Page 129 of Wrecking Us
“Um… Mack, is it?” Mandy asks.
“Jordan, actually,” Mack says with a grunt.
“Do you happen to know where the bathrooms are?” she asks sweetly.
“Oh yeah, go in and make a—”
Mandy reaches for him, grabbing his arm and practically yanks him out of Alex’s proximity, despite the fact she’s smaller than the rest of us.
“Show me,” she says, dragging him toward the back of the building, leaving Alex and I alone.
Alex smirks at me.
“So, you think you’re bi, is that it?” he asks coolly. “Having a pre-thirties existential identity crisis?”
“Can you be serious for like two seconds?”
He purses his lips. “Yeah, totally.”
“Okay, so… I kind of dated this guy for a while and…” I stop. Alex looks at me with concern. “Hudson,” I say, my voice steady.
“Hudson… what?” he asks.
“I… kind of was dating Hudson.”
If Alex is surprised, he doesn’t show it. In fact, he almost looks completely unfazed, except for the twitch in his lips, the faint smirk forming on his face.
“Hudson, huh?” His voice is smooth as he raises an eyebrow.
“And, uh… things got sort of serious, but—”
“You fucked it up,” he says solidly.
“Yeah…” I run a hand through my hair nervously.
Alex nods. “That sucks.” He slides his hands in his pockets, his expression softening. “Why didn’t you say anything?” he asks, his voice serious. “You could have said something, Trey. Youknow, in your fit of rage. Or you could have told me or texted or—”
“I didn’t know how,” I admit. “I wanted to, though. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. Hudson and I were supposed to come here together and tell you guys, but after he saw the pictures…”
Alex frowns. “Oh. Shit. I didn’t know, Trey, I—”
“I know.” I hold his gaze. “I should have said something sooner, and it wouldn’t have happened. It’s notentirelyyour fault.”
“So, what are you going to do?” he asks curiously.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But I think this is a start.” I give him a half-smile as he furrows his eyebrows.
“What is?”
I point between us. “Telling the truth, for one, but also… telling you.”
Alex looks confused. “Me?”
I nod, smiling at his shock.
“I mean, we are friends, right, Alex?” I say. “And you probably have a lot more experience with this… sort of thing than I do, so—”
Alex’s lips turn up into a smile. “Oh, I see how it is.” His voice is light, full of humor.
