“Wolfe and Archangel,” Solace replies. “Does anyone else know about this?”
“About what?” a couple of guys ask.
“That they’re a thing?” Solace doesn’t look upset; he seems confused. “This article calls it a well-known secret. But like, we’re on the same line, and I don’t know.”
Ridgeway crosses his arms but keeps his mouth shut. Seaborn messes with the same tape on his stick over and over, but everyone else in the room is looking at us.
Wolfe turns around. “We are a thing. Why?”
“And it’s a well-known secret?” Solace asks like he’s gonna step up to Wolfe or some shit.
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“But people know?”
“A couple. Why?” Wolfe replies, crossing his arms.
“I thought we were friends.” He’s hurt and looks at me, but I can’t face him, or any of them.
The whole team is waiting for an explanation.
“We weren’t ready to talk about it yet.” Wolfe is covering for me. There is no reason for the guys to be hurt by him.
I take a step forward to stand next to Wolfe. “I wasn’t?—”
He cuts me off and takes my hand. “We weren’t ready. It’s new, and really, it’s not anyone’s business. We get to talk about relationships on our own time. I don’t fucking demand any of you tell me the second you’re getting serious about someone because we’re friends or teammates.”
Solace doesn’t say anything else, but his expression says enough.
“For how long?”
“The whole season.” Wolfe isn’t going to lie to them.
“You told me it was an act,” Lovelace says, clearly hurt too. “We’re on your line,” he adds to me. “We spend every day drilling together, and I’ve never had a problem with you being gay.
I feel like an asshole, and I don’t know what to say.
Wolfe releases my hand, and my head snaps around to question it, but he puts his arm around my shoulders. “It’s not that simple. There is a lot of stuff that went into it with my career. He was protecting me, and I didn’t know I liked menuntil I realized I want Archangel. But more than that, I don’t think outing someone is cool. And neither should any of you. No one owes it to you to come out. People get to do that in their own time when they are ready.”
The silence is agony.
“Is this going to be a problem? Because if it is, I don’t have to fucking play.” Wolfe’s tone bites through the tension, making everyone look at him. He crosses his arms again, facing the whole team like he would take them all at once. “He slept in my bed before we fucked, and if we ever broke up, he’d keep doing it. Not that I’d let him leave me, but it’s changed nothing. We’ve always been like this, so it should really shock you guys more that this wasn’t going on the whole time.”
“Valid,” Ridgeway says. “You two have always been obsessed with each other.”
“See, it makes sense.” Wolfe holds his hand out.
No one else speaks, and my stomach is in my throat.
Would he really leave? Will the team call his bluff? What will pro teams think if he doesn’t play in the championship game? If they think he’s injured, he won’t be drafted. If they think he’s not loyal, same thing.
“If none of you have an issue with me fucking coach, you really shouldn’t have an issue with those two.” Cox stands and crosses the locker room to stand with us. “Every person on this team has made a questionable decision when it comes to a fuck, so none of you can even talk.”
Wolfe fist bumps him.
Seaborn walks over. “This isn’t the way I would have preferred to tell any of you, but if you’re going to be mad, be mad at me. I’ve been sleeping with Ktytor for a year.” Seaborn gets up and crosses his arms, too. “What I’m doing is much worse than what these two have done. Worse probably than fucking the coach, too.”
“Much worse!” Cox laughs. “Christ.”
