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A piercing whistle cut through the air, only to be immediately followed by another. I broke away from him with a groan, rotating just enough to see Sariah over my shoulder. She stood several yards away, two fingers in her mouth, and gave us another obnoxiously loud whistle. When she lowered her hand, she added an enthusiastic pelvic thrust that made Theo choke on laughter as he stepped away from me.

“Ignore her,” I muttered. Sariah blew us a kiss, and I flipped her off. Theo only laughed harder, and I couldn’t help my smile. I gave him one last kiss before reluctantly pulling away. “Get some sleep. I’ll be back.”

I glanced back to where Sariah was practically dancing on her toes as she waited for us to finish up. I’d made a promise to spend some time with her, just us. I just hadn’t accounted for how much I’d miss spending every moment with Theo—which was honestly a strange feeling for me. No one had ever made me feel like that. Usually, I couldn’t wait to hang out with her.

“Have fun with her,” Theo said. “She looks like she might eat you if you don’t get over there.”

“That’s a realistic possibility,” I agreed. I stood at the hallway entrance as I waited for him to disappear. The slight rock and sway in his walk wasn’t reassuring. It took everything I had not to say fuck it and run down the hall after him. He was fine. He was just a little drunk, not incapacitated, and our room was less than a minute away.

And yet, none of that stopped me from watching until he reached the bend in the hallway. He gave me one last little wave before heading to our room.

“The way you worry about him is adorable,” Sariah commented as she came to stand next to me. Her arm slipped through mine, and her head rested on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, stud. You can walk me around the deck once and then go fuck your boy into oblivion.”

“Ah, yes.” I sighed. “The candid words of Sariah Williams.”

“You’ve missed them.”

“Yes, I have.” More than I’d realized. Not that I’d tell her that. She’d tease me mercilessly about it. There’d be comments in the group chat.

“Where are your shoes?” she demanded, frowning as she stared at my feet. I dragged her with me as I started off in some random direction to walk with her.

“Somewhere under the table.” I shrugged. “Someone will find them.”

“You’re a fucking heathen,” she retorted. “Did Theo have fun tonight? We weren’t too hard on him?”

“He said he had fun,” I told her. “To be honest, I think he thrives in chaos. That kind of comes with the territory of being Jude’s best friend.”

I smiled as I thought about him at dinner. He’d slipped into the group’s chaos more easily than I could’ve hoped. It felt good—better than good.

“Yeah, we’re going to need you to bring Jude around sometime—”

“Not a fucking chance,” I interrupted. That was a level of chaos I didn’t need. Jude unleashed around his favorite band was something I intended to postpone for as long as humanly possible.

“You’re no fun.” Her shoulder bumped into mine. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too.” I slipped my arm from hers and wrapped it around her shoulders.

“And I’m glad you brought Theo. You like him,” Sariah said. “You like like him.”

I smiled. Normally, I would’ve deflected or made some sarcastic comment before telling her to mind her own business. We would’ve argued about it before she handed me my ass. But tonight, I didn’t feel like it. Maybe it was the alcohol or the comfort I felt in having Theo by my side all night.

Or maybe I’d simply gotten tired of pretending I didn’t know where this was going. That thought had begun circling the edges of my mind. This trip only seemed to confirm it.

“I think,” I began softly. “I think I’m going to come out to my family.”

Sariah stopped so abruptly I almost tripped over my own feet.

“Wait, wait, wait.” She grabbed my elbow and made me face her, her brows furrowing as she stared up at me. “What did you just say?”

My heart beat a little faster. Hearing the words out loud was different than just thinking about them. They became a decision instead of some hypothetical future I could endlessly reconsider. However, I had no desire to take them back.

“I said that I’m going to come out to my family,” I repeated. “I’m not sure what Theo’s plans are for coming out, but I think I should do it sooner rather than later.”

She just stared at me, her eyes widening. I knew what she was hearing between the words I was saying. She knew me too well not to. Coming out to my family had always existed somewhere in the abstract to me—something I might do under the right circumstances. But the right circumstances had never come around, and it became easier to hide it from them than face it.

“Oh, my God,” Sariah whispered. “You love him.”

The instinct to deny it rose up immediately. Not because she was wrong, but because the word felt too definitive. Too vulnerable. It put a word to all the things I felt for Theo—a word that came with expectations and fears.