It’s one of those questions that isn’t looking for an answer, like when one of the Elders wants to know who shirked manatee barnacle duty. They just want it done, and Coach clearly just wants me gone. Sean smirks while I flounder for anything to say.

“I promise I won’t move a muscle, Coach,” I try.

He points a meaty finger out of the pool. “Well, you can stay just as still outside the gate.”

Sean doesn’t say a word as I walk, defeated, to the fence. But I came here for a reason, and I’ll stand here all night if I have to. Sean doesn’t look back as he stomps to the locker room and suits up, and he doesn’t glance my way once during practice. It’s torture, being this close to him and not getting to say a word, wanting to spill my guts while he holds me in his arms.

Two hours later and practice finishes. The team streams past me and Coach grumbles about “miscreant assholes” as he walks by, but I’m not here to prove myself to him. I’m here for Sean.

Who doesn’t seem to care.

Because no matter how long I stand here, Sean won’t come out of the locker room.

     Sean     

I pace back and forth in front of my locker, turning so hard on my heel that I nearly fall to the floor more than once. Who does Ross think they are? They can’t just barge into my life, make me fall in love with them, and pull that out from under me whenever they want. Two people did that in less than two months, and it’s too much for me to take.

“God fucking dammit!” I scream, and slam my locker shut.

“So it’s not so perfect in your world, huh?” I turn to find Miguel rounding the corner from the next row of lockers.

I scoff. “Yeah, no. Everybody can just fuck off.”

Miguel gives me a sad smile. “You can say that again.” He slams the open locker next to him and yells, “¡Vete a la verga!”

The curse was always his favorite. When we were in middle school and Miguel felt something really strong, excitement or hurt or anger or joy, he’d always switch to Spanish. And he’d teach me Spanish swear words to distract me and make me laugh when we were facing off in Super Smash Bros. I never imagined then that when we got to high school, we’d end up fighting over the same guy. We never even got to come out to each other, me as gay, him as bi. We were both doing our separate things by the time we each felt ready to share that part of ourselves.