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"Hey man. You coming to the big game tonight?" Alex heard someone ask from his right. He turned to find Clay walking up to him, both hands on the straps of his backpack.
"Hey Clay. Yeah, Zach's playing. I wanna cheer him on." Alex said as they did their regular fist-bump. Clay's lips immediately curled into a grin at the mention of the jock's name and nudged Alex playfully. Alex rolled his eyes as he tried to contain his smile. "What about you?"
"N-No, I don't really care about football so..." Clay said, looking suspiciously embarrassed. But luckily for him, Alex was more pressed about going to the game alone.
"What?! Come on man. I don't wanna watch by myself. I mean Jess will be there but she's cheerleading." He complained, his eyes all buy beginning Clay to come. It seemed to have worked because Clay looked as he was about to give in when something in front of them caught his attention. "Clay?" He asked, but the other boy ignored him. Alex followed his gaze to find Bryce, Zach, Scott, Monty, Diego and Justin coming towards them; but they weren't looking at them, except for Zach and Scott, who noticed them immediately and smiled as they got closer.
"Y-Yeah I will come with you. S-Sorry I got gym now so I gotta go." Clay stuttered out surprisingly quickly and ran off to the hallway on the right, which definitely did not lead towards the gym. The only class they had together was gym, so Alex was a little offended at the cheap attempt to get away from him, seeing as he most most certainly did not have gym at that time.
"Hey, Jensen!" Alex heard Scott yell out as he separated from the rest of the jocks to follow him.
Alex grinned, Clay's nervous attitude finally making sense. Scott had been really nice to Clay the past few weeks and Clay was really confused as to why. But Alex wasn't an idiot. He knew Scott liked him, and if the blush on Clay's face when Scott put his arm around him while he was helping him with homework that one time was anything to go by, Clay felt the same way.
The football team seemed confused for a moment at Scott suddenly running off but they all returned to whatever they were talking about quickly. Except for Zach who was grinning at him like a little kid.
He told the rest of the team that he'll catch up with them later as he went towards Alex. The team seemed to understand as soon as they saw Alex. God it was all still so weird for Alex.
"Hey." Zach said warmly with a smile still on his face, stopping right in front of Alex. He took a quick glance around them. There weren't a lot of students around them, and no one payed attention to them anyway, which seemed to give Zach the confidence he needed to lean down, quite a bit further than what would be considered normal, to press a quick kiss on his lips. Alex wasn't sure he'd ever get used to the height difference either, but he loved it.
Zach and Alex had only gotten together a couple of weeks prior. It took Zach awhile to get used to being with a guy, in fact, he was probably still getting used to it. It really wasn't something Zach had ever imagined for himself and Alex definitely understood because he felt the same way , which is why he was perfectly okay with keeping their relationship a secret for that first week or so. Afterwards Zach didn't really come out or anything, but rather decided to just retire to the teasing from the rest of the team who kept calling Alex his 'boyfriend' and just held Alex's hand in public. Most of the team immediately understood and ironically enough the teasing actually stopped. From everyone except Monty of course.
"You coming to the game tonight?" Zach asked with a nervous smile, taking both of Alex's hands in his own.
"Hmm, I don't know. What's in it for me?" Alex asked playfully, a grin on his face. Zach let out a tiny laugh, looking around in thought.
"Well... you get to watch me kick ass. Plus, you get to see me smile when I see you looking at me from the bleachers." Zach said.
"Mm, that's pretty convincing not gonna lie." Alex said, already imagining Zach's big, radiant smile on the field. Zach shied away for a moment, before continuing.
"And...I'm gonna be pretty sweaty. Legends say that's hot...from afar anyway." Zach said, wincing at the smell of sweat.
"I don't know... you're pretty hot as it is." Alex said with a blush on his cheeks. Zach smirked, although his cheeks reddened as well.
"Well, guess I should cool off a little then." Zach started, taking off his bag and putting on the ground next to his feet as he took off his varsity jacket. "You on the other hand...It's going to be cold outside tonight." Zach said as he put his varsity jacket around the smaller boy's shoulders, making his cheeks go even redder. Zach took a step back then, taking a good look at Alex, causing him to be self-conscious about the size of the jacket on him.
"It's huge on me. This is...embarrassing." Alex said as he looked around them, surprised to see that no one was paying any attention to them still.
"Wha - No, you look...adorable." Zach said with a shy smile as he straightened it a little before meeting his eyes again. "See you tonight?"
"Y-Yeah." Alex replied coyly. Zach's grew wider, nodding as he squeezed Alex's hands a little tighter before letting go and going the same way the rest of the football team had gone before.
