playing for the other team (bxb)

[2] present day

Now, fast forward to present time. Senior year: still in that same locker-room.

We open to quite an awkward scene-the locker room after losing a football game.

Even though Jamie had ended up losing all of his friends on the team, he still played. To him, it didn't matter if everyone on the team hated him if it meant that he would have a higher chance of getting scholarships. Jamie's family certainly wasn't poor but they weren't rich either and since Jamie had two other brothers, he knew there was no way he'd be able to rely on his parents to pay for college.

I continued to play too, as it gave me something to do after school and my parents wouldn't be all too happy if I quit the team. After all, there was hardly a reason for me to quit. Even though I stopped hanging out with the guys on the team, most of them were still tolerant toward me. They didn't like my closeness to Jamie but when it came to one-on-one interactions, most of the guys were friendly with me.

Tension fills the atmosphere around us as all the guys are getting changed. It's like you can see everyone's anger. As I begin to tune into the complaints people are making, I realize that the only two who seem like they're not losing their shit are me and Jamie.

The majority of the guys on the team are your typical fragile southern boys. They're obnoxious when it comes to how they treat others but the second that something isn't going their way, they tend to become awfully sensitive about it. So, when our team isn't oing too good, there's always someone who people want to place the blame on so that they don't have to accept the fact that our team really just isn't that great.

So, it was no shock when John Ostrowski opened his mouth to respond to another boy's complaint by saying, "The game would've been fine if it wasn't for our wide-receivequeer," It's important to note that 1. Jamie is the supposed "wide-receivequeer" (which is a brilliant pun that combines our positions on the team with a little bit of hate-speech,) and 2. John Ostrowski is still a massive dick (who has a small one.)

Jamie wasn't here to defend himself. He had been all the way in the bathroom stall where he normally got changed after practice. The other boys often got weird about having a queer man change amongst them, so at a certain point, Jamie had just started to get changed separately as to avoid any conflict.

I can feel eyes on me all throughout the locker room. People were used to these comments causing conflict between me and whoever was saying it.

"Oh, would you shut the fuck up already?"

Ostrowski shifted his attention from the other guys to me, "Defending your boyfriend?"

I knew that it was coming before Ostrowski even said anything. This tends to be Ostrowski's only rebuttal--because, as it would appear to him, you can't be close to someone who's gay without being gay yourself.

Privately, I'll admit that there are parts of my friendship with Jamie that feel more intimate than the average friendship between two guys. Though, this intimacy is nothing close to romantic intimacy. It's just that we've always been close and Jamie doesn't act as uptight as most of the guys around here. It's just that our friendship is on more of a personal level.

Not to mention, supporting Jamie doesn't mean that I'm remotely into men. But even if I was...

"I'm not gay," I scoff, "Either way, Jamie was playing better than most of you guys combined. It's not his fault."

"If you want him to fuck you so bad, why don't you just ask him to? You don't gotta do all of this, he's already in love with you."

I choose to ignore Ostrowski's original comment, as responding would only add fuel to the fire. Ostrowski seemed to get off on irritating people and, in general, being a complete piece of shit. "I still don't see any explanation as to how us losing the game is his fault."

"I just don't know how good a queer can be at football," Ostrowski shrugged, "He's probably out there distracted by the other players."

Before I can even manage to formulate a response, I hear Jamie's voice. I suppose he must've just finished changing. Now approaching our locker row, Jamie had spoken up to say, "So... me liking guys has something to do with how well I can focus on the game? Right, I'll keep that in mind the next time you miss the ball just because you were staring at the cheerleaders' boobs. Or does sexuality only affect performance if it involves queerness?"

Jamie had always been a bold person but it seemed that once he was outed, this boldness went from being bold in a friendly, innocent way to being bold in a way that he used to fight against other people. Whereas Jamie used to attempt to go along with what people were saying, he was now one-hundred percent his own person and wouldn't stray from speaking his mind.

Though, in moments like this, it would probably be better for him to stay quiet than to try talking back to someone as chimp-brained as John Ostrowski. I'm sure that Ostrowski didn't even understand half of what he was saying.

"You really think you're hot shit?" Ostrowski questioned, "You know that the only reason that you haven't been kicked off the team is that you're black and gay so Coach doesn't want to be accused of discriminating, right?"

"And the only reason that you haven't been kicked off the team is that your daddy is the coach," Jamie retorts, seemingly too tired to deal with the real substance of what Ostrowski was saying.

"Bullshit."

"The reason that the coach can't kick me off the team is that he has no reason to. I'm a better player than you, anyway," Jamie stated as if it was a fact--and truthfully, it probably was. Whereas Ostrowski didn't have to fight to be on the team, Jamie had to work extra hard.

"You're a real fucking pain in the ass," Ostrowski said, and a few boys chuckled at the innuendo. Ostrowski diverted his attention to this, seemingly more angered now, "Jesus Christ, all of you guys are so disgusting."

Ostrowski wasn't someone who was capable of handling things not going his way. So, in moments like this, all he knew how to do was snap.

"Can you just chill out?" I asked, "We both know it's not Jamie's fault that we lost."

I'm sure that somewhere deep down Ostrowski must've known this. I think that everyone was aware of it but it's a lot easier for them to deny it and use Jamie as a scapegoat than to actually accept the truth.

Ostrowski grunts, "Whatever, I don't wanna hear shit from you." And that's how I know that John Ostrowski must know he's a bumbling idiot.

This is how things always seemed to be. Truthfully, I'm not sure how Jamie handles all of it.

. . .

Usually, when something like this happens with Ostrowski, Jamie and I will have a good laugh at it later. Jamie and I now lay in his bedroom as we reflected on what had transpired in the locker room earlier.

"It's just frustrating," I groaned.

"Yeah, I know," Jamie never tries to deny how much these situations suck--and that's what I like most about him. He's able to see every situation for what it is, yet he never lets his emotions get the best of him. "Ostrowski's a piece of shit and if he wants to think that you're a bender for me, well, let him think it."

I let out a short laugh, a 'ha', almost mockingly, "you wish."

"You could do a whole lot worse than me," And with that, he starts making fake kissy noises.

"Shut up."

"Deny it all you want, it's true," Jamie laughs, "I'm out of your league anyway."

"That's not even true."

"It is, and you can't even deny it," He insists, "I've pulled way more guys than you've pulled girls." Truthfully, Jamie was a bit of a man-whore--which was something I could never fully understand considering the fact that he definitely lacked options. Regardless, it was definitely true that he had been with more people than I had.

"Oh, fuck off," I mutter, "Just because you get with more people than I do doesn't mean you're more attractive than I am. For your information, I have plenty of girls interested in me."

"Whatever you say."

QOTD: do you like/play any sports?