Chapter 33

1 week later...

Derek's POV

Ever since we exchanged head, me and Adrian have been sleeping together in his room, barely able to both fit on his bed. We needed to do that. We've gotten closer since that experience. We're sleeping together in just pants or shorts, so we can just have skin to skin contact. He's been so sweet and I have never been more in love with someone before now.

"Hi," Adrian says to me, despite me having my eyes closed.

"Hi, angel."

"Do you wanna do something today?" he asks.

"Kind of."

"Like what?"

I open my eyes and I'm met with the sight of the only person I want to see. We had a game last night, and we lost, but we're still sitting at an 8-3 record, which is solid. We are still a very good team, and if we keep playing the way we are for the rest of the year, we'll probably be a top 25 team in the country. Me and Adrian are still playing at an insane level, we just happened to lose the game last night.

"I was thinking that since Devin already knows that we're together, what's stopping us from telling everyone else?" I ask. "Or at least just everyone that's really close to us. Like DeShaun, Kai, Jax, Aaron, and Cam," I suggest.

Adrian's face lights up and he kisses my cheek, something that he does all the time and I love it. It just feels sweeter and more genuine than a lip kiss. I kiss him on the forehead all the time, especially when we're standing, because it's the easiest part of him to kiss when we're both standing.

"That would be awesome. What gave you the idea to tell everyone now?" he asks.

"I don't know. I just feel like you've wanted a boyfriend to be open with for a while, and I want to be with you forever, so coming out would sweeten the deal, you know?"

"I would love to do that, Derek. I seriously can't thank you enough for wanting to do this. This genuinely means so much to me. You have no idea how amazing you're making my life. You're the best boyfriend I could've ever asked for," he tells me.

"I'm glad I make you happy, Adri. Now, how should we tell everyone?"

"I don't know. Get them all in one place. Maybe invite them all for dinner somewhere and tell them all that we're dating," he suggests.

"That sounds like a plan." I kiss his temple and he smiles at me before I swiftly wrap my arms around him and pull him on top of me.

"I like your body," he says, his fingers tracing my chest.

"Is that all you like about me?"

"No, I like your face too. And your hair. And your personality. Basically everything about you is perfect," he tells me.

I hug him and he hugs me back. "I like those things about you too. You're very cute."

"Thanks. You're handsome."

"I prefer being called sexy, but any compliment from you is a win for me," I state.

"You're also sexy. You're also very cute. Your face is so pretty and your body is the kind that I would want on top of me," he whispers seductively.

"Are you horny?"

"Yeah."

"Uhh, I think it's kind of too early for me to want to do something," I tell him.

"That's fine. Just being here with you is enough."

"Do you want to shower first?" I ask.

"Why don't we shower together?"

"I don't have great self control around you when you're naked, Adri," I remind him.

"True."

We lie in bed together for a few more minutes in complete silence, just appreciating that we're here together. I still can't fully get the fact that I have a boyfriend through my head. I am dating someone that wants me, and I want him even more. I'm finally done just going through life feeling happy but also not happy. I'm done living in purgatory, just accepting that I'll never be as happy as I could possibly be. I'm done living a lie and trying to conceal who I truly am. I'm gay, and I'm fine with that. Adrian made me fine with that.

The last month has been the happiest I've ever been, and the only major change that's happened in the last month has been Adrian and I dating. He just makes me feel so different. I can laugh without feeling insecure about my smile, I can be emotional and cry if I need to, and he won't judge me, he'll just make me feel better, and I can hug someone that I truly care about more than anything else.

This relationship has really made me think about how my life was before now. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I didn't enjoy very much, and I was stuck with a mother that might've loved me a little bit, but didn't care that much about me. I hid myself from the world, and I was able to do that for 18 years. I knew I needed to hide myself because my mom's hatred for who I am was just too much and I couldn't deal with that. Adrian walking in on me was a blessing in disguise. He was the first person to know that I'm gay, and I'm lucky it was him and not someone else, like my mom or her boyfriend.

