Baited

Chapter 29. Reunited

"I-I'm so, so sorry." I cried out. "I was... so wrong."

Cooper stood a few feet away from me in my room, silently listening to my tearful apology. My family didn't care he was gay, they embraced it. They already figured he was and thought I was too.

"I-I heard you come out to your parents. Th-they. They accept it. And I told you they w-w-wouldn't. I'm so so-sorry." I put my hands over my face after that trying to hide the shame I felt but it was no use.

I felt Cooper's presence closer to me and dared to pull my hands away from my face. Cooper knelt down in front of me but said nothing. His eyes told a story of a boy, who was now a man, that had woken up this morning with the weight of the world on his shoulder. Weights now lifted, setting him free. I studied his face. A face I missed more than anything. I wanted to reach out and trace each defined feature with my fingertips but held back.

"You didn't know." Cooper filled the silence. "After our parents flipped their shit about the porn, I get why you assumed what you did." He was letting me off the hook but I wasn't having it.

"No. No.' I shook my head back and forth. "I'm a terrible, terrible friend. A terrible person. I'm so-so s-s-s-sorry."

"I miss you, Bud." Cooper said and my heart skipped a beat.

"I miss you too." I responded truthfully. I did miss him. More than I knew.

He looked around my room for a minute. "You rearranged?" He asked, not sounding like he was pleased but not in a harsh way.

"I did."

"I don't like it." He was blunt, like I knew him to be and I loved it. "Wanna play Super Mario Kart?" He asked.

"S-Sure!" I responded with enthusiasm.

"Prepare to get our ass kicked looser!"

"Keep dreaming Coop. You haven't won since-"

"Lies!" He cut me off.

Cooper and I hangout in my room for hours. It felt like old times; as though nothing had changed. The only difference was that we kept our hand to ourselves. And not just sexually. Cooper and I were always touchy feely. Well before Miami. Today, there was no tickle torture from Cooper, we didn't cuddle or sit closer than "normal" friend would while I kicked his ass in Mario Kart. And it didn't matter. All that mattered was spending time with him. Laughing with him. Joking with him. Reminiscing with him.

Our time together came to an abrupt end when his cell phone rang. He reached in his pocket and when he glanced at the called ID, his face fell a bit. He looked uncomfortable and then turned to apologize to me.

"It's fine." I assured him, already knowing who it was. "It's your boyfriend right? You should answer it. If you want to step out into the hallway for some privacy, I understand." He looked at me in shock at the mention of his boyfriend.

"How did you-"

"Take your call." I cut him off. "It's a long story but-" I paused. "I'm happy for you." The words were hard to get out but I meant it. I won't lie and pretend I still wasn't feeling that jealous ping in my chest but that didn't mean I wasn't happy for him. He deserved someone that would treat him well and not make one mistake after the next, hurting him with one disastrous conversation after the next.

"T-thanks." He responded before slowly walking out of the room. Then I heard him say "Hey babe" and I wanted to throw up.

***

I hated starbucks and they knew it. So why did Jessica and Luke insist I meet them here? To top it off, I have been sitting at a booth in the far corner of the shop for ten minutes now and they still have not arrived. The looks of others in the shop as I slowly sipped on the tea I ordered didn't make the wait any better. I didn't like tea but I didn't like their coffee much and wasn't about to spend upwards of ten bucks on one of their expensive coffee mixes.

"Sorry we're late!" Jessica's voice scared the crap out of me. I nearly fell out of my seat, having not noticed her or Luke approach the booth.

"For fucks sake!" I clenched my chest and glared at her while Luke took a seat at the booth, opposite me. Jessica sat down next to him looking exhausted. "Long night?" I asked once they settled in.

Luke scratched the back of his neck looking away. Jessica signed rather dramatically before she gave me her full attention. "Ok, Spence." Her voice was laced with trouble. "Don't freak out, ok?" She asked and I immediately began to panic.

"What?" I rushed the question out.

What now? How much more drama can one person take in such a short period of time.

"Minny." Luke announced.

I looked at him now with a raised brow. "What did the bitch do? Is she telling anyone who is willing to listen to her about my little video?" I wouldn't be surprised and honestly didn't care. No one would believe her.

"Worse." Jessica deadpanned.

"Worse?" I asked, echoing her.

She pulled out a crumpled up letter sized paper from her pocket. She slowly began to flatten it out before handing it to me. I took it in my hands and the first thing I noticed was it was a photocopy, not an original. Scanning over what I now realized was a type of flier, I felt the blood drain from my face.

The flier appeared to be a fake advertisement, promoting a particular website. The one that featured the gay porn Cooper and I made. As though plucked from the site itself, the flier held a picture of Cooper and I. The same ones we took at the studio. Pictures that teased what we had to offer. Our bodies were fully exposed with a small black box covering our midsections. Under our pictures was a direct link to our video.

"Where did you find this?" I asked in disbelief.

Jessica went to open her mouth but nothing came out so Luke answered. "They were hung all around town and all over the university campus as well as the community college campus." He stopped to give me a moment to process and when he saw I was ready to pass out he assured me, "the moment we saw the first one, we spent all morning ripping each and everyone we could find down."

That eased me a bit but still, how long had they been up? Who saw them? Did they miss any? My parents just got over all this. If this got around town and back to my parents, it would kill them. And when did Minny have time to do all this? It had only been-

"Sorry. Got here as soon as I could. I found a few more." I looked up to find the owner of the familiar voice rushing to take the one empty seat beside me.