Tense

Chapter Fourteen

"Hey man, can I speak with you real quick?"

Roan turned away from his locker to look at Landon, the captain of the basketball team. The two weren't exactly friends, but they shared a few classes and were acquaintances.

"What's up?" Roan asked as he furrowed his brows.

"I spoke to the coach about Sean, and what happened," Landon paused, "I didn't say anything about a physical fight breaking out, don't worry, even though I know he figured it out because of the bruises and all but—"

"But it happened outside school." Roan nodded.

"Exactly, so he can't do anything about that, except mouth us off which he did." Landon let out a dry laugh.

"Alright. So?" Roan urged Landon to continue. He somewhat knew what the conversation was going to be about. He had heard rumours all day that Sean had been kicked out of the team, but he wasn't sure.

"I told Coach what Sean said and he kicked him out of the team," Landon comfirmed the rumours, "I just wanted to say I'm sorry on his behalf."

"He's responsible for his words and actions, not you." Roan said.

"But I am the captain so it's my responsibility to keep my players in check, and I failed at that," Landon said, "Especially because I've known about his.. opinions for a while and I didn't do anything earlier."

"You knew?" Roan asked and Landon nodded.

"He has said shit before too," Landon paused, "I should've dealt with it then but I just kept ignoring the matter. Till now. I just thought.. I realised there might be a player, or players even, in the closet and I didn't want the team to be a hostile environment for them."

"Better late than never." Roan said.

"You know Cole?" Landon asked and Roan nodded. Cole was in his team, the one dating Kingsley, "He's, uh, he's my cousin actually."

"I didn't know that." Roan said.

"Not many do," Landon replied, "Don't.. Don't mention this to him but remember when you fought that senior a couple years back? What was his name? Dennis? When he said shit about you and your moms?"

"Of course I remember, I was there." Roan joked with a straight face.

"That helped Cole come out, actually. That and when you dated some guy just a week after the fight," Landon's lips turned up into a small smile, "He said that if Roan MacElroy can love boys openly, then so can he."

"That's.." Roan paused, surprised, "I don't know what to say."

"What I mean is that you're a cool guy. And that you being open and proud about who are can be inspirational to younger kids that look up to you." Landon said.

"I never thought of it that way." Roan admitted and Landon just shrugged. The bell rang, and the basketball player awkwardly patted the blonde's shoulder before walking away.

~~~

"Mr. Royce fucked me over in the assignment. A fucking C? Now I'll need to figure out how to get some extra credits." Kai sighed as he leaned against the desk. The two boys were currently in an empty classroom in the west wing of the school that was closed temporarily for construction.

"Did you talk to him about it?" Roan asked.

"Not yet, I'll go over the papers today and then talk to him about it tomorrow." Kai answered.