“Okay, guys, enough,” Tobias hollered. “Yes, it was really me texting you yesterday. Yes, I actually have emotions and am not a robot or a pod person or an alien or anything else you were worried about. Now, get your asses in gear so Chase can lead us in our warmup stretch.”
Josh let out a deep breath, a huge grin on his face, his eyes still focused on Tobias. “We love you too, man.”
Tobias’ cheeks got redder, and he grunted before walking toward the computer to turn on the workout music.
“Has anyone heard from hell? We should check to see if it’s frozen over,” Riley said.
“Yeah, let me just shoot a text to my dad and ask him how it is down there,” Cole said, and Chase couldn’t help barking out an inappropriate laugh. He immediately tried to cough to cover it up, but Cole smiled at him.
They’d always bonded over their awful fathers. Cole lost his to a heart attack over the summer. It shocked Chase because he’d been so young, but he was mostly surprised to find out Mr. Durbin had a heart in the first place.
Luckily, Cole and Chase turned out fine. Well, Chase did anyway. The jury was still out on Cole.
Chase contemplated if Tobias wondered the same thing about him.
————————
At the end of class, while Chase led everyone through their cooldown stretches, he noticed Tobias sneak off to his office.
Chase fought his panic at thinking Tobias wanted to get out of here before they could finish their conversation, especially since they’d planned on doing some morereflex drills after class.
Instead, Tobias re-entered the gym with a sheepish expression and a big bag as everyone else finished up. They slowly gathered around him in some kind of silent understanding that he needed them.
“Whatcha got there?” Garrett asked warily, Tobias’ attitude change clearly throwing him off.
“Um, so, I made you guys something. It’s no big deal really, just something I do in my spare time,” Tobias said, reaching into the bag and pulling out a red and black knit hat. He handed it over to Hunter, who appeared baffled. “I did red and black for Cherrywood High.”
Hunter held the hat and stared at it as Tobias dipped into his bag for more.
A black and blue hat for Garrett.
Matching bisexual flag colors for Josh and Riley.
Gray for Carson.
Rainbow for Cole.
And red and orange for Chase, like he’d told Tobias when Madison asked about his favorite colors.
“You… You made these yourself?” Riley asked. “You know how to knit?”
“Yeah, I do it to relax. I do it all the time, so it’s really no big deal.”
Everyone blinked and shared quick glances with each other. They were all in disbelief.
“This might be the best day of my life,” Cole said ashe slammed the slouchy beanie over his head and wrapped his arms around Tobias, whose arms were now pinned to his sides.
“Group hug!” Josh shouted, and everyone joined in, Tobias in the center impersonating a man surrounded by flesh-eating zombies, judging by the horrified expression on his face.
Chase decided he could help put him out of his misery, even though he enjoyed every second of Tobias opening up to them.
“Okay, everyone, time to give him some space before he takes the hats back.”
“He’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands,” Cole said.
“Why would he want a dead man’s hat?” Josh asked seriously.
“Unless Tobias kills Cole for the hat in this scenario. That makes sense,” Riley said.
