For a second, I wished I’d brought Sean. Just seeing him with me would have done half the explaining. As it was, I wasn’t sure how to start.
Tray glanced up. I must have looked weird, just standing there like a statue. He said, “Hey, Bubba. You ran out of here early.”
“Yeah. I went to breakfast.”
“Oh. You want to help us plan flag plays?”
“No. I’ve got something I want to tell you.”
He pointed at himself. “Just me?” He started to get up.
I held up my hands. “No. Everybody.”
DeWan and Rex looked at me curiously, and Rand quit typing on his computer and gave me a glance. Pizazz didn’t wake up, and the freshmen kept playing, but I had the attention of the big guns.
“So, um, I thought I should tell you before somebody else does that I’m dating—” My voice cracked and I had to swallow, which kind of ruined my cool effect, but anyway. “—a Poin. Uh, I’m dating Sean.”
The freshmen stopped playing, and for a second, the only sound in the room was Pizazz softly snoring. Then Tray said, looking confused, “Sean? As in Hedgehog? That guy?”
“Yeah.” Nobody said anything, so I just waved a hand. “So that was all.” I headed for the steps.
“What the fuck?” DeWan waved an arm. “After all the girls I’ve seen you try to shag, you’re telling me suddenly you’re into guys?”
I opened my mouth to answer—
“Wait, wait, wait.” It was Rand’s cool, smooth voice. I turned back. He cocked his head. “What’s the deal? Are you gay or bi or what?”
Since he was gay, Rand could ask that without it being super threatening, but it was still the first time somebody had asked me that straight off. “I just figured out a little while ago that I’m bi.” I shook my head. “I wasn’t lying to you guys or anything, Rand. I didn’t know. Honest.”
He gazed at me levelly with those blue eyes like some freaking movie star and said, “That can happen, especially when you’re bisexual. Since you can be attracted to both genders, you assume you’re oriented toward the first gender you find appealing.”
Rex crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back on the couch. “Nah. It’s a fucking trend, is what it is. There’s a run on Poin meat.”
I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Rand said, “Jesse’s with Dobbs. He called me last night to give me a head’s up.” His lip curled like he smelled something bad. “Christ. I don’t care if you guys want to fuck unicorns. But does it have to be Poins?”
“Jesse and Dobbs?” My eyes about bugged from my head.
“Poins!” Tray huffed. “You’re even worse than that. I mean, Dustin’s decent. And, hate to say it, even Dobbs has a certain geeky coolness factor. But Sean? The guy’s, like, ninety pounds soaking wet, Bubba. What the fuck? I don’t get it.”
I knew Tray wasn’t Sean’s biggest fan because he was worried about his flag-football team. But no one was gonna talk bad about Sean around me. My fists clenched at my sides.
“He weighs one twenty at the gym, and every pound of that is a hella lot smarter than you, so you might wanna take that back.” My voice shook.
Tray’s eyes got wide.
Rand held up a hand, as if to stop me, even though I hadn’t moved. He looked at Tray and said, “Blackstone—suffice it to say your opinion isn’t exactly expert since you’re not gay. As it happens, Sean cleans up pretty well.”
It was my turn to get wide-eyed. Rand thought Sean was cute?
Pizazz blinked. Apparently, he’d joined the conversation. “He’s got nice hair. That whole red thing. I mean, redheads do it for me. In girls, that is.”
“Good hair,” agreed Rex.
Everyone else in the room reluctantly agreed that Sean had nice hair.
I stared at them, wondering what the fuck was happening. But sometimes it was wiser not to try to understand things. “Okay then. See you at practice.” I turned and trotted up the stairs to my room. My heart was still beating in my ears like a drum, but I’d gotten through it. I snorted. Even though I hadn’t exactly known I was in the closet, I was now on the other side of coming out.
A half hour later, dressed in sweats and long underwear, I trotted onto the flag practice field. On the far side of the field, a group of guys who I didn’t know were throwing a football around, but they weren’t in our way, so nothing to complain about.
As usual, Sean was practicing with Dustin when I arrived. I watched Dustin lob a ball that sailed straight over Sean’s head. DeWan, who was trotting by me, saw it too and huffed, “Pansy-assed Poin!”
I bit my tongue and ran to Sean. He gave me a smile that looked pretty worried, but I figured I’d give DeWan something to really complain about. I picked up Sean and gave him a spin. He laughed as I put him back on the ground, and said, “I gather you haven’t been run out of ALA on a rail?”
“Nope, and even if I had, I’d be happy.” That wasn’t one hundred percent true since I did love living in the ALA house and really liked my brothers, but hell, I’d gotten this far on my own, and now I had Sean to help me.
Dustin jogged over. “Hey, I hear you guys are an item. Congrats.”
“Thanks.” I shot a look at DeWan and Rex who were glowering at us. I raised my voice. “I really appreciate you being nice about it.”
Tray called us all over, divided us into teams, and handed out the flags. As he gave me two blue flag belts, he snarked. “I’d say you two are definitely playing for the same team.”
For a second, I stared at him, but then he laughed and gave me a slap on the shoulder.
We started playing, and Sean wasn’t really on. He missed a pass and tried to grab Rex’s flag as he carried the ball, missed, and wound up on his face. Rex laughed.
During a short water break, I trotted over. “You okay?”
Sean frowned. “I wish everyone would stop asking me that.”
“Okay. You just seem a little off your feed.”
The crease between his eyebrows deepened. “I’m aware. Your concern only makes me more self-conscious.”
I backed off and play resumed. Even though nobody threw anything to Sean, he managed to trip over his own feet one time. Poor guy was definitely having a bad day, and the dirty looks from DeWan, Rex, and Tray weren’t helping him. I wanted to tell them to knock it off, but if I said something to them, it would only embarrass Sean more.
We were coming up on the sixty-minute mark and everybody was kind of winded and tired. Dustin threw a pass, and it went wild, straight to the far end of the field where Sean was. Sean looked up, saw the ball arcing toward him, and ran backward to catch it. The ball came down and landed right in Sean’s hands. For a second, he had a really happy smile, but then he overbalanced and started staggering out of bounds. The guys who’d been practicing over there had stopped to watch the ball, and Sean plowed right into the biggest guy.
Even from that distance, I could hear the dude snarl, “Get the fuck off me, fag!” The asshole must have seen me hug him. He pushed Sean toward one of the other guys, who barked, “Ewww, fag,” and shoved Sean on to the next guy.