BLUE [BXB]

TWO

For about five agonizing, terrifying seconds, everybody stared at him like fish straight out of water.

Then, out of nowhere, Luke screamed, "YES, BABY! YOU GO, ETHAN!"

Just like that, the cafeteria erupted in screams of encouragement.

Ethan made a mental note to thank Luke. God, what a man. He smiled broadly, turning to face the principle whose face had noticeably paled.

"Something wrong, Mrs. Longwood?" He taunted, enjoying her misery more than a sane person should've.

She snarled. "Enough! That is enough!" she all but spit into the poor microphone. "The bell's about to ring. Everybody, compose yourselves!"

"I hate you," Mason said to his best friend when he plopped back down next to him, beaming. "Only Ethan Gray can come out as gay and have the whole school accept it."

"Accept it? Man, they love it," Ethan corrected, his eyes wandering to the girls staring at him with newfound interest. He cheekily winked at them, and they giggled collectively.

"I hate you," Mason repeated, glowering at him, making the other boy grin in response.

Ethan wasn't going to lie to himself, there were a bunch of people who were glaring at him, some who were frozen in shock, and even some who looked disgusted. But, for the most part, it wasn't half-bad.

   Not nearly as bad as he'd been expecting.

***

   As Coach blew his whistle for the final time that day, the boys on the field all let out a collective sigh of relief, some even collapsing dramatically on the field.

   When Ethan had become captain of the football team at the end of his Junior Year, he'd known it would come with a lot of advantages.

   For one, it would automatically make girls fawn over his mere existence. That alone, added to his boosted popularity, would shape him out as the untouchable, invincible God of James Monroe High. Girls wanted to get in his pants and guys wanted to be him. What more could he have asked for?

   Plus, as the star athlete of his high school, academics quickly became one of the last things on his—and the administration's—mind. Who cared about passing if he was going to get scouted, anyways?

   Another thing he was looking forward to during his coronation, was that he could just sit around during practice and laugh at his teammates' suffrage. Or so he thought.

   What quickly unraveled to him during the team's first practice with him as Team Captain was that, in Coach Bryant's twisted mind, being captain only gave him more incentive to work Ethan even harder than all the boys combined.

  It was really no surprise that by the time they were done, his muscles were crying in agony, twisting and threatening to give out on him before he hit the showers.

   Another thing he enjoyed about being all high and mighty was that, no matter how late he got to the locker room, he always got to shower first. It was kind of an unspoken rule, really. Even though five shower stalls lined each wall, his teammates respected—and feared—him enough to let him choose whichever stall he wanted. He always choose the second-to-last stall on the right side, and they were well aware of that, but they still never went in before he did.

   That seriously boosted his already-inflated ego.

   When he stepped out, dripping wet and a towel around his waist, he felt it.