The Elephant of Surprise (The Russel Middlebrook Series Book 4) by Brent Hartinger

between classes, Gunnar pulled me into an alcove in the school hallway.
    "So," he said. "I've learned some interesting things about Kevin."
    "What?" I said.
    "Kevin? You know, the guy you used to date? The one you asked me to spy on?"
    "Gunnar! I didn't ask you to spy on him!" Okay, maybe I had. But he didn't need to put it exactly like that, especially not where someone—Kevin! or Min—could overhear. I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. I don't care about Kevin anymore." I didn't care. Wade was the new guy in my life—or at least I hoped he would be.
    "You don't care about Kevin?" Gunnar said. "Last weekend, you cared—you cared a lot. What changed between last weekend and today?"
    I still wasn't ready to tell Gunnar about Wade. So instead, I said, "Nothing. I just changed my mind."
    "That's too bad, because I've learned some interesting stuff."
    "That's great. But like I said, I don't think I want to know it. Gunnar, I'm really sorry I got you involved, and I'm really impressed you took it so seriously, but it was a mistake."
    "I took some photos too."
    "Photos?" This was so like Gunnar—I should've known he would have gotten obsessed. I was an absolute fool to have gone to him with a favor like this. "Like I said, that's great. But it was wrong to ask you. So let's just pretend that I never—"
    He started flipping through the photos on his phone, all the ones he'd taken of Kevin earlier in the week. Right away, he came to a shot taken of someone standing in the shower in the school locker room. I couldn't be absolutely sure it was Kevin, because he was facing away. But—how do I put this delicately? It looked a lot like Kevin, especially his ass (which is terrific, if you must know).
    "Gunnar!" I said, horrified. I pulled him and the phone close to make sure no one else could see its face.
    "What?" he said casually.
    "You took pictures of Kevin in the shower?" But even now, and as embarrassing as this is to admit, I didn't look away from the photo. I'd totally forgotten what an amazing ass Kevin had (okay, not really).
    "Why not?" he said. I knew that Gunnar wasn't turned on by the pictures. As long as I'd known him, I'd been certain he was completely, totally straight. For him, secretly observing Kevin had just been another project.
    "Well, for one thing, it's illegal!" I said. "For about ten different reasons! And it's total invasion of his privacy! What if you lost your phone? What if you accidentally emailed or texted these photos to someone?"
    Gunnar scrolled one picture over. It was another shot of Kevin in the shower, but this time Kevin had turned around. He was shampooing his hair, so he clearly didn't see Gunnar. But the picture itself was full-frontal. And as amazing as Kevin looked from behind, he looked even better from the front.
    " Gunnar! " I said, even more horrified than before. "Delete these right now."
    Yes, yes, even now, I wasn't looking away. And there were people passing in the hallway not five feet away.
    " Right now?" Gunnar said, simpering. He was toying with me. But even now, even after Gunnar had totally busted me for staring at these pictures that I was hypocritically insisting he delete, I couldn't look away.
    "I just learned some things about Kevin that I think you should hear," he said.
    "Okay, okay!" I said. "I'll listen! But first delete these pictures."
    "Are you sure ?"
    "Yes, I'm sure! Do it now!" I reached for the phone to delete them myself, but he dodged my grip.
    "You don't want me to email you copies?"
    " Gunnar! "
    "Okay, okay!" His mouth was a vortex of smirks and grins, but I watched as he deleted the naked photos.
    It was only after he was done that I realized how hard my blood was pumping. (And yes, the truth is I totally did wish he had emailed me copies first.)
    "Well, it was a little surprising," he said.
    "What was?" I said.
    "Kevin."
    "What?"
    "I'm telling you what I learned about Kevin." I must have looked at him blankly, because he added,