The Rivals

“I’m gay.”

Staring at his reflection in the mirror, Edwin kept practicing how to tell the truth about him, to his friend, Kate. Rubbing his palms together, Edwin let out a sigh while mustering up the courage to reveal the truth about himself.

“Okay. Once more.” Edwin told himself and stared at his reflection sharply. He continued “Kate, I’m sorry. I can’t love you. Not only you, I can’t love any girl because I’m gay.”

He then sat on the bed holding his head with his palms, irritated. His puffy eyes said that he hadn’t had enough sleep last night.

He shook his head annoyed while mumbling “I can’t tell this. No one should know about me. I can’t face the society.”

His annoyance increased with the buzzing sound of the alarm. It was the most irritated sound to him as it always reminded him to move his lazy ass off the bed and got ready to go to his college. But he had to set the alarm otherwise it was nearly impossible for him to wakeup from his sleep.

Turning off the alarm clock, Edwin shouted looking at the alarm “Bro, I already woke up.”

He then continued thinking about Kate. Kate had been his friend for the past two years. Though she always showed special interest on him, he never cared as he always thought she was just his cute little friend. But her last night love proposal made him puzzled and without a single thought he rejected her and gave no explanation for rejecting her.

While he was in his thoughts, his cell phone buzzed popping the name of his love on the screen. He had been in a relationship for the past few months but he rarely met his love as they both wanted to maintain their relationship secret. Because they both didn’t want anyone to know the truth about themselves.

The truth about Edwin’s love, which was on a man. And no one knew about him except the man who had been loving him.

Edwin’s lips curved up into a smile, seeing the name ‘Liam’ and he answered the call.

“Hey Li, Good morning.” Edwin greeted him, smiling.

“Morning, Ed.” Liam greeted him back.

Liam was an employee in a software industry so none of Edwin’s friends even got a single chance to know about Liam or to know about their relationship. Liam was straight but he accepted Edwin the way he was. He loved Edwin neither caring his sexuality nor his looks. He loved him for being himself.

“Are you fine, now? Last night, you said you hurt your friend by rejecting her. Is it sorted?” Liam asked.

“Li, I don’t know what to do. I thought to tell the truth about myself to her but I can’t.”

“No, Ed. Don’t do that. Think of another possibility. Convince her. She is your friend, she will listen to you. Who won’t listen to my sweet heart’s sweet words?”

His words faded Edwin’s annoyance and brought a genuine smile on his face. How much sad, tensed and irritated Edwin was, Liam’s words always brought smile on his face. For Edwin, Liam was the one for him.

“Love you, Li.” After a few minutes of casual talk, Edwin left his cell phone to charge then walked to the washroom.

It's obvious that everyone loves to think about their problems, their life and many other things under shower. But to Edwin, the only thing that always comes to his mind under shower was the question about himself. The question that why can’t he be straight like others? It didn’t mean, he was not happy with who he was. Of course, he was happy but the only problem was he had been hiding the truth about himself from his family, his friends and the society because he was scared of bullying and the names people call him.

He saw guys like him facing challenges in the society and he was afraid of that. He was fifteen when he realized that he was a gay. At first, he didn’t accept it. He even tried to develop feelings on hot chicks, tried to go for one-night stands but nothing worked out. He hated himself for the things that he was doing then he accepted the fact.

After a few minutes of hot bath, Edwin dressed in his casuals and had his breakfast. He began to walk out after locking the doors of his house. Not Edwin’s house, but his uncle’s. His uncle was in another state and he often visits his house. Edwin had been staying in the house, leaving his native town where his parents had been staying, for the past two and half years, as he got a free seat in a top college in the city for his under-graduation course.

He reached his college ‘North Hill’ through the metro as he had no vehicle on his own. As soon as he reached the college, Ralph, his first and best friend, whom he got in the college, walked towards Edwin with the excitement of sharing some news with him in his eyes.

He pulled Edwin into a brotherly hug saying “Bro, Leila asked me out. Can you believe this?”

