72. The Worst Part

-Troy-

I should've told Stephanie not to come. I should've told her to stay at home. I couldn't believe how stupid I'd been when I let her come. I'd completely forgotten there were people who knew I was in a gay relationship, and it only needed one little slip and my dad would find out. One word, and everything would be ruined.

And there was more. If Stephanie told my dad about Gwen, he wouldn't let me go to their house anymore. He wouldn't even let me go near Luke anymore. That fucking homophobic, transphobic, multiphobic asshole! I was really surprised he wasn't racist as well, because he was pretty much everything else!

I couldn't believe I didn't think this through. Stephanie would tell my dad. There was no doubt about that. The way she looked at Gwen was enough to convince me about that. I just wanted to run away. The second I finally met someone who seemed to care about me, someone had to ruin it for me.

Everything was ruined now. The game, my weekend, my Thanksgiving, my life. Ruined, ruined, ruined, ruined!

My mood was dropping fast before the game. I didn't say a word to anyone. The rest of the team thought I was just nervous and left me alone, but Max and Luke were giving me concerned looks. I just couldn't deal with things right now. We had a game. The game. The game we were so nervous about that morning, but now I couldn't give a damn. Ruined.

I tried to listen to our coach giving his speech, but what was the point? It was just a stupid game. It wouldn't change anything in my life if we won or lost. Once this game was over, Stephanie would've already called my dad, and he would force me to come home. I had waited for this weekend... Just the two of us. Luke had promised to take me to the arcade again... We were supposed to watch movies and play games and make out until things got a bit out of hand...

Ruined.

I felt a warm, gentle touch on my arm. I was standing next to Luke, and he had shifted his weight so conveniently his arm touched mine. I didn't move away, fearing this was the last time I'd ever get to be so close to him again. I knew I was being slightly too overdramatic, but it wasn't far-fetched. It didn't take much to become a reality, and I was scared. I wanted to talk to Luke, tell him how I felt so he could tell me I had nothing to worry about, that he would take care of me, but we didn't have time for that. I just... had to believe he would do exactly that if we had the chance to talk. I had to believe those would be his exact words, or I would start to panic.

I was fine. Everything would be all right.

I repeated those words over and over again inside my head until I believed in them. I had never experienced a panic attack, but I assumed I was really close to having one. Now was not the time for that.

I just had to believe everything would be all right.

*****

The game wasn't going well for us. It was clear the other team was hungry for the win, and they had a lot to prove while playing on our field. They did not want to lose on enemy territory, but overall, I believed we did well in the first half, even though we did some stupid mistakes a few times. That was just part of the game.

But boy, was someone angry.

I followed the rest of the team back into our locker room, but once I was inside the building, I saw the whole team waiting in the hallway.

"So... We're having a break in the hallway then?" I joked, trying not to think there was something going on in our locker room – a sick prank or something.

"I'm not going in," Rick said, stepping back.

I shook my head and pushed my way closer to the door. "What's in there?" I asked, fearing for the worst.

"He's there," one of them, Gale said.

I did a quick headcount. "And?" I asked when I noticed who was missing.

I heard a loud bang inside the locker room. That pretty much answered my question.

"Could you... like..." Gale began timidly, and shrugged before continuing, "go do that magic thing you always do, so we can go in without getting murdered?"

I started laughing lightly. "It's not magic."

"Yeah, we know," someone snickered. "Lionheart."

"What?"

"You've got some balls, man. Just saying. Now please – go tame the beast so we can get some rest," Gale said.

"Fine – fine," I said, and people moved out of my way when I stepped into the locker room.

I didn't see that beautiful bastard of mine, but I heard him at the other end of the room. I walked to the last row and stopped to stare at Luke. He was sitting on a bench, leaning his elbows on his knees, hiding his face in his hands. I could feel his anger from where I was standing.

"It's just a game," I said, but he didn't even flinch, so I walked to him. One of the lockers in front of him had a massive dent on its door. "Dude..."

He finally looked at me when I sat down next to him.

"I'm fucking up the game," he muttered, and turned to look away.

