LOGINSean's POVWe were standing just outside the main entrance to the party, both of us leaning against the door with that comfortable, unhurried energy of people who had just been through several things and were taking one breath before the next moment started.I looked at Trevor. "You ready for this?"He had on a cream-coloured suit — the kind of clean, simple cream that looked like it had been chosen deliberately, fitted well, made him look like someone who had always known exactly what he was about even when the rest of the room didn't. I had on a dark burgundy suit, deep enough to be rich-looking without trying too hard. We had not planned the colour pairing and the fact that we ended up in shades that complemented each other without being matchy was something I was choosing to take as a sign.He leaned into my chest lightly, tilting his head up toward me. "It's your first event being out." He said it the way he said things that mattered — quietly, directly, without softening it or d
Sean's POVWe both turned and it was my dad.Standing right there, two steps away, close enough that there was no question he had heard everything. The microphone, the confession, the I love you, all of it. He had been standing in this room the whole time and he had heard every word."Coach." The word came out before I had finished deciding to say anything, which was the specific version of my voice I used when my father walked into a situation I had not prepared for and my brain defaulted to the professional title as a way of buying one second to recalibrate.He stretched his right hand out in front of him, a gesture that was clear even before the words came. "I'm not your coach right now." He said it. "I am your dad."The room was still around us. Whatever had been happening before — the crowd, the noise, the aftermath of everything with Max and Anna — all of it had moved to the edges and what was in the centre right now was just the two of us standing three feet apart.I did not kn
Trevor's POVSean had just said it. Out loud. Into a microphone. In front of the entire school, the principal, the football team, and a Cambridge scout who had come here for a football game and had ended up with considerably more than he bargained for.I love you.I held his face in both hands. The room was still going — the noise, the crowd, all of it — but in that specific way where I was aware of it and also completely separate from it at the same time. I looked at him and the smile that came was the real kind, the full kind, the one I had spent most of this year keeping managed and contained and pointed somewhere other than directly at him."I love you too." I said it simply and meant every single word of it.He blinked. "Yeah?" He said it with a disbelief that was not quite performance — the specific kind that came from someone who had said the thing they were terrified to say and had not fully believed until this moment that they would hear it back."Yes." I said.Then I brought
Sean's POVI was not done.I reached down and grabbed Max by the collar — not the controlled version of grabbing someone, but the version that came from somewhere past patience, from a place that had been building since the parking lot and the locker room and every moment I had watched him use his size and his mouth to come after someone who had not given him a single real reason to. I pulled him up enough to close the distance between our faces. "I am sick of your hateful ignorance." I said it directly into his space. "Now get the hell out of my space." And then I released his collar and pushed him back.He stumbled. Found his footing. Looked at me with that expression he used when he had decided something was not over regardless of what the other person thought.I should have known better than to think he was done."You just want to get rid of me because I know the truth." He said it with the bold, reckless energy of someone who had already calculated that they had nothing left to lo
Trevor's POVI was at the back of the room when the announcements started, standing slightly away from the main crowd with my jotter in hand, still making notes because the evening was still technically an event I was part of managing and old habits were difficult to put down even when the night had already taken several turns I had not anticipated."...Trevor Matai."I heard my name and the first thing my brain produced was the assumption that Nadine was trying to get my attention for something event-related. I started looking up to find her, trying to read from her face what she needed, and then I registered that she was not looking at me the way a person looked at their assistant. She was looking at me the way an announcer looked at a nominee.And then everyone else was looking at me the same way."Me?" I pointed at myself. Actually pointed, with one finger, at my own chest, because that felt like the only way to confirm that the name that had just been called was mine and not some
Anna's POVThe football game was over and the Rangers had won and the whole building had shifted into that particular energy of a school that had just watched its team go seven to one and was now ready to celebrate itself for the rest of the night. The party kicked off immediately — music, lights, everyone finding their spot and their people and their version of the evening.I had been waiting for this part. The game was for the team. This part was for me."Everyone, are you ready to find out this year's homecoming court nominees?" Nadine's voice came over the mic, and the room responded the way rooms responded when they had been primed for something all evening and were now being handed it."Yes!" The crowd went up, and I was already standing in the right position, already aware of the people immediately around me, already calculating.This was what I had been building toward since the semester started. Not the game, not the lock-in, not any of the moving parts I had been managing for
Trevor's POV"You thought I could hide what and what exactly did you catch?Point of correction… that boner wasn't about you. It's not like I can control it." I defended myself real quick.It came out more confident than I felt but I held the energy behind it. It was the cleanest exit I had and I n
Trevor's POV"Bye, Trevor." One of the students said it on their way out. I didn't even bother to look up to know who exactly that was because it was either Sean or any of his friends in my class, and I already understood it wasn't some sort of pleasantries. It was sarcasm… the kind with a smile be
Trevor's POVI found Max's words so insulting that something in me just snapped. And I knew better… I knew from experience that snapping back in this school never ended well for me. But backing down had never fetched me anything good either. Not for once and not in the entire time I had been a stud
Trevor's POV"Trevor, I want to have all of you in my mouth." Sean whispered against my ear, his voice so low it felt like it was meant only for the space between us. He closed the distance slowly and deliberately, like he had all the time in the world and knew exactly what he was doing with it. Th