Ralph had been loving Leila since the day he joined in the college but she never cared about him. It’s really a shocking news not only to Ralph but also to Edwin.

“Oh Ralph, I’m happy for you.” Edwin replied genuinely.

Ralph made a proud face showing his toothy grin. He said “Bro, why won’t you accept Kate? She called me last night and told everything. Damn, everyone is going head over heels for her but she is crazy for you. I don’t understand why a cool guy like you isn’t accepting a girl like her?”

“She is just a friend, Ralph. I’ve no feelings on her.”

“Okay dude. But trust me, you’ll regret it.”

“I’ve to meet Kate. I’ll see you later.” Saying that Edwin walked away. He searched for Kate but she was found nowhere in the college. Even Ralph didn't find her and she wasn't answering either of their calls.

Ralph assured she would be fine and then they both walked to their classrooms. After few hours of classes, Edwin and Ralph reached the basketball court where the coach along with other team players had been waiting for them.

“Captains are the ones, who wait for others. But here, everyone is waiting for you.” Shouted the grumpy coach looking at Edwin. That’s what he always did. Shout at him every time then covers it saying ‘I’m not rude. I’m trying to make you strong.’

They then practiced for few hours then started to depart. Every day before they left, there’s a regular motivation speech by their coach to energize them. But in fact, it always made them more tired.

He started saying, more like shouting, “Last year we won the competition against ‘Silver High’, who had been calling themselves as achievers. But we cannot rest with only one win. We should win this year and next year too. We all have to work hard for our college, for our team and for ourselves. Got it?”

“Yes coach.” Everyone replied in a tiresome manner.

The coach shouted once again in a high pitch “Got it?”

“Yes coach.” Shouted everyone in a loud voice.

Silver High, the rival college, which always won the intercollege sports competitions, especially basketball. But last year, to their surprise, North Hill won. And the best part was Edwin was the captain. But the worst part was Silver High team members. From the day they won the competition, Silver High basket ball team members had been making Edwin’s life a living hell. Specially the captain of their team, Ace.

In Edwin’s first year, he saw Ace in Silver High team as a captain. Though he was a fresher, he became the captain but it didn’t surprise Edwin after seeing Ace's gameplay, his attitude and his influence. Edwin liked him that year and used to collect details about him. He started to draw towards Ace because of his muscular body and ocean blue eyes. But the next year, when Edwin became captain to North Hill team and they won, everything was changed with Ace's behaviour when he took the losing personally. Ace began to do the things that made Edwin change his opinion on him. Ace made Edwin hate him.

In just few months, Ace and his friends tortured Edwin with each and every way they could. Because of them, Edwin lost his part time job as a waiter. They became the obstacles in every step Edwin started to take. Being rich kids, it was always a piece of cake for them to torture Edwin in the ways that he couldn’t even imagine. They made Edwin lose nearly ten jobs that made him starve for many days due to lack of money.

Then Edwin got the part time work in a small clothes store, where people like Ace would never even want to step in. But they found Edwin working there once and tried their mischief but Edwin didn’t lose his job as the owner of the shop was Edwin’s friend’s father and he knew about Silver High students well.

After their practice, Ralph and Edwin started to leave to their houses. Ralph offered bike ride to Edwin then they both started to Edwin’s house.

“We should go left.” Edwin said when Ralph took the opposite direction.

“Relax, Ed. This is the shortcut. People won’t present in this area so we can reach your home fast. I guess, I should teach you these things.” Ralph said while focusing on the road.

Edwin rolled his eyes with his reply and kept quiet. While they were on their way, a car approached them in a full speed so in an attempt to not hit the car, Ralph lost his balance and they both fell down.

The car suddenly halted beside them and two boys, who were Ace’s friends, got out of the car. Clenching his fist, Edwin started to quarrel with them and the quarrel became intense when they started to punch Ralph. Edwin fisted his palm and brought it close to one of the guys' face but he was stopped in the middle when his hand was caught by someone. There came, THE ARROGANT OCEAN BLUE EYES.