Double Flip

Chapter 6

Chapter 6Just about two hours later, up in the North Greenwich Arena nosebleed seats, internet tabloid blogger Kale Tomleton, who called himself Kale Omlet for some insipid reason only he understood, waited for the athletes to enter for day one of competition in his favorite event. Known as Great Britain’s Guru of Gossip, at least in his own mind, Omlet treated visitors to his blog to journalistic gems like the ever-expanding circumference of Prince William’s bald spot and the declining beauty of a certain movie star’s dates as he aged. Omlet’s favorite thing of all was outing studly celebrities as gay. In the Parade of Nations, there had to be dozens of them, Omlet figured. He was determined to expose at least one, hopefully one people had heard of. Unfortunately, Phelps was as hetero as they came, but there had to be someone whom Europe, and hopefully the US—Kale Omlet dreamt of international notoriety—would flip over being outed.

Despite the way Ben Thornton and Kat Mischen had laughed and hung all over each other like lovers at the opening ceremonies, Omlet wondered if sexy Ben might be doing s****l things in private with the bloke he’d been straddling.

That would make a good story.

Innuendo brought in readers, and Omlet would print just about anything that wouldn’t get him sued. Still, proof—the photographic kind—attracted the most readers. The picture before him, though way too tame to draw a million followers, the number Omlet hoped to be up to by the end of the Games, might be worth a million words, he thought. The photo of Ben Thornton up on Richie Stoker’s shoulders appeared in newspapers worldwide. No publication intimated the two might be lovers. That wouldn’t stop Kale Omlet from doing it.