The dorms are... intense. Music thumping so loud I can feel it in my chest, men the size of small buildings everywhere. The guys huddle closer together.
“G!” Someone bellows. “Bout time!”
A guy who might be a running back based on his build appears, grinning wickedly. "And this must be the famous Doc! Damn, G, when you said he was small, I thought you were exaggerating."
My face heats. Gavin's hand finds my lower back.
"Devin, play nice," Gavin warns, but he's smiling.
"I'm always nice! Jamal! Omar! G brought his boyfriend!"
More giants appear. I'm surrounded by trees. Human trees who could bench press me without breaking a sweat. One of them, Jamal, the captain with the C embroidered on his shirt, looks between us with raised eyebrows.
"Wait, this is real? You actually..." He stops, studying me. "Huh. Wouldn't have called it, but I see it."
"Pay up!" Devin crows. "I told y'all something was different about G! That's twenty bucks each!"
My stomach drops. "You bet on?—"
"On when Gavin would finally figure his shit out," Devin interrupts, already collecting bills. "Dude's been shy about the locker room for YEARS. I called it sophomore year."
"I wasn't shy about—" Gavin starts.
"Bro, you literally changed in the bathroom stalls," another player laughs. "We thought you had a weird birthmark or some-shit."
This is... not how I expected this to go. They're teasing him, but it's the same way they'd tease him about anything else. No disgust, no anger, just the usual guy shit.
Well. Mostly.
"Who the fuck let the queers in?" Some asshole sneers from across the room. "This a football party or a pride parade?"
His buddy snickers, loud and deliberate. "Careful, Brad. Might be contagious."
Jamal's already moving before I can even process it.
"Bradley, shut the fuck up and get out." His voice could cut glass. "You too, Chris. Out."
"Oh come on, it was a joke?—"
"Do I look like I'm laughing?" Jamal steps into his space. "Out. We'll deal with your bullshit tomorrow.
The two assholes storm off. Jamal turns back to us as if nothing had happened.
"Sorry about that. Some people are stuck in the Stone Age." He looks at me with genuine interest. "Gavin says you're pre-med?"
"Yeah, hoping for cardiac surgery eventually." The Switzerland letter flashes through my mind. I push it down.
"No shit? That's incredible. My mom's a surgeon, says it's brutal but worth it." He seems genuinely impressed. "You must be scary smart."
"He is," Gavin says proudly, and damn, that does things to me. I can feel a flush of heat going up my neck.Damn, don't start blushing now!
More players drift over, most friendly, some curious. Devin makes about twelve jokes about our size difference, each more ridiculous than the last.
"So do you just like, pick him up for everything?" Devin waggles his eyebrows suggestively.
My face feels like it's gone nuclear. Gavin laughs, pulling me closer.
"A baby gay never tells," he says primly, and Devin loses it.