Thinking about my life before me and Adrian began dating makes my life seem grim. I don't think I ever seriously processed the way I had been living until recently. I was suppressing who I was out of fear, and I no longer feel that gut wrenching fear that I used to feel.

I give full credit to Adrian. I don't know what I would do if he never walked in on me. Maybe I would've continued to just live my life in fear and hide myself. Maybe I would've eventually fallen in love with him. I would like to think the second option is the correct one, because Adrian has always had a crush on me, it was just up to me to finally figure that out and realize that Adrian is my soul mate, and he is the only person that could make me happy.

"What are you smiling about?" Adrian asks.

"You," I answer, turning to face him again.

"What about me?"

"How you've just made me a better person."

"Derek, that better person was always in you. It was up to you to bring out that better person, and I don't think it was me who brought that better person out," he states.

"I'm serious though, Adri. You make me feel things I've never felt before."

"Are you getting those weird stomach feelings every time I say something romantic too? I've read a little bit about what those are and they're called butterflies and I'm getting them because I'm so romantically attached and attracted to you."

"I think I'm getting those too. Because I'm so romantically attached and attracted to you too," I tell him, connecting our foreheads.

"Are we a corny couple?"

"No, I don't think so. Not yet, at least. We aren't giving each other long speeches about our need for each other yet, even though we both know we need each other. I'm sure Cameron and Aaron are a corny couple."

"Yeah, definitely. They are definitely giving each other love speeches daily. Every morning for 30 minutes and every night for 30 minutes," he laughs before realizing that I'm staring at him with a tiny smile.

"I wish you knew how much you mean to me, Adri," I tell him.

"Can you tell me how much I mean to you?"

"Not yet," I grin, tapping his nose.

"Why?"

"Because when I finally do, I want it to be in Hawaii. With you. Because your family is super nice to their gorgeous son's boyfriend who they've never met."

"Fine. It will be more romantic than telling me in a dorm room twin bed, so I'll allow it," he smiles.

"Exactly. Now, I think one of us should probably shower now, so I'm gonna shower," I tell him, sitting up.

"Okay. Can I get one more kiss?"

"You can get as many kisses as you want."

I kiss him on the lips and hold his hand softly before letting go of it and walking to the bathroom, taking one more look at the majestic man that's my boyfriend, and walking in. Life is just different when I'm in love.

I shower quickly so Adrian has time to shower after me. I want to go somewhere for lunch and I want it to be romantic. I want to drive kind of far to find some nice restaurant where we can sit outside and look out and see the city.

I exit the bathroom without a shirt on, and Adrian immediately puts his phone down and stares at me.

"How many steroids are you on?" he asks.

"None," I grin. I sit down next to him on the bed and kiss his temple. I pick him up and sit him on my lap before hugging him in a way that could crush his bones.

He is completely stuck in my arms and he laughs super hard while I dig my head into his neck and kiss the same spot countless times. I finally pull away and Adrian's heartwarming laughter dies down eventually.

"Do you wanna go somewhere nice for lunch?" I ask.

"Sure. Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know. I want a nice view of the city. We could go downtown, that would work."

"That sounds great," he smiles, pecking my cheek again.

"I like when you do that."

"Do what?"

"Kiss my cheek. It's really cute," I tell him.

"Well, it's usually the easiest part of you to kiss. And your skin is so soft there. I can always see your cheek bones and smile lines and I think it's really pretty that all your dimples are always visible when you're around me. I like kissing your smile lines and your dimples. You're really cute."

"Thank you," I say before kissing him on the lips.

"Of course. Now, I don't like having to leave your lap, but I would like to shower. Can my boyfriend let me out of captivity?"

"Yeah. But I'm not gonna be happy about it."

"I'll be back in a sec, babe, don't worry," he says, getting off my lap and kissing me on the cheek once again.

He goes to the bathroom and I get a shirt on and start looking up the best views in the city and pick one spot. A restaurant on the top floor of a hotel. It looks really fancy and expensive, but with the NIL deals I've been getting recently, it won't be too bad. I can pay for it and still have enough for a few more expensive meals this week.

