05

« We’ll plan everything out later, but right now, let’s just prepare for the routine later today, » she tells me as she gets up to join all the rest of the dance girls who are talking with Coach Erixon.

After dance practice, Melissa and I walk out of the gym to see Cody and Joey standing there waiting for us. They’re wearing athletic shorts and jerseys while sweating profusely. Joey’s hair is an absolute mess probably from him running around during football practice and running his hands through it.

« How was dance practice ? » Cody asked his girlfriend who wraps her arm around his waist.

« It was good, » she says and starts to tell something to her boyfriend that I can’t hear from where I’m at. Joey walks behind me as we walk out the back door to the parking lot before he comes back next to me in silence while the other two are whispering stuff to each other.

« How was dance for you ? » Joey asks, finally saying something to me since earlier today in the locker room. I clear my throat before looking up at him to see his soft expression, which is different from how he looks at everyone else that I’ve seen.

« Good, pretty hectic, but good, » I say, not knowing how else to explain it because it was so hectic with all the groups performing the routines and a lot of the girls got lost halfway through during a difficult part and had to step out.

« Uh, excuse me, it was more than good for you, you got the lead, » Melissa said with a confused look along with a playful smile.

« You got the lead ? » Cody asked in bewilderment because I don’t think he quite understood how much dance experience I actually had because I didn’t talk about too much as to not seem like I’m bragging at all.

« Yeah, the male lead, » I tell him. He reaches his hand out for a high five as he tells me ‘congratulations’ and ‘good job, man’ while Joey pats me on the back in a silent way of telling me ‘congratulations’.

Melissa comes over as we reach her car to give me a hug. « I’ll see you tomorrow, alright ? »

« Alright, » I tell her as I continue my walk to my car along with Joey who was following me, probably not wanting to be with Cody while he says bye to Melissa.

« You have a nice car, » Joey tells me as he lightly kicks the tire while I unlock the doors to put my bag in the back while he looks inside to probably see what the interior is like.

« Oh, thanks, I got it two years ago for my 16th birthday, » I tell him before walking back to the front where he stood and leaned against my gray car.

He comes to stand next to me and lean on the car as well. « I want you to know that I’m trying, I’m trying to find the courage and the confidence to get through this and do what I feel is right, but it’s hard. I think you know that it’s hard and you’re taking it easy on me, but I do want you to know that I haven’t forgotten what I did and I am so sorry about it. »

« It’s okay, I understand more of why it happened. I know how hard it is to deal with your sexuality and you just need to find a time when you feel is right to deal with it all. I think you are ready to move forward, but maybe not to officially come out and I understand that greatly, » I tell him and he crosses his arms before sighing.

« Let’s wait until Friday when I have more time to figure all of these emotions out, » he says to me. I see the tenseness in his shoulders just like the first day, which tells me that I might’ve crossed the boundaries and said too much, so I quiet down and let him do what feels best for him.

« Okay, » I say and he reaches over to wrap his arm around my shoulder, which sends the wonderful sparks throughout my whole body that I’ve never felt with anyone but him.

« Thank you for making this easy, I thought you would hate me after what I did. I would’ve hated someone if they did that to me, » he says with a chuckle that’s like heaven to my ears that instantly calms me down.

« If you were someone else that just did it to show your dominance, then yeah, I probably would’ve hated you, » I say with a chuckle and he nods with a small smile.

« Alright, break’s almost up, so I have to get back to football practice, but I will see you tomorrow, alright ? » He tells me as he stands up and starts to make his way through the cars.

« Wait, practice isn’t over ? Why’d you come then ? » I ask him because I thought he was just walking with Cody out here and his car was behind mine so he kept walking with me.

« Well, I didn’t want you to be a third wheel with the lovebirds, so I came to keep you company, » he told me as he walked backwards to look at me.

I chuckle. « You know, it’s okay to say that you wanted to see me, I won’t make fun of you for it. »

He gives me a playful look. « Fine, I wanted to see you. »

« Wow, what a loser, » I say with an obvious playful tone and he notices it before walking over to me and hitting me lightly on the back of the head to continue the playfulness we were doing.

I see his smile drop slightly as he starts to walk away again and I realize that what I’m about to do is something that I would never do, but I think making an exception for him is the right thing to do.

« Hey, before you go, can you help me with something first ? » I ask him as I stand up fully and make my way to the back of my car where I know no one would be able to see us from that point. He gives me a confused look before he follows me to behind my car and once he’s there standing in front of me, I feel the butterflies in my stomach even more than before because he’s right there. I know I probably look like an idiot as I stand there and stare at him, so I lean forward to grab at his jersey.

Once I have the fabric locked in my hands, I pull him down to my height and press our lips together, which is like the sparks that I was feeling earlier are heightened 1,000 times and it’s like fireworks just went off. He sets his hand on my waist while I let my hands slide up his chest to rest on his neck and shoulders.

I have to force myself to pull away because I don’t want him to get in trouble for being late back to practice. He bites his lip as he looks at me and I can see that his eyes are now that electric blue color that confuses the hell out of me because how do his eyes just chance color ?

I clear my throat as I remove my hands from his body to take a step back. « Well, thanks for helping me out with that. »

He chuckles before taking the step that I had just taken to be right in front of me again. His hand sets on my waist again as he leans down to press a soft kiss to my forehead, immediately calming my nerves that I hadn’t just done something very stupid.

« I’ll see you tomorrow, » he whispers before walking away. I make my way into my car and sit there for a few minutes to just walk through what I just did. If that went wrong, then I could’ve severely messed up how he was doing with figuring out his sexuality. Fortunately, I think it went fine due to how he reacted afterwards. Oh, how confusing everything is right now…