The next day at school, Jack met me in the bus lobby, where I always wait before school.

"Hey, bud," Jack said, smiling and sliding down next to me. I could tell he was nervous.

"Hey, Jack," I said. We sat in silence for a moment.

"Okay, this is gonna drive me insane. Why were you mad at me?"

I sighed. I knew this was going to happen.

"You know the party?" I said. "Amanda's? The one you invited me to?"

Jack nodded.

"Well... Alan sent me videos of you and Amanda. And of you and Amber."

Jack looked confused for a second. Then his eyes widened.

"Oh my god," he whispered. He put his head in his hands and closed his eyes tightly. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god."

I realized I would have to come up with an excuse other than liking him as to why that bothered me. I decided that it would make sense for me to be upset by seeing him and Amber since she had been pulling crap on me for years.

I opened my mouth to explain, but Jack spoke first.

"Why did he send that to you? I didn't ask him to! Oh god, I should've done it with them in private. We were all just so drunk- oh god, Ollie, I'm so sorry. That must've scarred you. I'm such an idiot," Jack rambled.

So Jack just thought I was disgusted by the videos. That works too. I mean, it's not like it's a lie.

"It's fine," I said quietly to Jack.

"No. No it's not," he argued. "I'm so sorry."

I was about to tell him it was all cool again, but the bell rang. He stood up and quickly departed for class, his head down.

***time skip***

After school, I went down to the locker rooms and waited for practice to start.

A few minutes past 3, Alan showed up in the locker rooms.

"Hey, Ol," he said. I could tell he wanted to talk. Why wouldn't he? We were best friends, and he found out I was gay at the exact same time everyone else did.

"Hey," I said.

Alan sat down and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Can we talk, man?" he said, turning to me.

I shut my laptop. "I figured you'd want to."

"So..." he started, "can I ask something about being gay?"

I nodded.

He grinned. "Who's the lucky guy?"

My eyes widened and I turned dark red. "W-what?"

"Oh, come on dude, we all know you can get anyone you want. Girl OR guy," he chuckled. "Who's your boyfriend?"

"I don't have one," I said, blushing.

"Okay..." Alan said, giving me the side-eye. "Who do you like, then?"

"No one," I lied. "Besides, even if I did, he'd probably be straight. How many LGBT guys do you know in this school?"

Alan thought about it for a second.

"How about that Mark kid? He's a sophomore I think."

I laughed.

"First of all, he's dating someone. Second of all, I'm not attracted to everyone I see, same as you."

Alan laughed too.

"I really should have known that," he said.

At that moment, Jack came into the room. I started blushing and looked down, turning my laptop back on so I wouldn't have to look at him.

"Hey, Al," he said. Jack smiled and leaned down in front of my laptop, shutting the screen. "Hey, Ollie."

"Hi, Jack," I said, blushing even harder. Even thought I was mad about the videos, I'm glad we're back on speaking terms. I could tell he was really sorry.

"Hey, Jack, any parties this weekend?" Alan asked. I flipped my screen back up. I'm not sure I wanted to know the answer.

"Uh, yeah," he said. He glanced at me, then back at Alan. "Amber's having one after the game."

"Sweet." Alan turned to me. "You going?"

I shook my head.

"I- I think I'm actually gonna take a rain check on this one too," Jack said. He glanced at me again. I looked up.

"Jackson James Jansen, since when do YOU 'take a rain check' on parties?" I said, laughing.

Jack blushed and smiled.

"I think I'm kinda partied out for a little while," he said. He gave me a look that clearly said "you know why".

Alan raised his eyebrows.

"Alright, losers, while I'm enjoying alcohol and sex, you guys can go watch Pocohantus," he joked.

Jack laughed. "You know it."

The rest of the team started filing into the locker room, talking and laughing with each other.

When Dad came into the locker room, he held a clipboard that had physical forms on it. You needed physical forms for getting on the team.

Trailing behind him, however, was a boy I'd never seen before. He had thick brown hair, dimples, and was pretty toned, too. He looked extremely tan, like he'd been out in the sun his whole life.

He was kinda cute.

"Alright, men," Dad said, "this is a new junior who will start school tomorrow. He's going to join our team. Meet Dylan."