Just What the Truth Is Read Online Free PDF Page B

around the guy’s chest. Aaron, the blond veterinarian who took care of Noah’s new puppy, was sitting on one of the teak armchairs with a little man curled in his lap.
    Okay, all those guys were paired up with each other. It’s funny. To hear my parents describe it, they’re terrified about Noah being gay because of the promiscuous lifestyle, the accompanying drug use, and the social isolation associated with homosexuality. But here I was, looking at my brother’s tight-knit group of friends, and they were all just hanging out, seemingly sober and very clearly in established relationships. The difference between the reality I was witnessing and the nightmare stories I had always heard was confusing.
    “I think I may be the only straight person here,” I said dumbly.
    “Oh, honey, no you’re not,” she replied, shaking her head before taking a swig of her beer.
    “I’m not? Who else is straight?”
    “Not what I meant,” she said as she walked away across the yard.
    It took a full minute for the meaning of her comment to register, and when it did, I felt the blood drain from my face and my stomach roll over. I collapsed into one of the chairs on Noah’s patio.
    Did she think I was gay? Why? I was acting perfectly normal.
    Then it hit me. My brother must have told her about his suspicions. I wondered whether he told everyone that his brother was gay. Maybe that was how Micah Trains knew. Well, not knew , but thought . Whatever, you get the point.
    Micah said he and Noah had a mutual friend, so if Noah was going around telling his friends about me, it might’ve gotten back to Micah. And if Micah knew— thought —that I was gay, I wondered who else had heard Noah’s rumor and believed it.
    “There you are.”
    I looked up and saw Clark standing next to me.
    “We wondered where you’d gone. Your car is still out front, but we couldn’t find you.”
    I looked toward the backyard and saw that it was empty. I had no idea how long I had been sitting at the side of the house in the near dark, trapped in my own thoughts. “Did everyone go inside?” I asked.
    Clark shook his head. “No, they all went home. It’s getting kind of late, and we started the barbeque pretty early, so….” Clark tilted his head to the side and appraised me carefully. Even though we had drifted apart, there was a time when we had been really close, and Clark could still read me pretty well. “What’s going on, Ben? Are you okay?”
    I knew he was trying to be nice, but I didn’t feel like hearing it. Noah had no right to talk about me to the world, and I was pissed as hell. “Where’s my brother?”
    Apprehension and concern etched over Clark’s handsome face. “Look, Ben, whatever it is that’s gotten you worked up, you need to calm down before you talk to Noah. There’s no reason to start something.”
    Of course, I had to be the one to calm down. I always had to be the one to calm down, or let it go, or make some other accommodation for my emotionally unstable brother. I was sick of it. “Where is he, Clark?”
    My teeth were gritted and my eyes were blazing. I was probably as mad as Clark had ever seen me. His shoulders slumped and he sighed resignedly before pointing toward the French doors. “He’s inside.”
    I started storming toward the door, but Clark clutched my arm. “Please, Ben. Things have gotten so much better between us lately. I don’t want us to move backwards, and I know you don’t either.”
    I noticed that he hadn’t mentioned my brother. Of course not. Noah didn’t give a shit about me. He never had. I had always been the one who’d put in all the work to try to maintain any type of relationship with my brother.
    “Noah!” I shouted his name before I’d even had a chance to open the door. “Noah, where are you?”
    “I’m in here, Ben.” His voice was coming from the bedroom, so I made my way back there. “Damn, boy. Where’s the fire?”
    Noah’s sarcasm was the last thing I needed