Fake: The Scarab Beetle Series: #3 (The Academy) by C. L. Stone Page A

been kidnapped, and while I wanted to hug Marc and the others, I didn’t, because hugging wasn’t what I did. I wanted to appear brave, to look like I was unshakable.
    But on the inside, I wasn’t. I needed something from someone else. I needed to feel grounded somehow. It was hard to describe and telling the others what I needed felt impossible.
    And yet I had the feeling if I told one of them I simply needed a hug, or a kiss, they’d do it in a heartbeat.
    Why was that so? It felt like a selfish thing, what I wanted from them. I wanted them to feel things for me, even though I had no right to. But I wanted all of them in different ways. In some cases, in very close, intense ways. But if they knew what I was feeling—that I couldn’t decide between them—they’d call me out on it.
    “I don’t want to talk about this right now,” I said sharply, trying to make it clear that I hated this. “I want to find Brandon and then...”
    “How long do you think I’ll wait?” he asked.
    My hands clenched into fists and I stared through my hair at the fountain. My first instinct was to tell him to not wait, and yet I was biting my tongue hard to stop myself. Again, selfish. I didn’t want him to hate me, but I didn’t want him too close to me when I was so conflicted with the others. I couldn’t tell him about it, because he wouldn’t understand.
    He stepped around until he was in front of me and I got an up close look at his chest in the dark jacket. “It’s the others,” he said. “You’re trying to avoid a sticky situation by keeping us all at a distance.”
    I made a face and then shook my head. It was like he could read my mind. “How do you know?” I asked.
    “We’ve had this discussion, about the others getting close to you. At first I thought the last couple of weeks was about separating yourself from the other guys. I know a few of the others have a crush on you, or more than that. Corey’s someone you feel safe with for some reason, because he’s too much of a nice guy to make a move. I understood you wanted time to try to sort it out, but I think you’re making it worse. And I don’t like waiting.”
    My jaw dropped and I accidentally sucked in air at the same time, catching some hair into my mouth. I spit to get it back out again and clawed it away from my face.
    “Stop,” he said. “I’m almost done.”
    “Stop talking like you know everything.”
    “I didn’t know for sure until now.”
    I groaned. He did that to me before, too. He knew just how to push my buttons to get the answers he wanted. He might have picked up some hints from the other guys, and I’d given away that the other guys were getting close, but he wasn’t sure how close before until just now when he bluffed me out. Was it obvious that I avoided the other guys except for Corey?
    Did he know Corey was gay? I couldn’t remember if Brandon mentioned if the other guys knew for sure. He did feel safe, because I could talk to him and hang out with him, and sleep in his bed without feeling weird.
    Except last night, when Brandon took his place. Had he done that before and I didn’t realize it because it was dark and I couldn’t tell the difference if I couldn’t see their eyes? Brandon was simply there. I’d snuggled into him, assuming it was Corey. I wasn’t sure if Brandon was being deceptive before, or if he just assumed he could and didn’t realize I hadn’t picked out it was him.
    Either way, they didn’t need to know about this. “Don’t tell the other guys.”
    “You can’t hide forever. We’ve talked about this.”
    I didn’t know how to react to this, because I didn’t know the answer to the problem now any more than I did the last time he brought it up. Marc, Brandon, Raven and Axel were single, and they were interested in me, and there was only one of me. There were several reasons not to pick at all. Part of that was because if I picked wrong, and it didn’t work out, I’d lose out on all of