rivals in the sheets

chapter twenty-four

"Listen, can we talk?" Lucas blurted out right as Ethan leaned down to tie his shoelaces. "You don't have to be an asshole to me now, just because I didn't want to make out with you."

Ethan looked around the changing room to make sure everybody was gone. Sure, the guys on the team weren't self-righteous homophobes, but he didn't exactly want to announce his newfound interest in men to the entire school.

"That's not why I'm pissed off, Hamilton, I'm pissed off because you kissed me, and now you're acting as if I did something, and as if that weren't enough, you started to ignore me when I tried to fix things."

"I'm sorry, okay, I panicked and I was at a loss for words. I don't know how to deal with shit like this, alright?"

"So what you're saying is, you were confused and needed more time," tried Ethan using every possibility to give Lucas the opportunity to apologize or at least properly explain his feelings.

"I guess," muttered Lucas, his eyes doing everything except looking Ethan in the eyes. "I don't know, I still don't know how I feel about it, and the way you reacted right after confused me."

"What did I do that confused you so much?"

Lucas looked right at him, then, and said, "You weren't angry."

He sounded so incredibly surprised that Ethan didn't go off and get mad at him, and it just made Ethan question what he appeared like in the eyes of other people.

"What, did you expect me to be angry about a kiss?"

That remark genuinely seemed to confuse Lucas even more. He seemed to be more comfortable with the idea of Ethan being mad at him about the kiss than not minding at all.

"Emmerson, you hate me." It sounded more like a way for Lucas to reassure himself of that than an actual statement.

"You can be extremely unlikeable, and I have to say that I really did dislike you at some points, but I guess that was because I have my own issues."

"Is this your way of admitting to me that you've got severe issues?" laughed Hamilton, but it was more than obvious that he was just trying to move the conversation on to something else. Fighting would always be easier than just telling the truth.

"Fuck off, Hamilton. I'm trying to give you a chance to explain why the hell you did what you did, then refused to talk to me for a couple of days, and now you act like I'm in the wrong for some reason?"

"What am I supposed to say?"

"I don't know, I was hoping you could explain what you felt, mostly because that would be incredibly helpful."

Ethan truly didn't want to confuse Lucas, but he wanted explanations. He wanted Hamilton to explain for once and for all what he wanted the two of them to do, but it looked as if it would be impossible to get him to do that.

"I'm not good at talking about feelings and all that stuff."

Ethan just let out a sigh. He should have known that this conversation wouldn't actually lead to anything, not when both of them were unable to admit that they were wrong. "This doesn't help me at all. I'm still just as confused as I was before."

Hamilton grabbed Ethan by the pads, pulled him closer, and slammed his lips against Ethan's. The kiss lasted only for a moment, and he quickly pulled away, a hesitant smile on his face. "Is that better?"

Even though he was confused, and knew that this would most likely affect his concentration on the game. But the truth was, the kiss really did help.

At least now he knew that interest was somewhat mutual.