{edelmandola one shots}

The Journey {1/1}

I first met him in college. He was Kent State's douchey quarterback. I was Texas Tech's tiny wide receiver. We weren't supposed to meet, it was an accident. I didn't want to meet him, if anything, I wanted to stay the hell away from him. 

I remember trying to find my older brother after the game. I hadn't seen him in a while and I missed him. He brought my nephew with him to the game today and I was looking forward to seeing them. While I was searching for them, I literally walked into Kent State's quarter back. 

"Shit, I'm sorry, man," I'm sure my eyes were wide because, although we were about them same height, he was more muscular than me and I was not trying to get myself killed before I saw my nephew, "Are you okay? God, I'm so sorry."

"I think I should ask you that question since you're the one who's on your ass right now," He laughed, helping me up, "Danny Amendola, right?" I nodded. "You're pretty good."

"Oh, um, thank you," I sounded surprised, I wasn't used to receiving praise and I didn't really know how to react, "You're good too." I looked down to see that his hands were still on my wrists. "I should go find my family," I pulled my wrists out of his hold and began to walk away. 

"Wait!" He called, making me stop dead in my tracks. "This is really awkward but, is there anyway that I could get your number." I looked at him and I must've looked nervous and confused because he then said, "I'm not gonna kill you. I'm Julian, by the way. I didn't introduce myself before."

"It was really great meeting you, but I'm trying to find someone right now," I bit my lip, "Come find me later, yeah? I'll probably be in my dorm. Anyone on the team will give you directions to it." I didn't wait for his reply, I just continued on my search for my family. 

I found my brother, Matt, leaning up against a pole and holding my nephew, Hayden. "Hey," I smiled, walking up to them, "Thanks for coming, man, I missed you guys."

I wasn't expecting much from him but I was expecting him to at least look up at his phone when I said hello. I didn't get that though. He didn't look at me but he said, "Can you hold the kid?" I nodded and took Hayden into my arms. "You did good today," Matt said, focusing on his phone, "I've seen you do better, but you did alright, considering what you said the last time we saw each other."

"My sexuality doesn't determine my athletic ability," I muttered, suddenly remembering why I hadn't seen him in so long. 

"Okay well, I'm gonna go now," Matt took Hayden back into his arms, "I'll see you, at some point. Oh, and call Dad, would you?" I shook my head, my stubbornness on full blast. "I get that you like dudes or whatever, but that doesn't mean you have to be a douche to Dad."

"He kicked me out, Matt, he disowned me," I stated, "If he wants to talk, he can call me. I'm not calling him just to be yelled at again. It was good to see you."

I quickly retreated back to my dorm. Julian came by soon after I got there. He didn't make me nervous like most people did, he was a lot nicer than I thought. At this point in time, I did not love him. 

-

As the months went on though, I think I began to love him. We talked all the time. The distance didn't matter. He would call after every game. He came down to visit a few times too and I went up to visit him. The line between being friends and being in a relationship had blurred entirely. We did everything that a couple would, but we weren't official or whatever. 

"Danny, it really fucking hurts," Jules complained to me one night on the phone. It was the beginning of our junior year season. He called after a game and he had gotten hurt pretty bad. Jules got sacked and from what I could tell on TV, his ankle wasn't in good shape. "Shit, it hurts real bad. I need you, Danny." My heart broke because I knew that there was no way that I could get to him. "I think I broke it. This can't be happening. Not now."