We throw our caps into the air and the ceremony is over and the crowd starts to pour onto the field to find their loved ones, to hug them, to congratulate them, to tell them it’s almost time to move out because didn’t they know their parents were going to convert their bedroom into the new entertainment room?
I’m jostled in the crowd. My back is patted. My hair is ruffled. Some people glare at me. Others avoid me completely. People I don’t even know shake my hand. I’m pretty sure that hottie junior wrestler named Jake grabs my ass and grins at me. He slips a piece of paper into my hand and winks as he walks away. His phone number. Good Lord. I’m a fucking rock star. Sort of. I hope no girl throws her panties at my face. That’d be weird. And disgusting.
The crowd is too much. I can’t see where I’m going. I don’t—
“Tyson!” My name is thundered. A deep voice. A voice I love. “Ty!”
There’s a discarded folding chair, knocked over. I upright it and stand on it. The crowd mills around me. I’m as tall as them. Taller. And once I’m up, I can see him, towering above all the others, sweeping his gaze from side to side, his shoulders tense. He looks like he’s getting ready to knock everyone to the ground to find me.
I call his name and he turns to me. Immediately he moves. Everyone gets out of his way. He doesn’t take his gaze from me, and when he’s only feet away, I jump. He catches me. I wrap my legs around his hips and he wraps his big arms around me, crushing me to him. One hand goes to the back of my head, and I lay my cheek on his shoulder, scraping my nose against his neck. I can feel his heart racing in his chest.
“Are you mad at me?” I whisper in his ear.
He shivers. “No. Not for this. Not ever. You… are you sure?”
I nod into his neck.
He sighs, though it sounds like relief. “Okay, Ty. Then it’s okay. For you. For me. It’s all okay.”
And even as everyone moves around us, for that moment, there’s only me and him. Of course, though, it doesn’t last.
Our family finds us, and Dom sets me on my feet and there are tears poured on me and around me. I am pulled into hug after hug. I’m told it will be okay. I’m told everyone here loves me no matter what, they love me just the same as they did before. Not that I doubted that. Not that I thought it would change. Creed tells me he’s convinced now that JJ will probably be gay too, given that almost every male he knows likes to suck cock. Anna slaps him on the back of the head as JJ asks what cock is.
Otter’s one of the last, and he hugs me too, picking me up and spinning me around and around and around, like he did when I was a Kid. I try to beg off, knowing his leg isn’t as strong as it was before that car accident years before, but he holds on tight. “I’m very proud of you,” he whispers in my ear. “So very, very proud. And your brother is too. You just… hell, Kid. You kind of caught us all off guard with that one. I thought you were going to wait to say anything?”
“It’s who I am,” I say, as if that should be enough.
He nods as he sets me down. “I know. And you won’t hear me say otherwise. You’ve…. Bear’s just going to be Bear. You know that as well as I do.”
Speaking of. “Where is he?” I ask, looking around. My brother isn’t with the rest of them.
Otter shakes his head. “He’s waiting on the sidelines, over by the bleachers. Said he wanted to talk to you alone when we were done here.”
Oh, fuck.
Dom comes to stand beside me. “I’m going with him,” he says, looking defiantly at Otter. He sounds a bit angry “He’s not going by himself.”
“I think this is between Bear and him,” Otter says kindly. “Dom, Bear’s not going to do anything stupid. You know him. He just needs to talk this out with the Kid before he can make it click in his head. That’s just who Bear is.”
Dom snarls in frustration, but Otter’s right and we all know it. I’m the one who made the choice to come out like I did, and therefore I’m the one who has to deal with the consequences, whatever they may be.
Besides. It’s Bear. I’m not scared of Bear.
Well. Maybe a little. It is Bear, after all.
“Fuck,” I mutter. “This seemed like such a good idea when I had it.”
Otter laughs ruefully. “Given yours and your brother’s histories of ‘good ideas,’ you would think one of you would realize you shouldn’t always do the first thing that pops into your head.”
I scowl at Otter. “I’m not anything like Bear! And besides, if we didn’t do the first thing that comes into our head, then we’d sit there thinking about it, and you know what happens when Bear allows himself to think too much.”
“Which he’s probably doing now.”
“Fuck,” I say again.
“Fuck, indeed,” Otter agrees. “Probably should get this over with, Kid. We’ve got dinner reservations in an hour. If I know your brother at all, you’re going to need at least that long.”
“Gays take forever,” Creed complains. “Jesus, now there are three of them. It’s going to take hours for anything to happen, and when it does, it’s going to be done in song with a choreographed dance number that’ll end with glitter cannons fired into the air.”