Alex was sitting on the bleachers as everyone waited for the football players to enter the field. They were playing against Hillcrest apparently. He felt someone sit on the empty space next to him. Turning his head, he found Clay holding his fist up for their signature fist-bump.
"Hey! You made it! I was worried you blew me off or something." Alex said as he bumped their fists together. He had sent Clay a couple of texts, asking if he should pick him up, but he never replied so Alex was worried he had forgotten all about him.
"Yeah, sorry. I didn't really check my phone until it was too late. I didn't think you'd want to pick me up." Clay said, fidgeting with his fingers as he scanned the field.
"What were you doing?" Alex asked, still waiting for the players to come on the field.
"Writing fanfiction." Clay replied coyly, clearly still embarrassed to admit he wrote fanfiction.
"Should have known." Alex chuckled. He turned to look at Clay, recalling when Scott yelled after him earlier that day. "What did Scott want earlier today?" He asked, barely holding back a laugh at the look on Clay's face as soon as he mentioned the jock.
"Oh, n-nothing. He just, um, wanted to know if I was coming to watch him play tonight." Clay said, starting to tap his feet as he scanned the field again.
"Ah, of course. You assured him you'd be watching him really closely, right?" Alex teased, causing the other boy's cheeks to redden.
"Shut it." He said, elbowing Alex lightly. Alex knew that there was no hope in hell that Clay would make the first move, but he had to admit, he was beyond surprised Scott had not made a move yet. It was quite obvious that Clay liked him. "Is that Zach's jacket. It looks huge on you, but like, in a cute way."
"Y-yeah." Alex blushed, gripping both the unbuttoned sides of the jacket and wrapped them closer to his body. It still smelled like Zach and it was incredibly warm.
The football team finally appeared on the field; Bryce of course, ran in first being the captain of the football team, followed by everyone else. Zach stopped, scanning the crowd in the bleachers, so Alex stood up, so he could see him. As promised, Zach smiled brightly and waved at him. Alex could see it clearly even from the bleachers. Scott was also right next to Zach and smiled at them as well, although somehow Alex knew that smile wasn't for him at all.
The game was pretty much a one-sided massacre. Alex didn't have to know a lot about football to know that the Hillcrest players were awful. Then again, maybe the Liberty team was just that good. Zach scored most of the team's touchdowns, reminding Alex that his boyfriend was arguably the best player on the team. He finally understood why he always complained about not being team captain. Bryce didn't really do anything.
In their final offensive play, Scott passed the ball over to Zach. The opposing players tried to tackle Zach, but he dodged them all. Alex was actually standing on his feet as he watched Zach run across the field and score their final touchdown, right before the time ran out. Everyone started cheering around them. The entire team gathered around Zach, hugging each other in triumph.
As Alex and Clay got down on the field, Alex barely even registered someone running up to them when Scott ran right past him and stopped right in front of Clay, smiling.
"Hey congrat-mmph" Clay's words were muffled by Scott finally, finally, kissing him on the lips. Clay stumbled backwards a little at the sudden movement, prompting the other boy to put his hands on the low of his back.
Perhaps it was a bit rude, but Alex couldn't help but stare for a moment, feeling incredibly happy for his friend that it finally happened. Clay nervously put his hands on Scott's chest before they pulled away a moment later. They looked at each other in disbelief, neither intending any of that happen.
Alex felt eyes on him and turned to find staring at him, making his way to him after finally being freed from the rest of the team. Before Alex could start walking up to him, Zach ran up to him just as Scott did previously and literally picked him up and lifted him off the ground as if he were a trophy. They didn't really say anything, allowing both of their laughs to speak for themselves. Zach brought him a little closer and pressed his lips to his own, still holding up so his feet can't touch the ground. As they kissed, Alex wrapped his arms around Zach's shoulder, starting to feel anxious about being held in the air, but as if Zach could read his mind he lifted him down slowly, never breaking their kiss.
When they pulled away, they let out a gentle laugh, a little out of breath, registering that they were in fact in the field and people may very well be looking at them. But they sincerely didn't care, probably for the first time in their relationship. Alex realized that Zach was sweaty, something he didn't even notice before, and he didn't mind it as much as he thought he would. Zach brought their foreheads together, grinning sheepishly.
"I love you." Alex's breath hitched at other boy's words. The other boy tensed as he leaned his head back ever so slightly, looking at those gleaming, dark eyes. Maybe two weeks is a little early to know if you love someone, but it definitely didn't feel like it. Alex could only think about how right those words felt.
"Love you too." He said. The taller boy relaxed, his lips finding his own in a chaste kiss. It was time. Those words felt right leaving his lips. For a few blissful moments it was just them, all other noises around them drowned out, as they got lost in each other in a way they never had before.