Tense

Chapter Thirteen

30 minutes ago

"I don't know why everybody's so fucking hyped for football," Sean said as he took a sip from his beer, "Kingsley threw no damn party when we won the state championship last year."

"His boyfriend is on the football team." Pete commented.

"Boyfriend? There's another one of them in the team?" Sean scoffed.

"Man, I don't think you should—"

"Come on, you know about their captain, right?" Sean's face scrunched up, "Roan fucking pansy MacElroy."

"Dude come on, he's actually a very—"

"Big fucking pussy," Sean rolled his eyes, "I'm not homophobic or anything but I don't want no fucker staring at me in the locker room. I'd be too fucking worried watching my ass the whole time to be able to play or take a shower after a game."

"Sean, that's not cool man." Pete frowned, and the other players looked uncomfortable too but didn't speak up.

"What's not cool? If I want to I'll call Roan MacElroy a pussy or a cock loving fa—"

"What the fuck did you just say?" Kai yelled.

~~~

"What happened?" Roan said as he crossed his arms against his chest. Scott was standing next to him awkwardly, while Kai, Parker, and Marco were sitting on the edge of the bed with ice packs pressed against their bruises.

"They were talking smack." Kai answered, not meeting Roan's eyes.

"About?" Roan asked. When no one said anything, he moved to the next question, "Who threw the first punch?"

"Me." Kai admitted.

Roan frowned. Never in his life had Kai gotten into a fight. A physical one, especially. He had always been too much of a goody two shoes to do that. So if he not only had a fight, but threw the first punch then it must've been over something substantial. That, or it was the alcohol in his system reacting. Roan really hoped the latter wasn't the case.

"You three," Roan looked at everyone apart from Kai, "Out of the room."

They all nodded as they left the room with downcast eyes, as if sad and embarrassed that their captain was upset with them. Once they were out of the room, closing it shut behind them, Roan went and sat next to his best friend who was still not meeting his eyes.

"What happened, Kai? You never get into fights. Let alone start one." Roan spoke softly.

"Sean was just talking smack, okay? And I had enough of it." Kai replied.

"What did he say?" Roan frowned, and Kai just shrugged in response, "Tell me."

"Just about the team and all." Kai licked his lower lip.

Roan's frown deepened. He knew that his best friend was lying to him, but he couldn't figure out why. Why couldn't he just tell him the truth? Did he not trust him enough to understand? Roan tried to get the answers out of Kai a couple more times, but the brunette didn't budge.

"Let's go home," Roan said finally and Kai nodded as the two got up. As they stepped out the front door, Roan grabbed Kai's arm to stop him. He handed the boy his car keys, "Go wait in the car. I forgot to tell Alex what happened. They must be worried."

Kai nodded wordlessly as he walked to Roan's car. Once Roan saw Kai get into the passenger seat, he went back inside. He searched the halls, trying to find the person he was looking for, till he found him in the kitchen.