I'm really excited to go to Hawaii. Adrian's parents wanting me to go with them is such an amazing blessing. Before Adrian told me they wanted me to come, I was seriously dreading having to spend Christmas alone and with my mom. I'm probably not gonna tell her that I'm going somewhere else, I'm just gonna go. I doubt she really wants to see me since she knows my stance on gay people. I like them. I love one of them, and I myself am gay.

Adrian gets out of the bathroom quickly and we sit on the couch together. He sits on one end of the couch, with his body facing me and his legs draped over my thighs while we watch TV.

"Devin said he might come by soon," Adrian states.

"Oh, okay. Should we ask him to see if he can you, me, him, Cam and Aaron, Jax and Kai, and DeShaun all in one place? So we can tell everyone that we're dating?" I suggest.

"Sure, that would be a good idea. He'll be here in like an hour, so we can tell him and then go to lunch. I'm excited to see where you're gonna take me."

"I'll take you somewhere very romantic," I tell him.

"Thank you, Derek. You really don't have to be spoiling me like this, but I'm not really complaining because I like having a boyfriend that pays for my shit."

"I like having a boyfriend who I can buy random shit for," I say, looking down at Adrian again.

"Thank you," Adrian says.

"Of course."

The two of us sit together for a while until Devin gets here, and we tell him we have a request and let him know that we want him to get everyone in one place. He agrees and me and Adrian go to lunch.

"Where are we going?" Adrian asks.

"It's a surprise."

"Ugghhh."

"You'll like it, Adri, don't worry."

"Okay."

We eventually get to a spot on the outskirts of main LA, where there is a 5 star rated food truck and a lot of grassy area. I put a picnic blanket in the trunk while Adrian wasn't looking and now we're here and he still doesn't totally know what's going on.

"Are there places to sit?" he asks me.

"You'll see."

I hold my hand out for him and he grabs it quickly. Holding hands in public is just such an amazing feeling. I just get so giddy inside when we're holding hands. Everyone can see that I'm gay but I don't mind because it's Adrian and I'm willing to do so much for him. Love can change a lot of things about a person's mentality.

"Is this ramen? Out of a food truck?" he asks.

"It had really good ratings, and there's all these people here, I think it'll be really good."

"Okay. I trust you."

"Good. Thank you," I say, kissing him.

The line eventually gets to us and we order our food. We both got spicy and sour broth and chicken and normal ramen noodles. We haven't really had ramen with each other before, but it's nice to see that we see eye to eye on what flavor of ramen we like the most.

I grabbed the blanket so we could sit down better, and I sat down and Adrian sat down in front of me so my legs were around him.

"It's so nice today. It's December too, shit's crazy," Adrian notices.

"Yeah. It's never super cold out, but it's rarely this nice."

"Yeah."

"Maybe God knew that you and me were going out to eat today so he cleared the skies so we could have a nice lunch," I suggest.

"Yeah. Maybe he did," Adrian smiles, looking back at me to plant a kiss on my lips.

"You're so pretty," I state.

"Thank you. You're so beautiful."

I put down my bowl and wrap my arms around Adrian from the back and pull his back to my torso, hugging him as hard as I can. I never want to let go, because this feeling I have when I'm with Adrian has become a feeling that I can't live without.

"You're so perfect. You know that?" I tell him.

"I'm not. You are."

"I definitely am not perfect. Sure, no one is really perfect, but you're the closest thing to it."

"I don't know about that. I try, and I think you make me a better person, but perfect? I think neither of us are perfect. I think that we as a couple fill out each other's flaws and make us a perfect couple," he says.

"Yeah. We are the perfect couple."

"I can't believe we're going to Hawaii. That's gonna be so fun."

"Definitely. I've never been. Honestly, I really don't like flying. I act all tough and shit all the time, but I'm just tall, really. I'm soft," I realize.

"No you're not. You're strong, Derek. Me, on the other hand, I don't know if I could've lived 18 years of my life knowing that the person closest to me hates me for who I am. You went through some shit, Derek. You don't realize how difficult you had it. I was scared to come out, but I wasn't 100% sure if my parents were homophobic. I always had the plan of coming out at some point because they never jumped out to me as homophobes. Your parents were openly homophobic from the jump, I can't imagine how that impacted the way you saw things."

