Boyfriend Shirt

Chapter 7

Keegan's POV

"Jones! Move that cone ten feet to the left! I said left, boy! My left!"

I sighed, pulling the large cone over to the spot the coach had pointed at. He nodded and I walked back over to him, tripping on Nick's foot in the process. I stood silently as he snickered, sulking back to the coach. "Saw you trip out there, huh? Good thing this isn't an actual game, Jones. Would've had to take you out." Too bad I hate football.

Honestly, I know the school loves football, but nobody is as crazy about it as the coach. If I so much as looked at Nick wrong in the coach's presence, I got detention. There's no way he'd believe me if I accused Nick of bullying.

Christian partnered up with Nick at the coach's request, leaving Benjamin without a partner. He was peeved, to say the least. Great. Another reason for him to hate and bully me. But then, when was luck ever on my side?

The practices went on, everyone else actually being good at football to some extent, in addition to having the intelligence to not getting hit by a ball. The coach sat next to me, pointing out different improvements everyone but the football team could make. "Watch Jessica, see how her hand is in the wrong place. Look at how Macy throws it without stretching out her arm. See how Justin doesn't aim? Mark's posture is all wrong."

Talk about a perfectionist.

When it was over, I finally trudged to my next and final class. There was no homeroom, so my schedule went like this:

1st period: History with Nick
2nd period: Geometry with Tom
3rd period: Chemistry with Nick
4th period: English with Christian
Lunch: Free-for-all
5th period: Spanish with Nick
6th period: Gym with Christian
7th period: Art with Benny

My luck really needs a lesson in what is good and what is bad. And how or why Nick is taking Civics is beyond me. Either way, it doesn't help that we happen to be partnered up in many occasions.

Overall, the other football lackies aren't bad, but they aren't good. Tom's a good guy, when he's not with Nick, but he doesn't really think before he says stuff. Once asked me why I was in his class and not back in middle school. He apologized afterwards, but still. Being the laughing stock of the class was hard to live down at the time. After being the laughing stock of the school, however, really makes me long for my first year of high school, when nobody knew I was gay and hate football.

Benny - who continued to glare daggers at me - has a temper. He really doesn't like things not going his way, and will fight to get them. That's mainly why he joined the football team. He makes for great defense, as far as I've heard. Not someone I'd like to cross paths with, so I have failingly distanced myself from him. From the look he had, I knew things weren't going to go well next period.

Luckily, I didn't need to change, and I was able to get to art first. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, we share a table.

---

As I had predicted, things did not go well.

The exact same thought came to me while I sat, covered in paint. Benny sneered down at me, and the rest of the class either sat, frozen like me, or tried hard not to laugh. The teacher chose the latter, his smile a little more obvious than others.

"Serves you right," said Benny. "It's your fault I got stuck on cleaning duty because I had no partner." Several murmurs of agreement echoed out. I looked at him, unfazed. "Actually," I said. "If you want to blame someone, blame Christian. Isn't it his fault for hitting me with the ball?"

"You didn't catch it!"

"When it was aimed for my face?"

"Well... He was just trying to do what the coach asked!"

"So was I. I threw it, but I didn't try to chuck it as hard as I could at Christian's face."

The room was silent, everyone waiting for Benny's response. He looked at the paint in his hand, looked back at me, scowled, and left. Everyone seemed to realize I had won the argument. They went back to painting, while I went to my locker to change. After two years of high school, I've learned something; always pack spare clothes, and a spare for your spare.

I also learned something else. How was I able to talk back to everyone on the football team, except Christian? I mean, Nick is no problem. I can easily retort. But with Christian, I freeze up. I can't speak. I can only stare into his deep brown eyes, my heart racing and my cheeks flushing as I-

Wait. Did I really just think that? No. I can't. I couldn't be. Am I... in love with Christian? No way. Love and Christian do not go together. He hates me, remember? But, still... No. I shook my head, not wanting to think about it. I cannot be in love. It's an impossibility... Right?

---

There was only one problem when it came to Josh being home; I had to hide my face when I came home from school. He was overly suspicious of this, but I managed to brush him off. And I was glad I did. As I hid in the bathroom, the mirror reflected my face, deeply red and flushed, my eyes wide and my lips parted.

The thought of my feelings towards Christian were still fresh in my mind, causing me to groan. One of my biggest bullies, and I'm in love with him?! Well, he never actually... Physically hurt me... But, I still can't be in love. There's no way anyone would accept that. After all, half the school is after him.

I groaned. There's no way I'm going to tell him about this. He probably already knows I'm gay, but that doesn't mean he accepts it. What would Nick think? If I suddenly started hanging around him. What would the school think? I'm not sure, but I know it won't end well.

They'll either think I'm trying to mess with his head and ruin his game, or I'm trying to make him quit the team completely. Either way, they'll hate me and probably beat me up. That's why I have to get rid of these feelings as soon as possible​, before Nick or Benny find out. Or, even worse, Christian.