your beauty never ever scared me.

chapter twelve

(tw ; minor homophobia)

vance's pov

since the start of bruce and finney's practice me and robin had no idea what was going on. the only thing i picked up on was finney throwing the ball and bruce swinging at it so me and robin talked it over and came to the conclusion that baseball is the dumbest sport we've ever seen due to the fact that we have absolutely no knowledge of it. it fried our brains just watching it and hearing the couch yell out all these unknown terms and phrases so we were happy it ended.

finney and bruce came up to us after the practice during the break time before they go and get changed. i smiled at bruce as he came over , admiring the justice his baseball uniform gave his figure. bruce had a good build , he wasn't too skinny but he wasn't too bulky either. finney and robin were talking just a few feet away from where me and bruce were.

" you did good , i think. i don't really know how this ball game works. " i said to him. he smiled as he looked up at me squinting underneath his baseball hat. " thanks , i'll teach you sometime how about that? " he responds and playfully pats my arm. " whatever you want sunshine. " i say smiling at him. i'd do anything to make him happy and if that means learning how to hit a ball with a bat , i'll do it.

he just smiled back and steps closer to me before putting his arms around my torso and holds my tightly. i laugh a little at the sudden action but wrap my arms around him and hold him close in return. " what's this for? never had someone to teach baseball to? " i asked him. he shook his head in my grasp and whispered , " i can't kiss you right now so i'm hugging you instead. " i could've cried right then and there. i wanted to kiss him so badly but i couldn't and it made me so sad and kind of mad.

he lifted his head and leaned up a little to place a small and quick kiss on my jawline , backing out of the hug and winked at me before going back into the building with the others , leaving me frozen in place. i just stood there and watched him leave , blushing like an idiot. " dude , are you okay? " i hear robin ask as i zone back into the real world. " huh- oh yeah i'm good. are you gonna wait for finney? " i respond to his question with a question. " yeah , he's coming over tonight so he can teach me math or whatever. shits tough. " i laugh at this and nod , agreeing completely.

bruce's pov

i'm really bummed that i couldn't kiss him there , my boyfriend. i resorted to a very short and small kiss on his jawline and deemed that enough for now. i went with finney and the others back into the locker room and was waiting at the stall door for finney again. " i'll be right back okay? i need to go get something. " i tell him and walk over to my stuff when i hear his " okay. "

i was going to get something from my bag and quickly change my shirt which i was in the middle of doing so as i was interrupted. two boys came up to me and pushed me gently on my shoulder , i can tell they're from finney's team from the blue baseball caps they're wearing. i tilt my head obviously confused , " do you need something? " i ask the two of them as i put my normal shirt on. i'd assume that they were just gonna tell me off for ending the practice on a tie , which really wasn't that big of a deal.

" we don't need anything from you , fairy. " one of them says as i raise my eyebrow. " we just wanted to know what your little boyfriend thought of the practice. " the other one says. i look at the both of them very confused , there's no way anyone could've been watching me and vance hug. " i'm sorry? i'm confused. " i tell them as i just stand there. " i never took you for a fag , i guess i never took vance hopper for one either. " they both laugh. i was very taken back by this , what? i blink at them but say nothing as i have nothing to say. usually in this kind of situation i'm standing up for someone else , i've never had to stand up for myself like this though so i didn't quite know what to say.

they both take a step closer to me , closing me in a corner between the wall and the row of lockers. " don't worry little fairy , your secret is safe with us. but if vance hopper comes after either one of us , i swear to god we'll tell the whole school that you two are just a couple of fucking fags. " they back away from me and walk the other way just laughing. i've never wanted to cry so bad before. i couldn't do anything in that moment beside just stand there and let the tears well up in my eyes.

finney walked over slightly concerned , " bruce? are you okay? " i quickly blinked the tears out of my eyes and nodded at him , grabbing my stuff. " yeah i'm fine , sorry. " i remembered that i had left him. " hey it's okay , i'm fine. " he says smiling. i smile back and nod before leaving the locker room and the gym again , passing those two boys on my way out.

i wanted to cry again and just as i was trying not to , a couple of tears left my eyes in a hurry. i also remembered that vance was going to be waiting for me but i was also afraid of those two boys seeing him or me again. he was leaned up against the bleachers smoking and waiting so i just attempted to go past him to no avail. " hey! bruce! wait up. " he says as he stands up straight and puts out the cigarette , catching up to me. i take a deep breath in and sigh , turning around as i feel vance's hand in my shoulder. " hey hey woah what's wrong? " he asks frantically , obviously confused on why my face looks the way it does. i didn't say anything and instead just stood there and started crying again.

i could tell vance's heart immediately dropped as he saw me. he reached his hands out and gently brought me back to the bleachers that were a few feet away just so there's be less of a chance that anyone would see this. " what happened baby what? " he put his hand on my face and had a worried expression on his. " i- some boys they- " i was stammering pretty badly it was almost embarrassing. i never do this so doing this in front of vance was weighing heavily on me. " what boys? who bruce? what'd they do? " he starts asking me and i just cry more and hug him, resting my head on his chest.

" they.. they saw us vance. they saw us hugging and- and then they called me names and threatened me. " i said as i cried to him. he puts his hand on the back of my head and hold me tight while saying nothing. is he mad? i lift my head up to look at him and he looks pretty mad. " vance? " i call out his name and he looks at me , wiping the tears off my face and holding it. " who love , who were the boys and where are they now? " he asked me. " i- i don't know they were on finney's team. please don't go looking for them please. don't fight them vance please don't. " i responded to him knowing what would happen if he did so. i can't tell him who the boys were or else he'd go after them like they had met their end , and then we'd meet ours.

he sighs and hugs me again , kissing me on my head. i start to calm down just a little bit , feeling safe now that vance is holding me. " shhh it's okay , it'll be okay " he kept telling me as he rubbed my head soothingly. i had stopped crying now and lifted my head up to wipe the remainder of the tears that were on my face. i looked at vance and he smiled softly at me , " i love you so much. " he says as he holds me still. i blush a little at this , " oh i- i love you too. " i say back to him. i really do love him a lot.

he puts a hand on the side of my face and leaned down to kiss me. i pushed back on him with the same amount of force as he was. it wasn't aggressive or entirely forceful but it was definitely more than any other kiss we shared. it actually calmed me down quite a bit , considering the current situation and both our reputations on the line- kissing him felt very nice in the moment. we backed away from each other after a moment and i looked down , blushing. he smiled at me , " do you wanna come over? you can call your mom when we get there. " he asked. i nodded my head and he grabbed my wrist and started walking.