Page 93 of Talk to Me

“For months, a certain someone has been pretending he’s innocent and sweet, and just trying to live his life. I knew better—and all of you knew better. And when it was obvious he was cheating on his new boyfriend, I made a video, trying to warn his new boyfriend of what was happening. I didn’t even want to drag him into this mess. But instead of listening to the tea I was spilling, he decided to lie and tell you all that what we could all see with our own eyes wasn’t true. He said that he wasn’t even dating Theo, and tried to gaslight all of us. Well…does this look like two guys who aren’t dating?”

Ben gesture dramatically to the space in front of his chest where he’d inserted the picture in post-editing.

“It doesn’t to me, Ben said. “It very much looks like two guys who are very comfortable with each other. I don’t know about all of you, but I don’t kiss my friends like that. There are a lot of things I don’t do with my friends.”

The picture in front of his chest of Theo and me kissing was replaced by a picture of Theo and me asleep, snuggled up in my bed, oblivious to the world.

Ben gave a fake, amused sigh, then looked back into the camera.

“I guess this is all I will have to say,” he continued. “Because this all speaks for itself. I didn’t want to have to do all of this and get messy, but you all had the right to know the truth. Theo has never been who he’s said he is. He’s never been the sweet guy who loves animals and wants to get to know you all so badly. He’s just another guy who cheats on his boyfriends, lies, and does whatever it takes to achieve his goals. I hope now, the world can see him for who he really is.”

And the video ended. I sighed, wringing my hands in my lap as I sat on the edge of the bed.

“The Devil comes in many forms,” Arthur said suddenly, looking over the top of his phone at me. “And they’re all enticing.”

“What?” I looked up at him.

“That boy is too damned cute to be an angel,” Arthur said. “I could have told you he’s evil.”

I couldn’t help but give a wry smile and look back down at my lap.

“Don’t say anything nice about that piece of crap,” I said.

Arthur lowered the phone and laid it on the arm of his chair before crossing his legs and laying his hands in his lap.

“Is this why you haven’t come to see me for a whole month?” he asked.

“Sorry, Arhtur,” I said. “It’s just…been a lot.”

“I can see that,” he said, gesturing at his phone. “It must take a lot of effort to fight like a bunch of pussies in some made up place in the sky.”

Frowning, I looked over at him.

“Wh-what?”

He gestured vaguely. “The cloud. Whatever. I don’t know. All of you kids and your internet bullshit. Back in my day, you’d meet at the park and get five in the mouth. You didn’t make think pieces and run your mouth back and forth—you handled business.”

I stared at him.

Arthur leaned forward and returned my gaze.

“Go whoop that boy’s ass,” he said calmly.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“First of all,” I said, “violence solves nothing. Secondly, he’s across the country.”

“If an ass whoopin’ is worth giving, it’s worth buying a plane ticket to deliver it.”

I laughed again.

“Seriously, Arthur,” I said. “I’m not going to whoop his ass.”

“And he’ll keep running his mouth then,” Arthur said, waving a dismissive hand calmly in the air before him. “See how that works?”

“He’d just press charges and I’d have a criminal record anyway—and then he’d make a whole new series of videos about what a psycho I am,” I explained.

“That’s how you kids are different,” Arthur said. “It didn’t matter if you were whoopin’ or getting whooped back when. The cops didn’t get called. If you deserved the whoopin’, and the other person was mean enough to give it to you, you were expected to take it and shut the fuck up.”