“
Idiot,” Stefan mutters, and catches Aaron looking at him strangely for a moment, before the boy returns to his stubborn breakfast.
“So,” Aaron says, around a mouthful of dry Weetabix, “are you ready to tell me your crimes, yet?”
“Are you?”
“I feel like you’ll judge me. Will you judge me?”
“Yeah, probably,” Stefan admits.
“Hah! You really are like Raph. He judges me a lot, too, but I’m, like, seventy-to-eighty percent certain he’s knocked a bunch of women around, which is way more extreme than my thing. Except getting him to admit it is like pulling Goslafin implants out of Declan’s stomach.”
“It’s Goserelin, you fucking imbecile!” Will shouts, from the other end of the table.
“You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you?” Stefan whispers.
Aaron replies, with a finger to his lips, “Ssshhh. Watch.”
Stefan looks back over. Adam’s put a hand on Will’s wrist, to quiet him, and Will waits a second before shaking it off. Adam looks put out for a moment, but rests his hand on the table next to Will’s, just centimetres apart. Their conversation resumes.
“What do you think?” Aaron says quietly. “Closet cases? Or just really, really repressed? Adam’s from this freaky Christian sect, the New Church of Something-or-Other, and William is a truly massive wanker.”
“The idea that all homophobes are closeted gay people is just a myth,” Stefan says. “A couple of big-name arseholes getting exposed doesn’t make it a pattern.”
“Whatever. I think they want to touch dicks.” He slaps his hands against each other a few times.
“That’s not how gay men have sex, Aaron.”
“Sounds fun, though, right?” Aaron says, grinning, and then adds, “Boarding school,” by way of explanation, and shovels more dry Weetabix into his mouth.
“Why haven’t you put milk on? Wouldn’t it make it easier to eat?”
“It’s oat milk. And this is Weetabix. I won’t pour oats onto oats. It’s perverse!”
“Weetabix is made of wheat, Aaron. It’s in the name. There’s even an oat version. Called Oatibix.”
“Oh. Never mind, then. Don’t tell Will I said that.”
“I heard, idiot,” Will says.
”
”