"I would agree if there weren't a bunch of other guys playing it as well," I told him, leaning against his shoulder. "I think you're doing great."

"I'm not," he snapped angrily.

"Your opinion doesn't matter," I told him, taking his hand in mine. He gave me an angry glare, but that never worked on me.

"This is my last game, and I'm failing the whole team. I keep making stupid decisions and fucking up even the simplest things–"

"You are being way too hard on yourself," I told him quietly. "You're a great quarterback. You're a great player, but your head keeps telling you stupid shit. You know that, so don't let it get to you."

"We are losing – that's good enough proof that I am messing up everything. We are losing, Troy," he spoke angrily.

"Dude... It's just a game, and besides, I don't care if we win or lose. Stephanie probably has called my dad already and he won't let me see you ever again because he's a transphobic fuck. I'm sorry, but I just don't give a damn about the game right now..."

"Fuck..." he breathed out, and his expression told me it probably wasn't the best timing to tell him about that. I thought it would make him forget the game, but it just made him feel worse.

"I want my weekend with you," I whispered before he could start blaming himself – I knew he would, even though the fault was my father's, and my father's alone. "When this game is over, can we just please get the fuck out of here as soon as the formalities are over? I don't give a damn if my dad tries to stop me from staying at your place, and he can't do that if he doesn't know where to find me."

"Of course we can leave whenever you want," he said just as quietly, leaning his head against mine. "I'll do whatever you want."

"Good," I muttered, and pressed my lips on his to steal a kiss from him. "Besides, if we win, we'd have to stay and celebrate, but if we lose, we get to go home straight away, and I can spend the rest of the evening comforting you," I told him, feeling much better now that he was there right next to me.

He smiled a little, and when I looked at him closely, he was much more relaxed now. His anger was gone. I actually loved how easily he calmed down for me. It showed me he loved me. It showed me I could trust him, no matter how angry he got – he was bigger than me, after all.

I stole another kiss from him, enjoying the few fleeting seconds alone with him. Then I took a deep breath. "Let's just have fun for the rest of the game, okay?"

"Fun... Sure..." he muttered, but he was smiling.

I nudged his side gently before standing up. "You can come in now," I spoke loudly so the rest of the team could hear me.

"What?" Luke frowned at me.

"You were being scary again," I told him quietly, and sat down opposite of him.

He just rolled his eyes.

*****

The break we had was shorter than what we needed, so when we got back into the field, I felt like I hadn't rested at all. We all did our best when the game continued, and it started to look like we actually had a shot at winning. My mood was higher than before, and I knew it had an effect on me. Maybe the enemy team was getting tired. Maybe ours was getting more fierce. Whatever the reason was, we were catching up with them.

I was getting over my earlier fear. I had decided I would have my weekend, no matter what. My dad would have to go through Luke to get to me. Meaning he would flee if Luke even looked at him, so I had nothing to worry about. I didn't care what would happen afterwards. Now I just wanted to have that weekend Luke had planned for me.

At some point, when we were gathering in the middle of the field, I walked past Luke. "Having fun?" I asked teasingly as I walked.

"You bet," he chuckled shortly.

A few of our teammates gave me curious looks, but I ignored them. Since no one believed Luke was gay, I had nothing to worry about. I actually found it funny that I was the only one who wasn't afraid of him, and they knew it. And they called it magic...

The game continued just as fiercely as it had started. I really had to make an effort to keep up with the enemy team. Truth to be told, I didn't want to be the next captain, because there was more pressure on that person. I just wanted to play, and even that wasn't the most important thing in my life. I was now enjoying the game, and one of the reasons was that I had to give it all I had, but I knew I couldn't enjoy the game like that if I were the captain.

I kept an eye on Max whenever I had the chance. He was better suited to be captain. Even now people respected his opinions and suggestions, and he was a remarkable player. I maybe was the fastest, but that was about it. Max could see the whole picture, while I was happy to focus on my part. I hadn't even thought about next season yet. Every time someone mentioned the open spot, left behind by Luke, all I could think of was that he would soon leave our school. This was his last game, and that alone made me sad. He wouldn't be on the team tomorrow.

