“Sit the fuck down, Isaac!” Tyson snaps, picking up the chair and setting it behind me. His voice gives no room for argument. I don’t want to have this conversation with them, but I reluctantly drop into the chair and rest my head in my hands.
My friends are quiet for a minute as I hear the waitress approaching. “Here you go, gentlemen. Can I get you anything else?”
“Not right now. Thank you,” Tyson replies. A few seconds later, he continues talking to me. “Look. Clearly, something is going on with you. We’re your friends, Isaac. You can talk to us.”
“It’s nothing. I’m fine.”
“Well, playing like shit, being a complete jerk all weekend, and getting injured for being stupid on the field tells a different story.”
He’s right. I let this shit show with Evan get in my head and took it out on my teammates and on the other team. It got me injured and taken out of the game in the third quarter. In my head, I was convinced I could still play, and it pissed me off Coach sequestered me to the bench. It was the rightcall. I won’t be on the field for a few weeks now and if he had let me play, I probably would have done something else stupid or gotten a more serious injury.
I take a long drink from my beer, trying to decide what exactly I want to say to my two closest friends. At some point, I have to stop lying about who I am, no matter the cost, but I have to be ready to pay the price.
“What do you know?” I take the chickenshit way out.
“We don’t know anything. We guess there is something between you and Evan,” Tyson says.
“Why do you think that?”
Carter laughs beside me, “It’s obvious. Every time I go see my mom, you tag along. You never did that when Sandy was her boss. When the two of you are in the same room, you can’t take your eyes off each other.”
“So, no one told you anything about us.”
“No. Who would tell us?” Tyson asks.
“Hope. Evan.”
“You told my mom, but not us. Wow, some friend.” Carter holds his chest as if I’ve shot an arrow straight through it. Dramatic ass.
“I didn’t tell anyone. It is supposed to be a secret.”
“You do a crap job of keeping it a secret,” Tyson deadpans.
“Am I really that obvious?”
“Yes!” They both say at the same time.
I shake my head. No use keeping it from them now. “Well, you’ve figured out that I’m gay,” I say to Carter, since Tyson already knows that part. “You might as well know, I’ve been dating Evan since the day after we met. We went on a date, and I knew immediately. We’ve been keeping it a secret because I don’t want the media to get ahold of the story. It’s no one’s business.”
“That doesn’t explain why you’ve been such an ass,” Carter replies.
“He told Hope after I asked him to keep it a secret and then told her to keep it quiet. I can’t be with someone who lies and doesn’t respect my privacy. I haven’t spoken to him since Saturday.”
“That’s what she meant.” Carter mumbles, digging his phone out of his pocket.
“What are you talking about?”
He takes a few seconds to pull up something on his phone. “Mom texted me on Saturday after we left. It says ‘If Isaac talks to you about anything important, tell him it didn’t happen the way he thinks it did. I figured it out on my own and was asked not to say anything.’ I asked her what she was talking about, but the only response I got was ‘you’ll know.’ This must be it.”
“Call her,” I practically growl at Carter. He taps the call button and hands the phone to me. I glance around to make sure we are still the only ones in the room then hit the speaker button.
“Hi, Carter,” she answers on the first ring.
“Hey, Mom. I’ve got you on speaker phone and I’m with Tyson and Isaac.”
“Hi, boys.”
“Hope, tell me how you found out about Evan and me.”