Seeing they’d once been mates, Curtis could have done without getting called by his last name. He should have seen that as a warning, but as he’d told Sal, he wasn’t known for his brains.
Feeling too awkward to sit, he’d leaned on the back of Byron’s guest chair and tried to maintain eye contact. It didn’t help that Byron and Sal had the same wide green eyes. “I, uh, won’t take too much of your time. I don’t wanna be offensive with this, but I wanted to let you know... I’m, uh, interested in Sal.”
Byron hadn’t said anything in reply. He’d never been much of a talker, but Curtis wasn’t prepared for this level of nitrogen cold silence. He’d rubbed his sweating palms on his shorts and kept going. “I’ve always been into Sal, but I guess this is me saying... we’ve been talking. Dating, I guess. And I want things to go further between us. Dating, I mean, not…” Curtis’ face burned like he’d been shot with a flame-tipped arrow. “I, uh… sorry, I don’t know what I’m doing…”
Byron looked at the ceiling, as though maybe God would save him from this chat.
“But I really like Sal,” Curtis blurted out. “Heaps. And I know Sal’s worried about you and how it’s all gonna go down when you find out about us, so I figured maybe if we talked…”
The silence lasted so long that it felt like someone had hit a mute button.
“Did you, uh, hear what I said?” Curtis asked when it had all become too painful.
“I did.” Byron’s voice was hard. “I also knew you had a thing for them.”
“This isn’t that,” Curtis said at once. “I’m not?—”
“Making up for lost time?”
“No, I’m?—”
“Fucking with the coach’s sister to prove some dumb-fuck point?”
“No, I’m t?—”
Byron stood like he was about to start swinging. “You know Sal’s deal?”
“I know they’re non-binary, and I respect tha?—”
“Shut up.” Byron’s voice echoed around the office, reverberating off the walls.
Again, Curtis considered leaving. Again, he’d fucked up. “Sal likes me, I know they do?—”
“So, you think you can just waltz in here and tell me you wanna fuck my non-binary sister like you’re doing me a favour? Like you’re the bachelor of the fucking year or something, and I should be grateful?”
“No!” Curtis’s stomach had dropped to his feet. “I don’t want to date a non-binary person; I want to date Sal, and?—”
“Fuck off, Ingram. Take your bullshit somewhere else.”
Curtis had held up his palms. “Easy.”
Byron tensed, his hands balling into fists, and again, Curtis wondered if his old friend was going to hit him. “I’m not talking to you as a coach; I’m talking to you as Sal’s brother. They spent a long time getting to a place where they’re happy. They don’t need some fucking footy player treating them like some medal they’re gonna win, then checking out when it gets too hard.”
“I won’t?—”
“You will. I don’t want you sniffing around, making them uncomfortable. They don’t need you fucking up all the work they’ve done?—”
“W-What?” Curtis had sputtered. “I just told you, I don’t mind that they’re non-bi?—”
“Yeah, aren’t you fucking nice.Idon’t mind that you play on this team, but if you don’t get the fuck out of my office, thatwillchange.”
“Mate—”
“Shut up,” Byron repeated, and again the words seemed to ring around the room. “Fuck off and stay fucked off. Sal’s my family. They’re blood. You’re not right for them, and you never will be. Get out of here and don’t come back.”
Curtis had known he was done. The rage simmering in his coach was only going to get worse. He turned heel for the showers, feeling stupid, angry, and two sizes too big for his body.
But that hadn’t been the worst part of his fuck-up. That had come a few hours later when Sal called.
