Free Driven Snow by Tara Lain Page A

homecoming.”
    “I’m sure he’d understand.”
    “Yes, sir. He’s a great guy. But I think maybe it’s not fair to me either. I’ve been living this lie for a long time. Maybe knowing who my real friends are before I graduate wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”
    The coach stared at the top of his desk and suddenly slapped it. “That’s a pretty well thought out line of reasoning, Riley. Go for it, son, and let’s see how much of a shitstorm it creates.”
    Riley stood and extended his hand. “Thank you, sir.” Hope that line of reasoning doesn’t bite me in the ass.
    “I guess I’ll find out tomorrow at practice how it all turns out.” Coach McMasters laughed, but it sounded kind of forced.
    On the way out, Riley stopped at the reception desk and stared at Danny sleeping on top of his magazine. Should he wake him up and tell him? Nah.
    He stopped in the cafeteria for some milk and sat out in the sun while he drank it. What he’d told the coach about why he wanted to come out now was all true, but not the whole truth. Actually, he kept noticing that Winston always hung around Snow. Plus, he’d talked a lot about Snow when he was trying to tutor Riley. Obviously Winston had the hots for Snowden. The guy might be geeky, but he was kind of cute, and they had lots in common, while Riley wasn’t in the same brain universe as Snow. If Win tried to stake a claim, who knew what Snow would do? No, Riley needed to come out, declare his interest, and try to prove he was the man for Snowden Reynaldi.
    Still, the last swig of milk tasted kind of sour going down, and every minute until his frat meeting felt like the last mile of dead man walking.
    He didn’t drag himself up the steps of the frat house until five minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start. Fighting with himself about maybe waiting until later in the semester had taken all his energy. He felt like he’d been whipped with a stick and didn’t want to go in at all.
    Inside, the guys sat on every available piece of furniture, plus three of them lay on the floor. “Hey, Prince, how ya doin’?” Weird that Roget should be the first one to say hi.
    A couple of his teammates slapped his butt as he walked by. He perched on the windowsill.
    The fraternity president, Fred Furness, called them to order. Fred managed to combine the huge strength needed to be a guard and the brains to be premed. People respected him. Still, Fred grew up in South Central LA, not far from Roget. No way of knowing how he’d react to Riley’s declaration, and that could make all the difference in the other guys’ attitude. Shit, his hands were actually sweating.
    Fred led them through old business, then launched into the new business of sprucing up the fraternity house in time for homecoming. “We’re gonna have a ton of alums here, so we need to look good, man. We want all the happy alumni support we can get for the chapter.”
    Oh damn, he hadn’t thought about how the alums might penalize the chapter for having a gay guy. So much to think about. Hell, why hadn’t he just done this when he first got to school? Chickenshit idiot.
    Fred looked around. “Okay, so if there’s no other new business, I guess we can adjourn.”
    One of the guys in back by the dining room yelled, “I’ll get the beer.”
    Riley’s hand flew up by itself.
    Fred nodded. “Yeah, Prince, you got something?”
    “Uh, yeah.”
    Bill Ruth, the tight end, slapped a hand on Riley’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, man, we’re all voting for you for homecoming king. Let’s drink.” He laughed.
    “Uh, thanks, but that’s not it.”
    “You have new business, Riley?” Fred piled up his papers.
    “Not new, exactly. I just wanted to tell you all something.” He swallowed. Jesus, he’d been a lot braver at sixteen.
    The tone of his voice must have stopped some of the guys and made them look around, because suddenly it felt like the whole room was staring and the walls were closing in.
    “Yeah.