Liam and Gregor run our Twitter, and they got pretty good at zapping them with the block button as soon as they went up.

We make it across town without any other incidents.

Gregor and I are both pretty quiet, and out of everyone on the team he’s the person I’m closest to.

He’s showing me old Vines on YouTube. Some of them are pretty funny, but I don’t really know why he likes them.

“Look at this one, look at this one, it’s a funny one,” he says. He’s got this quiet voice, a proper country boy’s accent, and I’m always jealous of how deep he speaks.

He shows me a video, some dude clicking a button on a condom machine and ending up with a condom over his face.

“Ha!” I laugh, and my voice cracks and squeaks like a twelve-year-old’s.

No one else notices, but I always do.

He gets a text from his girlfriend and ends up having this mushy conversation about how he can’t wait to see her later.

Gregor’s bi.

His girlfriend checks up on him a lot, and he always ducks out of socials early.

I guess if your bi boyfriend spent his weekend running about with a bunch of other fit, mostly horny lads, you’d check up on him too.

Me and Gregor’s girlfriend get on, though, and she doesn’t see me as a threat.

Which is weird, because I’m gay as hell. And I fancy Gregor.

*

Liam’s playing songs from his phone, plugged into a tinny speaker he bought on holiday. It’s a mix of dodgy RuPaul songs, Disney and songs from the shows Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton and stuff like that. At one point, Liam and Alistair have a sing-off. Liam’s a pretty good singer, making it most of the way through ‘You Will Be Found’, and almost hitting all the right notes. What Alistair lacks in singing talent he makes up for in volume, shrieking some of the later verses and cracking everyone up with his overblown performance.

“Well?” says Alistair, spinning around to face Gregor and me.

Alistair likes to be the centre of attention, but he’s pretty good at bringing other people in too.

Gregor hates it when everyone’s looking at him, though. I can feel him going red again.

Silence rolls up and down the aisle of the bus as the rest of the team all turn to stare at us.

Even Helen pulls an earbud out and cocks her head around, to make sure no one’s up to anything they shouldn’t be.

“Shantay, you both stay,” I say, after a moment.

“Aaah!” Alistair squeals. He gathers up his jumper, holds it in the fold of his arm like a bouquet of flowers, and starts delivering an acceptance speech through mock tears. “I have a few people I’d like to thank.”

Even Helen chuckles as she rolls her eyes and puts her earbud back in.

I love this team.

*

“Is that them?” says Alistair, as we pull up outside the football grounds.