The New Separation (Book 2)

Chapter 2

Colton

I never thought about how difficult it would be coming out to complete strangers when my boyfriend wasn't by my side. It's hard, knowing that there are people out there who will hate me just because of who I fell in love with, so I didn't like to tell people. Unless Elliot was with me. Then I didn't care. He made me too happy to care what anyone else thinks.

Except now he wasn't here. I was on my own for the first time in my entire life. I had no friends here. No family. It was just me and a bunch of strangers. Strangers who could all turn their backs against me as soon as they found out about my sexuality.

I had sort of gotten my half of my dorm room set up before it was time to meet for the first practice. My dad had left an hour ago, and, since soccer camps runs a week before the semester starts, I had no roommate yet. I wouldn't meet anyone from this school until I went to the practice.

I was terrified.

Terrified of being by myself. Terrified I wouldn't meet anyone. Terrified the people I would meet would hate me. Terrified I wouldn't be as good as everyone else and ruin my chances at ever getting anywhere with soccer professionally. Just downright, totally terrified.

"Hey! You here for soccer?" some kid called over to me while I was still trying to find my way to the field. So maybe I didn't know where I was going at all. At least I wasn't totally lost yet, and this kid found me before we were late.

I nodded. "Yeah. Do you know where we're supposed to go? 'Cause I'm not too sure."

He laughed. "Nope. I think the field's this way, though." He pointed over towards the left a bit. "You're a freshman?" he asked when we started walking in what was hopefully the right direction.

"Yep. I'm Colton."

"Nice to meet you, Colton." He smiled at me. It was a pretty nice smile. Not nearly as nice as Elliot's, but close. "I'm Alec. Also a freshman. As told by my lack of directional knowledge of this campus."

For the next few minutes while we searched out the soccer field, Alec and I talked. Not about anything in particular, just basic stuff. I found out that he's originally from this state, and is currently living in the same dorm building as me, just a floor below me. It really wasn't a very long conversation, but enough for me to start to feel like he might actually be a friend. If, of course, he accepted Elliot being a part of my life, which I don't think I'm going to tell him about just yet. And that was totally because we had just gotten to the field and had to do things, not any other reason.

The soccer team and coaches had a few different tables set up near the entrance to the field. Each table had a different section of the alphabet for what was probably check in. Naturally, I went right to the last table. I think Alec headed somewhere in the beginning, but there were so many people wandering around, it was hard to focus on anything except me right now.

I stopped in front of a kid who was probably no more than a couple years older than me. He looked up from the packet of paper he was holding and smiled at me.

"Hey! What's your name?"

"Colton Whitaker."

He only took a few seconds to find my name on that list, which he then highlighted. "You're that kid from Crest Hill, right?" he asked, looking back up. "The one we scouted?"

I nodded, slightly embarrassed. "I guess that is me."

"Awesome! We could definitely use talent like yours on the field. We're glad to have you, man."

After thanking him, he gave me instructions to head to a certain spot on the field. It looks like everyone was already put into groups, both the freshmen and the returning students all mixed together. Thankfully, Alec was in my group, so at least I kinda knew someone already. Although with the way everyone seemed to be talking to everyone else, I'd know the entire team by the end of the day.