Ticket Outta Loserville (Trames au)

Chapter 9- James' POV

Ever since coming out to the most important people in my life (my mum, my sister and my best friend), I feel like a different person. It's like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I'm still not quite ready to tell my dad, but I'm getting there. Though I do have a free period first, and I'm going to go and tell the coach. He likes me and I'm sure he wants me to be happy, but I'm still slightly nervous. 

I come into form with a smile on my face, and the teacher notices. "You look happy Mr McVey." he comments. "Something nice happened to you?"

I shrug. "Not as such. I'm just in a good mood." I see Tristan pull a face when I say that- I don't get that kid. He's so weird, I try to avoid him because he annoys me, but I try not to be too horrible to him- I'm not an awful person. 

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile." Tristan smirks as I sit down.

"That's because I don't do it when you're around." I retort, earning a ripple of laughter. I'm sitting quietly minding my own business when I feel a pair of arms wrap around me from behind, hugging me loosely.

"Hey." Alex says. "You ok?"

I smile. "Yeah, I'm good." 

"Good." says Alex, then heads off to his own seat when the teacher gives him a death glare. I'm really glad that Alex was totally cool with me being gay, despite the amount of crying I did, and it means a lot that he wanted to check I was ok.

Unfortunately, I seem to be the only person who's free, so I have to go and talk to the coach all by myself. When I get there, I knock on the door out of politeness, but I can see he's in there. "Come in!" Coach Smith calls without looking up.

"Uh, hi." I say nervously.

He smiles at me. "Hi James, take a seat. What's up?"

I've never felt this shy in front of him before, he knows me inside out, but suddenly a wave of nerves sweeps over me. "I need to talk to you." I say, staring down at my lap. 

"Sure." says Coach Smith, smiling, but then a look of horror crosses his face "Wait, you aren't quitting are you?"

"No!" I say, sounding both shocked and appalled- there's no way I'd quit the football team, I'm the captain, and I love it. 

"Phew." says the coach. "Right, what did you want to say?"

I'm fiddling with my hands under the desk as I'm so nervous, and all the words fall out at once. "Alex knows and my mum and sister know and they're all cool with it but I wanted to tell you." 

"Go on." says Coach Smith, though I can hear the smile in his voice. 

I still can't look up, but I manage to blurt out "I wanted to tell you that... I'm gay."

"Ok." Coach says. "That's cool."

"You're alright with I?" I ask, still staring at my lap. 

"Course I am." he says. I smile, looking up to see him standing in front of me. "It doesn't bother me at all. As long as you're a good person and a team player, I couldn't care less whether you like boys or girls. I want you to be happy. Are you?"

"Yeah, I guess so." I say, smiling weakly. 

"Good, because that's what matters to me." he says. "Now come and give me a hug." I smile, going straight into his open arms. Coach Smith is kind of the like the father figure I never had, as he actually cares about me and pays attention to me. I have to smile when I hear him say "I'm proud of you."

When he lets go of me, he says "So you're still coming to training?" I nod in response. "Good. Now go out and be happy." I certainly am. I don't know if people knew I was gay before I did, as I only figured it out fairly recently, but no one seems surprised- I don't know if that's a good thing. But the most important people still love me, and what's important.

I'm im one of those moods where nothing can bring me down, not even the rest of the school day. I'm in such a good mood, I can probably even deal with Tristan without wanting to punch him- I do try to be nice to him, but it's much harder than it sounds. I'm so happy I have a smile on my face as I walk through the school, and almost everyone I pass gives me a smile back or does a double take. It's a nice feeling, though I guess I should be offended that everyone is so surprised to see me smile.

The bell rings and I slink into English on time for once. When Tristan arrives, he looks shocked to see that I got his folder because I'm in such a good mood. "What's gotten into you?" he asks.

I shrug as I did earlier. "I'm just happy. You should try it sometime." Surprisingly, in the lesson we strike up a pleasant conversation, and I find that he's actually quite funny. And as weird as it sounds, I'm almost disappointed when he leaves without saying goodbye. Having said that, I don't let it get me down- nothing can remove me from this sense of true happiness.

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I hope you're all as happy as James is here 😀 You know what would make me happy? You lovely people voting and commenting 😉

This will be the last update for a week or so because I'm going to New York on Friday 🎉 It's hopefully going to be great, I'll see if I can get some pictures up.