Chapter I - Gabe West

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As soon as I enter the locker room, I am overwhelmed by the stench of sweat and a cacophony of noise. Boys yell, chase each other around, laugh, pull down each others' pants, and even sing pop songs. Even though the room is cramped, the guys in my period make use of the whole space. To my right, two of my classmates are flexing in the mirror above the sinks. To my left, a few guys are climbing on the urinals and bathroom stalls. I walk around the divider next to the sinks and keep my head down as I go past the boys changing at their lockers.

The red lockers are two-tiered, meaning that I have to get on the floor to unlock it and grab my gym clothes. I squat down and start entering my combination. I twist the lock around to the 10, then the opposite way to 21, when all of a sudden, I am distracted by the guy at the locker adjacent to mine.

Gabe. Gabe West. He's easily the most attractive guy in 12th grade and probably in the entire school. He has wavy black hair, a strong jaw, and the best chest you'll ever see. I'm trying not to stare as he removes his tight t-shirt. I force myself to move my eyes back to my locker as I re-do the combination.

The locker room begins to clear out, leaving just me, Gabe, and maybe three other guys. I take off my shirt and shorts to throw on my athletic shirt and sweatpants. Slowly, my eyes drift back to Gabe. His arms are extended up into the air, revealing his toned stomach and large pecs. He puts on a black sleeveless shirt that shows off his biceps. We make brief eye contact, but I quickly dart my eyes to the floor. He removes his tight pants to replace them with a tiny pair of shorts. As he pulls up his shorts, I can help but notice how large his bulge is. His bright red boxers form around his crotch and ass. Gabe pulls his shorts over his package and then struggles to pull them over his fat ass.

"Bubble butt problems," he says, seemingly to himself, since the remaining guys in the room have since left. Then he turns to me, and we make direct eye contact. My heart starts to race. He probably noticed me checking him out. "You a fag or something?" he asks me. Shit.

"Uh, no, I, uh-" I stutter. He smiles, amused at my nervousness.

"It's chill, dude." He smiles again. "Look all you want." He winks at me before turning around to walk out of the room, leaving me behind, flabbergasted.

Now I stand in the locker room alone, trying to understand what just happened. Gabe West - the hottest boy in school - noticed me checking him out, and instead of being mad, he... winked at me? I mean, it's normal for guys like him, you know, the attractive jock type, to flirt with their friends as a joke, but I don't know him like that. From what I know, he's straight. He had a girlfriend during 10th and 11th grade, but I think they broke up during the summer.

My train of thought is interrupted as I hear Coach Bayleigh calling roll. Fortunately, my last name starts with a "W," so my name is at the bottom of the list. I run out of the locker room into the gym and join the other people in my PE period.

"Walls!" Coach Bayleigh yells. No one answers. She marks the boy absent on her clipboard.

"West!"

"Here!" Gabe answers. I didn't even notice that he was right in front of me.

"Wright!"

"Here!" I shout, shooting up my arm so that the coach can see me. I completely forget my surroundings, and my hand brushes over Gabe's ass as I put it in the air. He turns to me and gives me a smug smile before turning back to the coach. My heartbeat starts getting fast again.

"Free gym today!" Coach Bayleigh shouts to the class. "Do whatever you want. Just don't bother me." The large group of students quickly disperses. I sit on the bleachers and pull my phone out of my pocket. On free gym days, I typically just scroll through TikTok or listen to music since the coach doesn't care.

I get a notification that my history teacher posted a new assignment. I click on it, which brings me to the assignment: to read a chapter from our textbook about the Protestant Reformation and to answer some questions about it. I pull up the ebook and read for maybe 15 minutes. Eventually, I realize I have absorbed no information at all because I can't stop thinking about Gabe. Why did he smile at me? Why did he wink at me? Why would this beautiful, popular jock-boy pay attention to me? I'm probably overthinking it. But maybe I'm not. Maybe he was flirting with me! But that doesn't make sense, does it? He's straight. Unless he's not! It's not like I know him that well.

I conclude that I won't be able to focus unless I give in to my desire to know more about Gabe. I open Instagram and search for "Gabe West," and his account pops up quickly: gabriel.west.2005. I click on his profile. Five posts, 684 followers. The posts were just various pictures of him at different sports tournaments. Swimming, basketball, soccer, he does it all. Nothing helpful.

Next, I move on to Gabe's tagged photos. There are maybe 10 posts, which seems low considering his popularity. I click on one from the boy I know to be his best friend, Marcus Walls, or walls_marcusss. 23 posts, 562 followers. I'm not sure what I'm hoping to find - maybe evidence that Gabe isn't straight? Or maybe evidence that he is and is just messing with me? I scroll through Marcus's posts until I see something of interest: a photo from some party posted about a month ago. Marcus is on a couch with Gabe and a few people I don't recognize at first glance. Then, I zoom into the stranger's faces and recognize one as a boy who used to go to our school. He was openly bi and hung around Gabe sometimes - it's a stretch, but I'll take it. I click on the photo and the tag leading to the guy's profile. Private. It's a dead end for now, but I still request to follow ryanlovesfrogs, then I resume going through pictures that Gabe is tagged in.

"Whatcha doing?" A familiar, deep voice asks - Gabe. His face is red, and he's drenched with sweat.

"Oh, uh, I'm just scrolling through Instagram or whatever." Why is he talking to me? Did he see me go on his Instagram profile?

"Why don't you ever do anything during free gym?" He prods. His sudden interest in me is so weird.

"Just not super athletic, I guess." I wonder if he can tell how nervous I am. I can feel the heat radiating off his body and smell his sweat.

"Huh, doesn't show," he squeezes my bicep with his large, warm hand. "See you around!" He turns from me and rejoins the game of spikeball that he was playing.

I'm left alone on the bleachers sitting in my confusion. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it really feels like Gabe might be flirting with me. I mean, he's paying special attention to me, and he even touched me. I can still feel the sweat his hand left on my bicep. I watch him play spikeball with three other guys. He darts around the net and playfully jeers the other team. I'm trying not to stare, but I can't help but watch how his ass bounces as he moves, and I notice his red boxers sticking out from his short shorts.I just want him to get close to me again. He's been away for only a minute, but I already miss his smell.

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