Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas

that I’m…”
“Well, honey, we kind of knew.”
My eyes go wide, and now that the fear is gone, I glare. “What?” I
screech. “How could you know?” I didn’t know! “And what do you mean
‘we’? You mean Dad knows, too?”
Are they serious?
She smiles softly. “Honey, you had pictures of Selena Gomez and Peyton
List on your wall when you were twelve,” she tells me. “Krisjen had Booboo
Stewart and Harry Styles. Yeah, we…kind of had an idea.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because you were twelve,” she explains. “You’re the only one who
knows who you are. We didn’t want to make assumptions. We just wanted to
let you come to us when you were ready.”
“But the showers at school,” I say. “You changed the showers at school,
because of Liv Jaeger.”
“I voted to change them, because you asked me to.”
“I did not.”
She nods. “Yeah, the end of freshman year,” she tells me. “You
complained about Olivia constantly being late to class, because she was
waiting for everyone else to finish bathing before her and something about
her not showering at all sometimes and just dowsing herself in perfume and
deodorant. People were being mean to her, making fun of her… I took that as
a hint that you felt bad for her. You kind of just spit out that separate stalls
would make your lives so much easier.”
I pause, the vague memory playing out in my head. Right. I do remember
that. I hated seeing her waiting around in her towel all alone.
“So you’re just fine with it?” I sputter. “Seriously?”
“I am now,” she replies.
I cock an eyebrow. Now?
“Well, at first,” she says, “part of me kind of hoped it wasn’t true.”
Why?
“I’m sorry to admit that.” She frowns. “But I want us to be honest with
each other. It was my initial reaction. ‘Oh my God, did I do something
wrong? Is this my fault?’” She shakes her head. “I can’t help where my mind
went, but that’s not where it is anymore, Clay. I’m glad I had time to prepare
myself, because I would’ve been ashamed to have had that reaction in front
of you.”