“He’s a solid ten,” Samantha said, “no doubt about it.”

“Who?” I asked. “Bryce Pendren.”

“Why are we talking about this?” Kyle complained. “Why, does it make you uncomfortable?”

“Sorta, yeah. It’s not the guy aspect, it’s the fact that he’s a person in the school, and one of our teammates. If you were talking about a celebrity, I’d be fine.”

“How about we change the subject.” I suggested.

“Sure,” Jessica said, “what do you think of the game last night?”

“We won, but it was terrible. It’s not that we were winning, they were just loosing more.”

“Remember that time you threw the ball at the back of my head.” Kyle jeered.

“Yeah…” I said. “Okay, I missed someone else, I was trying to pass it to Jessica here, but she moved, and I panicked.”

“Oh.” Jessica said sheepishly.

“We are really bad at talking today.” I said. “Yeah, sorry” Samantha said. “I went to bed really late this morning.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I was just, having trouble sleeping.”

“Are you okay?” Kyle dug. Samantha looked up at him, “Oh yeah, I’m fine.”

“No you’re not.” “Yeah I am.” Samantha started crying. Jessica and I exchanged looks, then looked at Samantha, then exchanged looks again.

“Are you crying?”

“Ye- Yeah…”

“You’re not okay.”

“No I’m not, okay! Just… Sorry.”

We sat in silence for ten seconds, then we continued to eat respectfully while Samantha cried.

About a minute later, Samantha started talking, we all put down our food.

“I was up all night crying.”

“How come?” Kyle asked.

“Stop!! Just, shut up.”

“Okay.”

Samantha took another five seconds to calm down.

“I feel terrible, for just, lying to you for so long. And it’s not that I wanted to, I just…”

We were all ears.

“I’ll just say it. I’m gay.”

Actually, I just realized you don’t have the necessary prerequisites to this story, well, you’ll figure it out.

We sat in science for a solid minute. Samantha did not move at all.

“How long have you known?” Kyle asked.

“Shut the fuck up, Kyle.” Another twenty seconds passed.

“I knew since I was twelve.”

“So… Four years. Wow, four years you knew this.”

“Yes.”

“So you asked me out, knowing full well you were gay.”

“Yes.”

“So the past year, of us going on dates, hanging out with each other, fucking each other. You never liked me.”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Jesus fucking Christ man.”

“Yeah, I know.