"I don't know. I just tried to hide and keep myself from ever revealing my true self, and I did that until we started dating. Ever since we started dating, my life has just felt so different. I feel alive and I have a person that knows who I actually am, not just that I'm a football player or not just that I have a lot of friends. It's just amazing. You've been through stuff, all summer you handled yourself as well as you could've," I tell him.

He laughs a little. "I had anxiety attacks so many times, Derek, I don't know if that's really handling something well. I'm still haunted by that now, because we have to play those assholes sometimes. But I don't feel as scared because you're with me and I know you'll do everything in your power to protect me. Outside of my parents, no one has ever cared about me like that."

I hug him again and kiss his neck. "You're my boyfriend. Of course I care. When you got jumped by those Florida State dicks, I've never felt such anger and I need to admit something to you. I did go out and find them and beat the living shit out of them."

"Really? There were like 8 of them!" Adrian states, his eyes wide open.

"I know. But I have strong mental power, Adri. No one can beat me in a fight when I'm pissed. And seeing you hurt got me so pissed."

"I'm glad," he laughs.

"Yeah."

We eventually finish our food and go back to the dorm to just chill for a couple hours before we go to dinner with all of our closest teammates. It will just be the two of us, Devin, DeShaun, Cam and Aaron, and Kai and Jax. I am not sweating this whole thing to be honest, I know that they'll be fine with it, if anything they'll be super happy about it. They'll be proud of us for going semi public, and they'll be supportive.

"Okay, I think we should get going," Adrian says.

"Okay. Where are we going?"

"Olive Garden. Devin picked it out and he's making us pay for it."

"So I'll pay?" I ask.

"Derek, you don't have to pay for everything."

"It's fine, don't worry."

"Ugh. I know I can't convince you," he says before hugging me.

I hug him back and kiss his forehead. "Thank you for letting me pay, babe."

"I have no choice," he laughs.

"Okay. Let's go."

We leave the building and get in my car. I am going to be the one to drive us today, and I feel really confident about this whole situation. There's no way they won't be supportive, right? They will obviously be happy for us, right? Maybe they'll be upset that I didn't come out earlier, but they'll understand that it would be in my best interest for me not to be public while still living with my ultra homophobic mother. They'll be okay with it.

"Hey, you doing okay?" I ask Adrian, noticing that he's biting his nails.

"Yeah. I'm just a little stressed about this."

"Adri, we'll be okay. They'll be happy that the two prettiest guys in the friend group are together."

I can almost tell he playfully rolled his eyes at that, but I don't think he's mad about that compliment. I think he's happy to be called pretty, and he's sure as hell prettier than me.

"I guess so," he mumbles.

"I want this, babe. I want us to slowly become more and more public, because this relationship is beautiful. I am seriously falling so hard for you and I want everyone to know. You're off limits now, and I know there are a lot of people that want to be with you. But they need to know that there's no chance for that, because your boyfriend is very overprotective."

He laughs a little at this. "Hawaii is gonna be fun, isn't it."

"As long as I can just walk around with no shirt I'll have a good time. And if you walk around with no pants, that would be a cherry on top."

"I'll only wear no pants around you. You're the only one that gets this," he says, pointing at his general body area.

"I also happen to be the luckiest man in the world. I see a correlation."

"Thank you," he laughs. "I'm luckier. I get that extra large Pringles can in your pants."

"Yup. Just for you."

"Just for me."

We pull into the parking lot of Olive Garden and collectively take a deep breath before kissing each other quickly and exiting the car.

A/N: I am so sorry about my updating schedule shit. I am so motivated to write, but I just genuinely do not have the time. I wish I had the time, but the amount of homework I'm getting right now is insane and I am going crazy. Writing this is one of the only ways to take my mind off of shit and just chill for a little. I love writing, I love everyone that reads my works, and I am so thankful for the people that are sticking with me through this new, once a week update schedule. I think by mid November I will be much more free. I won't have after school stuff and I will have more time before I go to sleep to do homework. Thank you so much for reading!!!