I made a silly mistake while I ran. I'd tried to spot Luke and slipped, but luckily, I managed to keep my balance and I kept going. I didn't learn from that, though, and I turned to see Luke again. I had no idea what happened. Maybe I sent my bad luck to him or something, since the second I spotted him, he got body-slammed by a player from the enemy team. I grimaced when I saw him hitting the ground with the other guy practically on top of him.

Only a few seconds later, while Luke and the other guy were trying to get up, I heard the sound of a whistle, and I slowed down with the rest of the players. Luke pushed the other guy away from him, and I contained my urge to run to him and ask if he was all right. Players got slammed to the ground every other minute in this game, so it would've been suspicious.

That didn't stop me from looking at him, though. I just wanted to see if he was all right, because the guy who ran into him was almost as big as he was, and the hit was pretty bad. Luke took a few shaky steps forward, clearly trying to fill up his lungs again, while the other guy jogged to his team. I turned around as well, heading towards the middle, and I took one last glimpse of Luke, who started jogging as well.

But he didn't get far. As I watched, he took two steps and fell again. No, he didn't fall. His leg gave out under his weight. The crowd in the bleachers quieted down a little to see what was going on.

"Luke?" I spoke his name when he didn't try to get up anymore.

He rolled on his back, holding his leg with both hands, just above his knee, and I could tell he was in horrible pain – Luke never showed how much he was hurting, so this was bad. This was really bad.

"Luke!" I started running to him when I realized he was unable to get up anymore.

I wasn't the first person to get to him – Ronny and Gale were closer to him and had probably seen him fall – but when I reached him, I harshly pushed them out of my way when I slid to sit down next to him.

"Luke! What happened?" I asked, trying to keep the hysteria out of my voice. I avoided touching him no matter how much I wanted to, since I wasn't sure where and how he was hurt.

"That – fucking – idiot – hit my knee!" he spoke, forcing every word out of his mouth. "Don't touch me!"

I pushed Ronny away when he tried to check his injured leg. I realized it was the same one he had injured before. His bad leg. In a matter of seconds, there were almost half of our team, our coach, and medics surrounding us. I watched in horror while Luke tried to breathe in agony, unable to help him in any way. I tried to stay calm, but seeing him like that was scary as hell.

"It's going to be all right," I told him, placing my hand on his shoulder since that was the only thing I could do. "It's just – it's..." I trailed off, and I turned to look at his leg. I had no idea what was wrong. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but if he was in so much pain... it had to be broken. Again.

"Fuck, that hurts so much," Luke breathed out while the medics tried to get him to let go of his leg and hold still. "His knee crashed into mine... Of course it had to be the bad one..."

"We'll take you to the hospital. They'll treat you right away," someone said reassuringly, ending his sentence just a second before Luke's parents appeared behind him, looking as scared as I felt.

"What happened?" Mrs. Frost asked hysterically while Gwen was being awfully pale.

"My fucking leg..." Luke groaned. "Fuck...!"

"What happened? Is he all right?" the principal turned up behind them, and everything turned into one big, noisy chaos.

"For fuck's sake, everyone shut the fuck up! It's just my bloody knee," Luke yelled angrily, and everyone did shut up. "Fucking hell..." he groaned, resting back on the ground.

I almost started laughing from relief. I still felt horrible to see him in so much pain, but at least there wasn't blood anywhere. He didn't pass out, and he was acting normally. Seeing him pissed at us for making a scene soothed me. For some reason.

"I'm sorry," he suddenly said, looking at me. "I think our plans for the weekend are ruined now."

"Don't worry about it," I told him quietly. "We'll get to hang out later," I added as casually as I could, so no one would find us suspicious. God, I hated to be worried about that at this moment. He was injured for crying out loud, and I had to act like he was just a friend! But now was not the time to come out. If there ever was a good time for that, now was not it, since he was injured. That was a drama for another time.

That wasn't the worst part, though.

The worst part was having to stay behind when they loaded him up in an ambulance and drove him away.