Chapter Text
„Rugby star Nicholas Nelson (24) comes out as bisexual – will the London Falcons drop him before next season?“
„Nicholas Nelson spotted at a gay bar in London! Pictures show the rugby star getting cosy with various men. What happened to „the sweetheart of rugby“ as we knew him?“
„Will Nicholas Nelson have to use a singular changing room for upcoming rugby games? An insider told us how Nicks teammates really feel about his coming out!“
“Not so sweet any more – Nicholas Nelson leads the secret life of a player!”
“Is it all a lie? Secret sources tell us that Nicholas Nelson is actually gay, only portraying as bisexual as to not offend his fans!”
When Nick had outed himself two weeks ago, he knew it would be hard. That the paparazzi would be clinging to his every step, that even when he had already said that he wouldn’t talk about his love life any more there would still be questions about it in every interview he had to give.
He had talked about all this with his manager before coming out as bisexual and he really thought he would be prepared for what was gonna come but this was more than he could handle.
He had to wait until the season was over before he was allowed to publish a statement regarding his sexuality. It had felt weird that something so personal as his coming out had to be planned in several discussions including a power point presentation and a timetable.
Coming out in sports still wasn’t common and some of his teammates - who all knew about his sexuality since day one – were worried about him, even asking if it was worth risking his whole career. But Nick couldn’t hide who he was any longer and he knew it was the right decision to tell his truth. Maybe it hadn’t escalated like this when his best mates from the team hadn’t convinced him to celebrate his coming out by visiting a gay bar and getting him drunk which always resulted in Nick becoming flirty.
And it’s not like they had never gone out as a team before, drowning alcohol, dancing horribly and still getting to snog more than one girl in one evening. But there was the difference – when he was caught snogging girls no magazine or news show cared that much. It never made a dent in the almost holy picture of the sweet, kind man the public had of him.
Now he had been seen kissing guys and suddenly his shining amour was laced with sharp cracks.
It’s not like there were only negative comments made about him, not at all. He had felt so brave, so proud when he met a fan and they told him through tears that his coming out made them muster up the courage to come out themselves. People on social media had expressed their support, comments like “we stand by you – always” and “you’re still our fav” popped up on his pictures on Instagram.
But the human brain was prone to forget all things positive as soon as one negative remark was made.
Now he was hastily throwing clothes in a duffel bag, his phone buzzing on his nightstand. Nick wanted to turn it off but he was waiting for his mother to call him back. He needed to get out of here, out of his flat, out of London and out of this crazy scary experience that his life had turned into these past week – he needed to go home.
Finally the buzzing was replaced by the ring tone he had specifically chosen for Sarahs calls.
“Hi Mum,” he said, his voice quiet and breathless.
“Hey honey, what” – “Can I come home?”
He didn’t mean to interrupt her but the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
“Oh dear, of course you can!”
Sarah was still going on talking about how he could always come back home, that he didn’t have to ask but Nick didn’t really hear her words. It was like a tightness that had been hugging his shoulders uncomfortably was finally letting go. A sob came out of this mouth and there he was, Nicholas Nelson, rugby star at only 24, crying in the bedroom of his posh flat in London, listening to the soothing voice of his mother while his neighbours’ music blared through the walls.
“… watch the twist and the turns, distract me from where it hurts, it’s like I’m watching my life go past the point of return, of return.”
-
Charlie Spring didn’t always make wise choices and right now he wasn’t quite sure if this was one of those not-so-wise ones.
He was back in his home town and had decided to not stay at his parents house but rather sleep at Toris’ and Michaels’ flat. When he was still in London he thought that it would probably be a lot less stressful if he didn’t have to spend all his time back home with his parents who were still upset about him changing his field of study. What he did not think of back then was that at his parents house there wouldn’t be the chance of walking into his sister sitting on her boyfriends lap in a full on make-out session.
He let out a gasp and threw his hands in front of his eyes but the sight of the two lovebirds was engraved in his brain. Lovebirds wasn’t even the correct way to describe what he had just witnessed, it was more like watching two slugs clinging to each other.
“Jesus, Charlie! Why are you always so bloody quiet and sneaking around?” Tori shouted and lifted the strap of her top that had fallen from her shoulder.
She didn’t look angry though because Victoria Spring was the queen of looking indifferent even when the world was crashing down – or when she got caught with her boyfriend (when she was younger she had refused to call Michael her boyfriend but she grew out of calling him her emotional support human soon enough. Charlie was grateful for Michael who was like a total opposite of his sister and still they just seem to fit so well! He made Tori softer somehow, not that Charlie would ever tell her that but he could see the slight shift in her eyes whenever she looked at Michael.)
“I was not sneaking around! I actually dropped the keys in the hallway, you could have heard me,” Charlie answered and peeked between his fingers before dropping his hands.
He looked down as something streaked his legs and saw the black cat his sister had adopted and named Snowball because … well, because Tori was being Tori.
“Whatever,” Tori said plainly and picked up the cup of iced tea that had waited for her on the small table next to the couch. She was still constantly using straws but they were metal ones and reusable because “I do care about the turtles, you know?”
“Had a nice walk? Looked at all the tourist sights?” she asked with a sarky tone to her voice.
Charlie just shrugged but his walk around town actually had make him quite nostalgic. He had walked past Truham High and maybe he had stood near the rugby field and watched some kids training tackles while listening to “The Most Beautiful Boy” which of course came on completely random and did not make him think about how years ago he was dating his first ever boyfriend Nick.
Their story had been the perfect material for a tv show – the nerd and the jock, sitting next to each other and slowly turning into ‘never just friends’ and then into ‘actual boyfriends’. But they didn’t get a happy ending as first love almost never does.
Well besides Tao and Elle because his best friends were still going strong but him and Nick didn’t make it when Nick moved away to go to university. Then he got signed at a rugby team and started his career (and went back into the closet, a decision Charlie had flinched at but also kinda understood – being out in sports was still a novelty and a risk).
It didn’t hurt him any more, not really. It was more like a sting that he got used to. The lovers that leave us would always hold a place and Nick held a special one in his heart because that first love had been something else.
“Did you know that Nicholas Nelson came out as bi?”
Michaels voice pulled Charlie out of his thoughts and he had to clear his throat before saying that yes, he did know that.
Tori rolled her eyes and tapped on Michaels forehead with her index finger. “Michael, that kid is literally the most famous person this joke of a town has ever been the home of. Of course everyone around here know that he came out as bi! Especially my brother because they were dating for like four years and I know for a fact that Charlie still stalks his Instagram every now and then.”
“Hey now! How would you know if I stalked anyone’s Instagram?” Charlie furrowed his brows and his cheeks did not turn pink, that was just the warmth of the room after being out in the cold December air. Tori raised an eyebrow and Michael was looking back and forth between them.
“You do know that you can see when people you follow like or comment posts, right? I saw you commenting a lame combination of emojis on his coming out post.”
- “It wasn’t lame! It was some raised hands and thumbs up, it was meant to be supportive!”
“Nobody our age uses the thumbs up emoji, especially not the default yellow one!”
- “What’s wrong with that? Emojis are for all age groups as far as I’m informed.”
“Not that one! It made it look like a comment from someone’s mum!”
- “Our mum would never …”
Charlie stopped mid-sentence. Their banter was about to drift somewhere he didn’t wanna go and Tori seemed to feel the same because she made a point of looking somewhere else and taking a loud sip from her iced tea. Michael tussled his own hair and muttered something about dinner before leaving the room to go to the kitchen.
The headphones on Charlies shoulders were still blaring music into the now silent living room.
“… rather be alone, than end up inside a home, like the one I come from.”