Backstage; Wonah/Rester

3: "Changed and Weak Men"

Reed

Kippen opens the door after I knock it about a million times. His face is slightly flushed from probably running around trying to please everyone at this party like the puppy dog that he is, his hair is still gelled back like he used to in middle school, and Jesus Christ, did Goodman change him that much that he's wearing a button up? It's flayed open revealing a dark shirt underneath, but it still shows what a crowd pleaser he's trying to be. Against my Varsity jacket and jeans he looks stupid and rich. Which isn't far off.

"Reed." He greets, holding out his hand, everyone on the basketball team knows the handshake. He lets me in after and feel immediately better once I feel the energy of a bunch of sweaty, half-drunk teenagers dancing around to the best music that can be found being blasted on Kippen's insanely big speakers. People feel better in their element after all.

"Lester's not here with you?" He calls behind me as we make our way down the hall.

"I don't know." I shrug, pretending to not really care. The bass music kicks in pretty quickly in the next song, overlapping Kippen. Some people starting cheering and run to the floor. I grab a beer of his counter, not caring if it was already someone's.

The only reason TJ is throwing this party is because our team won our recent game against our deep-rooted rivals. He's such a "changed man" that this has become a very unlikely thing to occur, at his place at least.

Many people are outside on his patio, dancing or swaying or just talking. Many of the other basketball players fill the space in the house talking about the game, most of them with a girl on their lap.

Some of them greet me as I lean against the counter with the handshake of just a nod. It's always been like this. While most people are energetic and a real team on the court, we all have very different lives and relationships off court.

"So how'd Metcalf deal with your breaking and entering." TJ grabs a bottle of soda from his fridge. And He's sobered as well, figures, a "changed man indeed".

"He put us on the school musical, tech crew or some shit." I roll my eyes, still feeling the remaining bits of anger in my head.

Kippen tilts his head, "that isn't so bad. Coach actually said some of us should join the musical-"

"Well screw what coach says," I snap, "He only knows how to yell at us and play ball." And then I realize the sudden light on his face, and frown. "You joined, didn't you?"

He looks surprisingly unembarrassed. "Yep, got one of the leads and everything." Kippen nods and takes another sip.

"Perfect TJ Kippen strikes again," I point, "Man you really are gay. Your boyfriends made you a real nerd."

He tenses slightly, gripping his fingers on the bottle. "A) Nerds are actually smart students who care about grades, not musical theater, although as high school musical proved: you can do both. B) I was gay this whole time. C) Cyrus, despite being part of the musical crew, had nothing to do with my discussion, I chose to do this myself."

I finish one can and move onto the next. "You can stop the whole ABC crap. It doesn't matter anyway, none of us have a choice against this."

"You still haven't told me what actually happened." He points, "Lester seemed really upset about it the other day."

And now Lester's upset. Is everyone turning weak around me?

So I tell him about sneaking in, we move to the patio as I told him about how stupid the school is about grades anyway.

"If I was in your shoes I would have just studied." He suggests, a slight smile on his lips.

"Yeah we can't all have a perfect gay geeky boyfriend who likes study dates and school." I say defensively. Some of us have other things going on Kippen, some of us have terrifying fathers and stupid stepmoms and don't go to their house very often. And when they do they always have some sort of defense.