Is it me or does that question hint at knowing something? Not that it matters. I rarely spend the night at Alka and Oscar’s.
“Yeah. I guess I’ve never seen him bring anyone around, but I don’t ask where he’s going every time he leaves either.”
“Has he mentioned anyone?” Reeve asks, dropping onto the bench beside me to tie his laces.
“Just so I’m clear, are you all interested in Booker? I can put in a good word for all of you,” I say, raising an eyebrow.
Reeve laughs. “No. I’m just inserting myself into the conversation.”
“I’m not sharing that fine ass,” Greer says, shaking his head.
I snort. “I don’t know, dude. Why don’t you message him and find out? Idoknow that he’s on the app somewhat frequently. He’s always showing me pictures that people are posting.”
“Huh.”
The school’s app is pretty cool. It’s image-based like ShareIt, but there’s also an option for a longer caption like Spectrum. Unlike both those apps, there aren’t bots taking down posts and flagging accounts for stupid shit all over the place. It’s also not prude-ish and homophobic.
It’s also like Click Drip where you can post dirty images but without all the radical assholes dropping in to bully you. Click Drip’s terms of service might be non-existent, but that also means they don’t police the hate.
The Pride Room app is a combination of all three of the public platforms, but you can’t make your account. Admin does it for you, so there are some things you can’t change at all, like your name, age, status (staff, student, alumni), access, and if youclick on someone’s profile, you can also see their student ID image even if it’s different than the one they’re using for their profile pic.
We can post whatever we want as long as it’s not hateful, bullying, phobic of any kind, or anything along those lines. I don’t know what the punishment would be, but the warning says it’s “harsh.” It’s monitored by IT—real people whose job is to monitor the app.
When I saw my first dick pic in my feed, my first thought was thatsomeonein IT sits there and looks at dick pics all day. I wonder if they enjoy that. Is this their dream job?
“Maybe I will,” Greer says.
I close my locker once I’m finished lacing up and head out with my friends. Alka plans to make his announcement right before practice. I thought he should wait until after, but he wanted to get it out of the way. He wants to tell them now since we have a scrimmage next week. He wants them to have plenty of time to sit with this information and work through whatever might be bothering them about it.
“Mm, mm, mmm,” Greer mumbles beside me. A glance at him shows that he’s looking at Alka. I’m going to have to ask Alka if he ever notices the way some of his team looks at him.
I try to hide my smile as I look at the grass.
We join our team, gathered around Alka. Declan’s with him, as is Harper. There are a couple other guys sitting on the bench too, but I don’t know who they are. My heart skips when Oscar comes around the bleachers. He flashes me a smile and stops at Alka’s side to give him a quick kiss before joining the men on the bench, whom he seems to know.
“I still can’t believe he’s married to a porn star,” Reeve says.
“I can’t believe there’s a porn star here to watch our practice,” Jeff comments.
“Who else could possibly be good enough forhot Alkathan a porn star?” Greer says.
I shake my head. Yeah, this is going to go over well.
“This everyone?” Alka asks as he looks at all our faces. His eyes stop on mine for a second longer, and I see his lips twitch a little. After that first day when he looked at me like I was a ghost, he’s been very careful to keep his expressions as neutral toward me as they are toward everyone else.
I’m not entirely convinced he succeeds since it feels like he’s always smiling at me.
“Yes, Coach,” someone says. I think it’s our captain, Dorian Rutland.
“Good. Take a knee.”
We get down on one knee to listen.
Alka takes a breath. “There’s something we need to talk about before practice. I’m going to ask that you listen with an open mind,hearwhat I’m telling you, and trust me. Okay?”
There’s a chorus of agreement and heads nodding. I choose not to speak but nod my head. His eyes meet mine for a second.
“In our favorite sappy feel-good movies, there’s always a serendipitous meet cute. Right? You run into someone who makes your entire life explode like fireworks. And in the ones with a twist, when your fling is over and you’re left pining, that person shows up again as your boss at a new job or your new neighbor who’s running from the law or in witness protection. You feel me?”
