed to prove it’s me in the video?” Taylor asked.
“Kiss him,” said Aamee.
This bitch was crazier than I thought.
Drew and Taylor looked at each other, and I hoped it was only me who could sense their hesitance.
“This is ridiculous,” Drew said. “We’re not gonna make out in front of all these people just to prove to you it was us in the video. It doesn’t even prove anything.”
It was a solid try. It really was. But I knew they weren’t getting out of this even if none of us wanted it to happen.
Aamee crossed her arms and looked between Taylor and Drew, like she was directing some sort of fucked-up amateur porn and was deciding how she wanted the scene to play out.
“No. I guess it doesn’t prove anything. But it can’t hurt.”
Taylor and Drew both looked at me before they moved toward each other, the crowd parting for them. Once they were close enough, they closed their eyes and locked lips. Their mouths stayed closed for a moment before they both seemed to realize that wasn’t going to fool anyone, so they turned up the heat a little.
It was painfully awkward to watch. It was more orchestrated than natural, but maybe that was because I knew what others didn’t—there were no romantic feelings between Taylor and Drew.
I, on the other hand, felt things for Drew that I hadn’t wanted to admit until now. Even to myself.
Watching him kiss someone else, put his hands on someone else, made my skin feel like it was on fire from the inside out.
They gave it a few more seconds before they broke contact and looked back at Aamee.
“Happy now?” Drew asked.
“Yup,” she answered.
That made one of us.
Chapter Twenty-One
D R E W
“Remember when no one knew you made out with your sister?”
Carter was referring to my living hell since the party. He slung an arm around me as we walked toward the stone building that housed the library. I was pretty sure he had no intention of actually using the library, so I could only assume he was tagging along because he wanted to bust my balls a little more.
I removed a hand from one of my pockets just enough to elbow him in the ribs, which made him reflexively pull his arm from my shoulder. Once he was off me, I gave him a shove.
“I didn’t make out with my sister, you dick.”
Carter ignored my lie. “Whatever you say, bro. I gotta admit, though, the gay thing was a good cover.”
I stopped walking and glared at him.
Either he knew I’d been lying about being gay, or he was fucking with me. I wanted to punch him either way.
“You think I pretended to be gay so I could fuck my sister?”
Carter raised his hands in the air innocently and jerked his head back. “Whoa, whoa, no one said anything about fucking her. Jesus, dude, that’s some seriously messed-up shit right there. Kissing your sister is one thing. Fucking her is, well… Fucking her is…fucked up.”
“With your speaking skills, majoring in communications is clearly your calling.” Adjusting my backpack from where it’d slipped a little when I’d shoved Carter, I turned toward the library again and continued walking.
“Don’t change the subject. I’m just concerned for your future children if you forget to pull out. Look at all those old royal families whose children had all sorts of deformities because they didn’t want the bloodlines to thin. You don’t want your son slash nephew to have three ears or something, do you?”
I ignored his comment, hoping that if I sped up, he’d finally realize I absolutely did not want to talk about this. It was bad enough I’d been hit on four times since Friday night. Two guys, two girls. Evidently the jury was still out on my sexual orientation.
“Okay, maybe that was a little too far,” he said.
“You think?” I wondered when the novelty of all this would wear off. At some point, the student population would have something else that captured their attention, and Sophia and I would drift into the backs of their minds until they forgot about it completely. Or at least I hoped so.