Do You See Me Now? ✔

Chapter 6 - The New Guy

Tuesday, October 16th

     To Jesse, everything felt a bit surreal ever since he and Yoni had told each other the truth. It wasn't hard to pretend to be in love with Yoni, since he had done it for a while already. The same went for Yoni, and on Monday after school, they even shared a laugh about it while riding towards his home.

It was nice to have someone who knew his biggest secret. And it was even better that it was Yoni, who, besides Calix and Axel, he considered his best friend. They had shared a lot in the past three years, which made it easy for them to share this too and support each other.

But telling Yoni about his sexuality had made him nervous nonetheless.

Someone knew his biggest secret, and even if it was Yoni—and Donna—it felt like a liability. He had no idea what the guys in his soccer team thought about homosexuality, and he was afraid that if they found out, they would shun him out.

He could lose his friends over this, simply because they had never talked about it before and Jesse didn't know their opinions on the matter. And bringing it up now, would probably cause more questions than answers.

Because why would he start talking about it?

What other reason than being gay—or doubting—would cause him to start a conversation about it?

So, Jesse refrained from starting the conversation, and hoped Yoni's word that she and Donna wouldn't ever tell on him was enough. He trusted Yoni; he just didn't know about Donna.

All he knew, was that he was the only one who knew why Donna had broken up with Axel. And he knew she was never going to take him back either; Donna was a lesbian, and she had chosen to experiment with her sexuality while being single. She had done what Jesse had been afraid of for months.

"Why are you so quiet?" Axel asked annoyed while they cycled towards the club for their practice. "You've been quiet all day already. It's boring."

"I just don't know what to say." Jesse shrugged, waking up from his stupor. "You've been talking about Donna constantly and honestly, I think you should try to move on."

"But I love her, Jesse." Axel whined. "I still don't understand why she suddenly didn't like me anymore. If there had been signs, I would've been prepared. But it was out of nowhere."

"I don't know why, Axel." Jesse lied, groaning because Axel just wouldn't stop. "Maybe she really just didn't like you anymore. Maybe it had been lingering in the background for a while and you just missed the signs."

"Then what signs could I have missed?"

"Well, for starters, Donna hasn't gone on a triple date with us for a while now. And I'm talking about months. She never wanted to go to the movies with us, or shopping. She stopped watching our matches on Saturday months ago. Those could've been signs you just ignored."

"She just didn't like soccer."

"Francesca didn't like soccer. But she likes Calix enough to get interested in the sport and cheer for us." Jesse countered, knowing he was right. Even if he was hiding the truth. This was getting complicated.

It would've been easier if this was just about Yoni and him. Not about Yoni and Donna wanting to experiment together.

"Not everyone is into soccer, no matter how much they like their significant other."

"Significant other?" Jesse sputtered a laugh. "Well, Einstein, just engage in frivolous dating-activities and find yourself a new gal."

"Oh, shut up." Axel muttered while pulling the brake on his bike. "Don't make fun of me."