Leo
Devon’s ignoring me. He just started pulling away from me. What did I do wrong? It must’ve been when I grabbed his hand. I should’ve known better. Not every gay guy has a crush on the first gay boy they meet! Uggh why am I so stupid?! So I sat with the only people who would let me, David. Him and his friends are loud, Obnoxious, and inappropriate. Always wondering which girl had a crush on them and who they wanted to date that week. It’s disgusting, the girls aren’t animals you can trade, but I go along with it pretending I’m straight. I don’t have anything against girls I’m just not attracted to them.
“So what girl do you like?” David asked me.
“Rose M.” I reply half-heartedly.
“Dude she’s hot. You got good taste.” One of David’s friends tells me giving me a fist bump. I’m trying not to puke.
“Thanks.” I say.
“So did you figure out that the gay wasn’t worth your time?” David asks casually.
“Yeah.” I say. Followed by, you could say that, in my head.
“Good, see you in math.” David replies cheerfully as the bell rings.
“See ya.” I grumble, at least I don’t sit next to you I thought.
“Class we’ll be switching seats today, please gather your stuff and stand in the back.” Mrs. Clausnitzer says.
When she finally calls my name I’m sitting in the back, next to David. I jinxed it! He smiles at me kindly, clearly excited. “I asked her if we could sit together as long as we do our work and she said yes!” David whisper-shouted at me.
“Great!” I say with false enthusiasm, grinding my teeth together.
“I know right! Now you can help me with my homework! I kinda suck at math.” David said bashfully.
“Yeah, that sounds like fun.” I say genuinely. I’m okay at math so I could definitely help David with his homework. But, this soft, quiet, and gentle side of David I hadn’t seen or been permitted to see yet and I wanted to figure him out and why he was so mean to Devon. “Only if you tell me why you’re so mean to Devon.” I say with a joking tone but I know my face is deadly serious.
“Okay that’s fair, I’ll tell you later today if you want to come over and do homework.” He said looking hopeful.
“I can’t today, what about tomorrow?” I ask trying to find out a time that worked for both of us.
“Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll tell my dad so he’ll leave us alone.” He said grinning.
“Yeah, I’d like that.” I say smiling back at him.
After school my brother Oliver and I had a soccer game against Pendleton and they play dirty, always elbowing, shoving, tripping, tackling, and holding. I help coach them. Oliver’s in eighth grade so it’s easy for me to help out their coach, coach Lindmen who goes by coach, could use all the help he could get so I help. Plus it’s fun seeing my brother try and love doing something. “Okay boys circle up. We’ve played them before, Marcus you stick to 10 when he’s down by the goal. Peter go to the left hand corner of Pendleton’s goal for when Marcus sends the ball to you so you can get a clean shot. Got it?”
“Got it coach!” Marcus and Peter chorus back. They decided to start calling me coach when I began to help out coach Lindmen ,who had to teach the seventh graders how to help, and practically became in charge of the eighth grade team. Coach Lindmen is figuring out which fields are which. “Also this is just for fun, it’s okay if we don’t win, but it’s not okay if we don’t try.” I told them.
“Yes coach.” A chorus of voices respond, but Oliver’s is the loudest.
At half time I notice Oliver is limping, favoring his left leg. “Oli, you okay?” I ask running over.
“No, I got tripped and someone stomped on my calf.” He said grimacing.
“Okay, sit out for now. Andrew, sub in for Oliver.”
“Yes coach!” Andrew says immediately.
They ended up winning the game 8-6, but Oliver was still walking with a limp, and they had another game in two hours after the two high school games finished. I play middle defender.
“Will you be okay to play in the next game?” I ask Oli.
“I will be. I just need to massage the muscle a little bit.” He responds.
“Okay, I have to go warm up I’ll be on filed four when you’re ready.” I tell him.
I won both of my games 4-3. We played Pendleton first and then we played Burns second. True to his word Oliver sprung back into his game making the winning shot. He won his game against Pendleton 3-2. After we got home I had to make a really late dinner since it was already 9:45 p.m. Mom had amlate shift at her job so it was just me and Oli. After that I just hung out in my room listening to MISSIO. My phone rang and I looked at the caller ID but it just said unknown so I answered and to my surprise it was David asking if I wanted a ride to his house tomorrow. Which I agreed to readily enough. Then we went over the math homework and said goodbye.
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