The Boy I Love

No Sell

He comes to my match, and again I pin my opponent immediately (I think the official time is around twelve seconds, for this one). I spot him sitting with a couple other guys, all of whom are bigger than him. I wonder distantly if he's the smallest person in our weight division, then decide that it doesn't matter.

Coach Turner, again, is thrilled. So am I, though I'm secretly a little more thrilled that Leo saw. I go back to my hotel room and hop in the shower pretty much immediately, trying to tell myself that I'm not avoiding him but instead I'm just showering after a match, like I always do.

When I get out, he's not there.

I go down for dinner with the rest of my club, and Coach Turner congratulates us on a good start to the tournament- most of us are still in, excepting a few guys who I wasn't expecting to do too well anyways. My friends don't bring up Leo or how he might attack me in my sleep, which is extremely nice. I'm pretty optimistic about how lunch went- everyone seemed pretty cool with each other by the end of it, which I found myself liking quite a bit.

Then, back up to my room. When I open the door, I'm hit by a wall of steam and hot air from the bathroom's open door. It smells like the hotel shampoo, too- and I find Leo sitting on his bed, reading his book. He looks up when he hears me come in, and his hand goes to his mask, as if checking that he's pulled it down. (Unfortunately) he has.

"Back from dinner?"

"Yeah. You eaten yet?"

He nods. "And I showered. I figured I should before it got too late, so I didn't keep you up."

"Oh, don't worry about that." I sit on my bed and pull out my phone, but don't turn it on. I want to keep talking to him (in a friendly way. I want to talk to him as a friend). "I can fall asleep through anything, I promise. And it takes a lot to wake me up."

He nods a little. "Alright. Thank you. I'll keep that in mind." He looks back down at his book for a moment, before looking back up at me. "I never did get the chance to congratulate you on your win."

"Oh yeah, thanks. I guess my opponent knowing what to expect from me didn't make a huge difference," I say with a bit of a smirk. The corners of his eyes crinkle.

"Clearly. You're looking good for this tournament. One of the guys from my club said that you could win."

"I hope so. Hey, and Vick said the same thing about you, actually."

"Really? That I could win?"

"Yeah. You should have heard my friends raving after your match."

He waves me off. "It's because of the mask."

"No way. I saw you today, and the fact that you managed to avoid so many near pins was astounding. And twice in a row means it isn't a fluke."

He averts his eyes- shyly, I think. "I mean, I'm good at not losing. But does that mean I could win? Like, what about over you? You'd probably have me on the ground in ten seconds."

"But if I didn't, you'd probably get me." I avoid saying that I have no endurance. Even if I am attracted to him, he's the opposition. I can't spill all my weaknesses to him- there's a good chance I'll have to wrestle him at some point.

"Maybe."

"Man, if you weren't the opposition, I'd take you down to the practice ring right now just to see," I muse, and he smiles.

"When one of us gets eliminated, you can."

"Good point." I like that idea. Wrestling with him.

"And if neither of us gets eliminated, we'll have to wrestle each other anyways."