He nuzzles into my shoulder, and I quickly rearrange my shirt to make sure the hickey is covered, really not wanting my mom to see. He gives me the slightest smirk when he notices.
“We saw the game,” Beth says, “and the interviews. I’m sorry that happened to you.”
“Yeah,” Stephen says sadly, “it’s all ended well, but, I wish it hadn’t happened like that.”
“It wasn’t fair that you were outed like that,” I say. “Fucking Kyle.”
“Language, mijo,” Mom mutters.
“Sorry, Mamá, but if you knew about him you’d say the same thing. He’s not a nice person.”
“Donovan’s right,” Beth says. “I’ve heard a bit about him, and he’s a nasty piece of work.”
“Sounds like someone needs to teach him a lesson,” Diablo says.
“Stephen already broke his nose,” I say, trying to convey to my brother that he really doesn’t need to get involved.
“Huh, well that’s made me like you even more,” he says to Stephen, and I roll my eyes. Of course Stephen getting violent makes my brother warm to him.
Stephen chuckles, “I’m not proud of it, and it’s not something I should make a habit of, but he deserved it. There’s more to it which I’m not allowed to talk about yet, but basically Kyle sold his story to a gossip column.”
“Sold his story?” I scoff. “What story?”
“According to him, what really happened that night is that I came onto him, but he turned me down, so I punched him and told him to never tell anyone I was gay.”
“Oh my god,” I groan, “it couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“I know,” Stephen says. “But the gossip site didn’t care, they had something about me that was newsworthy, so they kept digging, and found someone willing to corroborate. They released it during the game because they knew it would cause the most impact, the Warriors and my name would be trending, so it would spike their views.”
“Assholes,” Beth says. “Sorry, Sofía.”
“Don’t apologize,” Mom says, “he sounds awful, and what that gossip site did was just as bad.”
“Well we’ve got the press conference tomorrow,” Stephen says, “so we can tell the truth and set everything straight.”
“Are you sure you’re both ready?” Miguel asks. “This is going to bring a lot of attention on you both.”
He’s looking at me as he says it, and he’s not wrong. I’m going from being invisible, hiding my sexuality from everyone, to being out in the most public way possible.
“Honestly, I don’t know. This is going to throw us into a spotlight, which sucks when all we really want is to be together. But I support Stephen, and I support his career, so whatever happens, we’ll figure it out.” I look at him, and hefeels safe; he feels like home. “We love each other, and that’s the most important thing. The rest we can deal with.”
“I love you,” Stephen says, smiling as he rests his head against mine. “And we’ve got people to help us, we’re not alone. We’ve got the entire football team and staff; they’re all supporting us. And Mindy, our media liaison officer, she’s been on this like nothing I’ve ever seen, she’ll help us navigate everything that happens online.”
“Well you definitely have our support,” Miguel says, “whatever you both need.”
“Of course,” Mom says, holding his hand, “we’re here for you both.”
“And us, and the club,” Beth says, resting her head on my brother’s shoulder.
“Absolutely,” Diablo says, “just say the word and we can make it so that Kyle never fucking existed.”
“Mijo!” Mom says.
“I’m joking, Mamá,” he laughs, but we all know he isn’t, and that the club is absolutely capable of making that happen.
“I’d rather focus on the positives,” Stephen says. “We can finally do all the things we couldn’t when we had to keep us a secret. I can take you out for dinner, we can go to the movies—”
“Visible hickeys,” Diablo chuckles.
