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October 24th. A quiet, rainy autumn day, for Shane Hollander, until it wasn‘t.
His alarm rang at 6 a.m., which was way to early for him on his first day of 11th Grade. Shane woke up and turned the draining noise from his phone of, he immidietly fell back into his perfect shaped pillow, and mumbeld to himself: „One more minute..“. That was all he could say before falling back to sleep.
After about 45 minutes Shanes phone rang again, but this time it wasn‘t his alarm, it was Rose. The realisation hit him right into his stomach. As soon as he picked up, Shane says in a sleepy voice: „Fuck, I slept through my alarm. I‘m so sorry.-“ But the Woman on the other end stopped him: „You slept through? On our first day?“ she said and tried not to laugh to hard. „Yeah, I‘m so sorry! I‘ll be there in 10“ Shane searched now for an accaptable outfit in his closet. „You better be, move your ass“ Rose said before hanging up. How could this happen? On his first day!
His Outfit choice was easy- a dark blue Montreal hoodie and a black baggy jeans. He ran into the bathroom and brushed his teeth as quickly as possible. He only had 3 minutes left, he couldn‘t fix his hair- not now. Shane graped his backpack and ran out of the door. It‘s a two minutes way to the busstop, but he only had one left, so he sprinted as fast as he could.
As soon as he saw Rose still leaning against the cool busstop glass pane his whole body relaxed. He did it. „I‘m surprised“ she said with a grin on her face, Shane just nodded in agreement, because under his heavy breaths he couldn‘t speak.
When he calmed down Rose teased: „30 seconds late“ „Come onnn“ he said a little annoyed, but laughed it away. Their bus came to late (like always) but they still maked it to school.
Rose was Shanes FIRST love. They both met in 8th grade, when Rose switched schools. Shane was (for a hockey player) a quiet boy, Rose on the other side was extroverted, played in theater and everyone had a crush on her. That‘s what Shane thought so too, so he approached her one day an asked her out, and she said surprisingly yes. They dated for a couple of months, until Rose and Shane had a longggg conversation about what they want for the future, and whether Shane is even into womens. Till this day he doesn‘t know if he is gay, bi or something like that. Maybe he thought putting a label on it would make it real. The first gay hockey player, Shane Hollander ? Never.
Even after the break up Shane and Rose stayed close friends since.
They arrive at school on time and see a bunch of new people like every new year. On the way to their first class together they chatted about the new „Welcome-Week“ the school has planed and how stupid it was, because they new everything and everyone right? Well not everyone, but they would get into it wouldn‘t they?
Right before they get to the classroom Shane crashed into someone else. As he looked up he saw a big man with deep blue eyes and golden curls lingering underneath the perfect morning sun.
All of the sudden his knees felt like jelly and he swear he could hear his heartbeat.
What was happening?
The only thing Shane could come up with was: „sorry“, his voice felt like he hasn‘t said a word in days. The tall man just looked at him a second longer (to long) and then walked away.
*Shanes mind* who is he? And why does my body react to him like that? He is just a normal student.
He snaps back into reality when Rose said: „Who tf was that guy?“ Shane looked at her and goes: „Idk, didn‘t saw him last year“. She must have noticed his heated cheeks and joked: „Are you blushing, Hollander?“ she stoped and let her mouth drop open. Shane replyed with a dramatic eye roll, followed by a annoyed exhale. „Shane Hollander is THAT your type?“ he just started walking faster to escape this awkward sitouation.
Deep down he wanted to say yes.
Rose always tells him he needs to go out more and meet new people. But Shane was allways happy around his parents and close friends, why make it more complicated? He thought so.
Or was he even happy? Allways under pressure to be enough for his parents and keeping up with hockey, ditching the question „Do you have a Girlfriend?“ at every function, hidding that part from himself and everyone else. He hated lyling but it was the best for all.
But was it?