From Teammates to Best Friends to Boyfriends?

There was ten minutes left of English before we all head to lunch. But I’m not going straight to lunch today, because today’s the day that I confess to Garret. Just sitting by him right now is making me nervous. I bet he can tell something’s up.

He glanced at me and smiled. I returned it and asked, “Do you think you can meet me in the boy’s locker room in the gym after here?”

His face pulled into a confused expression. “Why?”

I shook my head a little. “I just got to talk to you about something.”

He stiffened up a bit at that and said, “Okay.”

We went back to silently reading the book that was assigned to the whole class. Though I wasn’t really reading it; I was going over what I wanted to say in the locker room. I chose there because I knew all the Coaches were going to be in the teacher’s lounge eating and we’ll basically have the gym to ourselves. I was trying to pick a place I knew no one would be at during lunch and so no one would able to hear what I had to say. Which I was still planning out how I was going to tell him I liked him. I didn’t want to be straight forward. I wanted to explain everything to him.

But when the bell rang and I was to my locker to put my stuff up, I stopped myself. I needed to calm myself down before I headed into that locker room. When I walked into the gym, it was quiet and empty. I wondered if Garret got here before me. When I walked across the gym to the locker room, the door cracked open and I could see Garret peeping out. I smiled and waited for him to back up so I could open the door more to step in. When I did, I was face to face with him. The butterflies came back, my hands started feeling clammy, and the feeling to throw up came back. He noticed how my mood changed in that one minute and pulled me to the bench. I let him pull me down and we sat there. He was waiting for me to say something, but I didn’t know where to start.

“So. . .” Garret trailed off.

But before he could say anything else, I blurted out, “I like you, Garret.” Dammit. . . That was not what I wanted to say first. . . . I blame it on the nervous feeling in my stomach.

I noticed Garret flinched back away from me a little, but he covered it up by leaning back into the position he was in, which was leaning towards me.

I held in my breath as I waited for what he was going to say. He sighed. I heard him mutter, “I knew it. I had a feeling that’s what you wanted to talk about. . . .About time too.” He stated. I stared at him, confused.
“It’s just . . . I was positive that you liked me or something after I read the note you had in your truck, and when you asked to kiss me, which I’m still confused why I agreed to, but whatever.” He waved it off. I felt a little rejected when he said he was confused to why he agreed to kiss me. I felt like he was regretting it or something, but that’s not my main problem right now.

“So. . .” He trailed off again, waiting for me to say something.

“So what do you think about that? Me liking you, I mean.” This was really not what I wanted to say. I had this little speech forming in my head during English.

“Well, I’m okay with you liking someone that’s the same sex, if that’s what you’re into and all,” He said while moving his hands in a suggestive manner, “But why me? I mean, we’ve been friends since seventh grade. Why are starting to like me now?” He asked.

“Well, to be honest, you’re the first guy I’ve ever liked. . . And I don’t really think I’m attracted to any other guys but you. And I guess I started having these feelings when we started sleeping beside each other whenever you slept over at my house or I was at your house.” I admitted and I felt my face get even redder.

Garret coughed. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” I didn’t know what else to say, but I still felt like something needed to be said. Anything to get out of the awkward silence.

“So is that why you started acted normal again after that night we kissed?” He asked while his knee bumped mine to get my attention.

“Yeah. . . Well, I thought that you could possibly like me back since you let me kiss you and yeah, it gave it me a little hope. . .Yeah, now I’m gonna shut up before I say something else that is stupid.” I trailed off.
“Hey, this is why you got me in here for, so tell me anything you’ve been keeping in. I won’t judge you.” I felt his arm snake its way across my shoulders. I shivered at the touch and looked up at him. He gave me a reassuring smile and I just couldn’t hold back. I attacked his lips with mine and didn’t think about the consequences. He really is a great person, comforting me, even though it’s probably making him uncomfortable and missing lunch.

He pulled back after a couple seconds and shook his head. “Whoa, Dillon.”

I froze as he starred at me. “We still need to talk. I’m not really comfortable with you doing that. . . You know I only see you as a friend, Dillon.”

The rejection feeling came back and I let my head fall. But a thought came to me.

“What if we went out, like out on a date?” I suggested.

“Dillon-

It sounded like he was going to reject me so I stopped him to explain. “Just think about it, Garret. You have an open mind, right? What if you look past the years we’ve been friends, and just think of it as going out with someone and see if you like it?”

“But Dillon, you’re a dude-

“Yes, I know. But can you just give it try? Please? Who knows, you might like it.” I encouraged. I probably sounded like a begging homeless man, but I didn’t care. I wanted to get him to agree to go out with me on a date so I could show him that we could me more than friends.

He stayed quiet for a while and I started to worry. Did I screw it up? Oh God, I think I did.

But Garret whispered, “Okay, I’ll call you tonight to tell you my decision. Right now, I just want to think about all this.”

I straightened up and I’m pretty sure my lips were going to rip in the middle, because of my huge smile. It wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t a no either, and I was thankful for that.

Maybe Liam was right, because I felt relieved now. It went better than what I thought would happen. I just hope to God he says yes when he calls me tonight.

He chuckled at my grin and pushed my shoulder. “Come on, Dillon. Let’s go to lunch.” He said and grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the door. I followed until we got outside and then I walked beside him as we made our way to the cafeteria.