Coming Home [Completed]

Ch. 8: Don't Start Now

Theo Broussard didn't care much for soccer. He used the sport more to maintain his high self-standard for physical conditioning, anything else gleaned from the sport was incidental at best. If Theo had it his way, he'd have spent the whole summer lounging around doing nothing but soccer workouts kept him in a modicum of shape during this time instead.

It was the dog days of August now and time for training camp. That meant five-hour practices in the worst of the heat. By the end of it all on the first day, Theo was exhausted and barely cognizant of his surroundings. Last year, Jude and Nolan hung out with him every day after those long August practices. Part of him knew that was more out of pity than anything else, as he'd just broken up with his first boyfriend. Now, his new boyfriend would want to monopolize his time after practice.

Call it nostalgia, but he missed those carefree afternoons of last year hanging with Nolan and Jude at whatever fast food place would let them loiter the longest. Those were good memories that helped ease harder ones. Now, not only had his ex transferred to his school but he was also on Nolan and Jude's team, which increasingly meant hanging out with them meant risking an encounter with Charlie.

Theo had kept his distance as best he could, assuming rightly that Charlie had been as hurt by their breakup as he'd been. Their only interactions in the past year were noticing each other in their peripheral visions at parties and against each other on the ice. Now, they'd be sharing a school and probably a good chunk of their schedules, too.

That was still weeks away, but for now, he had a taste of what that'd be like. The fields the soccer and football teams practiced on were right next to each other and Theo would be lying if he said he never glanced across the other field to steal a glance at a certain someone. He'd wanted to text or reach out somehow to see how Charlie was doing after the whole incident last school year, but his new relationship was just taking shape and he didn't want to risk falling back into old habits. It'd already happened once. When he asked Eva, she described him as looking 'broken inside.' Theo's efforts to convince her to renew her friendship with Charlie fell on deaf ears.

As his mind was racing through all this, he spotted Nolan walking alongside Charlie. They seemed to really be chumming it up from what he could tell. Jude, as was his way, had sprinted ahead of them to the locker room. Thank whoever there are separate locker rooms for the two teams, Theo thought briefly.

Theo resigned himself to the fact that he'd have to talk to Charlie eventually, so he started to make his way over to the pair. He stopped when he saw Lucas Wright had joined them, fresh from swimming practice in just his red speedo.

Lucas must be sizing up the new gay guy, Theo surmised. He decided he'd let the boy flirt unimpeded and shifted directions, thankful for the excuse to delay his eventual conversation with Charlie. He was glad he did when he noticed Lucas plant a kiss on Charlie's cheek and then Charlie wrapped his arm around Lucas, with his other used for carrying his football pads, as the trio made their way towards the locker rooms.

Theo sped up his walking to properly avoid them, quickly scrambling into the sanctuary of the non-football boys' locker room. All boys' sports teams that weren't football shared the same changing area, so it should have been no surprise when a few moments later Lucas walked in, preening madly.

Theo tried to look down to avoid eye contact with Lucas, but to no avail, because the boy made his way over to him. If Theo was barely ready to talk to his ex, he was definitely not ready to talk to his ex's new boyfriend.

"Hey, um..." Lucas began, "I'm not sure how to put this but I figured I should just give you a heads up before school starts that..."

"I saw you and Charlie just now," Theo said, emotionlessly.

"Oh, that. Shit, I hate that that's how you found out about us."

"Lucas, there's no issue on my end. Charlie and I haven't been together for over a year now. He's fair game." Theo hadn't realized his breakup with Charlie had been that long ago until he said it, but it was true, even if those memories and wounds were still fresh.

"Okay, I really should have said something earlier, but I just didn't have the chance..."

"Seriously, it's fine. How long have you two been together?"

"Last weekend was our one-month anniversary. You never told me how romantic Charlie is. He's literally the sweetest and he marks like every milestone." Certainly wasn't the case when we were together, Theo thought, not entirely dispassionately, but Lucas was smiling ear-to-ear and he didn't want to ruin that so he suppressed.

"I've got to get going now, Lucas, but I'm glad we had this talk."

"Me too. I'm just glad things aren't awkward between us. Oh, shit, you probably are rushing off to your own man, aren't you? Don't let me keep you waiting then,"

"Let's have coffee again sometime soon, okay Lucas? We haven't had one of those in a while and I'm sure there's a lot to discuss on both our ends."

"Sounds like a plan, Teddy."

As soon as Theo was able to, he was nearly sprinting out the locker room door to his car. He didn't even check his phone until he was safely in his driver's seat. It was only then that he noticed a text from his boyfriend, inviting him over to his apartment for a few hours. His mom was pretty lenient, but she drew the line at him spending the night.

It's not really that they'd do anything anyway, but Theo was pretty sure he'd just pass out from exhaustion wherever he ended up. In that case, part of him just wanted to go home and crash on his own bed, but another part felt obligated to go. With training camp and then school, he wasn't going to be seeing his boyfriend as much so he should make the most of it while he can.

With that reasoning, Theo put his key in the ignition and made his way to his boyfriend's apartment. His boyfriend, Harry, lived just off of the local college's campus. Theo had been spending more time around there lately since his boyfriend shared his apartment with their mutual friend Dalia, whom Theo had gotten close to last year when he worked at Brewer Books.

Harry and Dalia, along with most of their other friends, had reached a point where typical college behavior seemed juvenile to them, so Theo never went to darties or frat parties or any other type of wild events when he hung out with them. They mostly just stayed in and smoked and maybe studied a bit. Theo felt like he had fast-forwarded through a whole segment of his life when he was with them, which he had mixed feelings about.

Theo barely said hello to Harry or Dalia when he entered their apartment, having become familiar enough to bypass such pleasantries in recent months, and made his way directly to their shared bathroom to shower.

The hot water relaxed his muscles as he tried to process the day he'd had, coming up with no justifiable reason for his negative reaction to seeing Charlie and Lucas together. He shouldn't feel anything at all. He chalked it up to a general feeling of helplessness brought on by one's senior year and the uncertainty of the college admissions process. He closed his eyes for a moment and nearly fell asleep standing up in the shower from exhaustion.