Chapter Three

117K 5.2K 17K
                                    

“Get out of the way, fag.” Tyler Kent shoves Toby aside and snickers with Mike O’Reilly when he slams into a locker. Toby closes his eyes for a second, but then climbs back to his feet and continues walking down the hall. I avoid eye contact. Bryce has told everyone about what he saw with Toby and Drew, so really, it’s no secret anymore. And not everyone is cruel to Toby, but most of the jocks are just like Tyler and Bryce.

I feel awful. Really, I do. But what am I supposed to do? What happened with Bryce was different—Bryce was actually beating him up. Am I supposed to just walk up to Tyler and Mike and be like “hey, that’s not cool”? Sure, ‘cause that’ll work. Tyler and Mike are my teammates, too. I can’t cause any friction within my team. We need to be united. Our first game is this Friday.

So I put Toby out of my mind and head off to my next class.

After school, I drop Gabe off at home and then come back to school for basketball practice. It’s long and tedious and by the time we’re done, we’ve sweat buckets, but it’s still basketball, which means I still love it.

Coach blows his whistle. “Hit the showers!” he yells and we all shuffle off back to the locker rooms. I emerge from the shower feeling much cleaner and much less gross and head to my locker to get my clothes.

“Seriously, man.” Tyler is in a conversation with Bryce. “Imagine having Gym with that kid. Gross.”

Bryce laughs. “Tell me about it. They should make him use the girls’ locker room.”

My fingers go numb when I realize they’re talking about Toby. I close my eyes tightly as I pull my shirt on.

Just stay quiet, Luke. Don’t get involved.

“Whatcha think, Adams?” Bryce says, turning towards me.

“Hmm?” I say, pretending that I wasn’t listening to their conversation.

“That fairy kid you rescued?” Bryce says. Tyler snorts. Honestly, I’m impressed Bryce knows the word ‘rescued’.

“What about him?” I say, casually, closing the locker and grabbing my gym bag, ready to head off and wanting to, desperately.

“It ain’t right.” Bryce says. “He shouldn’t be around us.”

I shrug, then turn around and leave the locker room.

I know I should’ve said something in Toby’s defense and I know I seem like a complete douche for not defending him, but the weird teammate relationship I have with those guys is delicate. They’re not my friends, but at the same time they are, you know? I wouldn’t hang out with them if they weren’t on the team with me, but they are, so I have to. 

Sometimes I feel like being on the team is more work than it’s worth, but I really do love basketball and I can tolerate the guys most of the time. They can be assholes when they want to be and trust me; I’m not defending them, but they’re not really bad people. They’re just lost, like we all are at this age. They don’t know who they are and what they want, so they just act like jackasses all the time.

What can I say?

Boys will be boys.
*

“Hey, did you hear? There’s a new kid in school.” Alana says the next day, the second I arrive at my locker. I give her a confused look.

“Now? In the middle of the semester?” I ask, pulling books out of the metal box.

Alana nods. “Apparently he just moved from Idaho or Iowa or one of those random states.”

Boys Will Be BoysWhere stories live. Discover now