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“Hey!” Jude bellowed over me—he was so much louder than I could ever hope to be. “Shut up, you crazy fucks! Your captain is about to make an epic goddamn speech!”

The room erupted into laughter, but it worked. Conversations died off one by one as people turned toward me. A couple of guys near the kitchen doorway leaned back to yell for everyone to get in here, and within seconds, everyone started filtering into the room. Terry actually grabbed Rodney by the sleeve and hauled him in from the dining room while someone shouted toward the hallway that McLaughlin was “doing captain shit”.

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say!” I exclaimed, turning to him.

“It’s probably epic.” He shrugged. “Or not. Either way.”

He gestured around the room, making it overly dramatic and drawing a few laughs from everyone that died down quickly. I felt the weight of everyone’s stare as I rubbed my palms over my thighs, suddenly hyperaware of how many people were packed into such a small space. Having all their attention on me made my pulse kick up harder.

“Okay.” I blew out a slow breath to calm my nerves as they flared up again. “I know most of you have some kind of clue about what happened, but I feel like I owe you an explanation.”

“You don’t owe us anything,” Sam told me.

“I want to,” I replied. “My parents kicked me out because I’m gay.”

The room was painfully silent as I waited for their usual kind of response. Instead, the shift in the room was subtle. Someone near the back muttered a quiet fuck under his breath, Charlie’s jaw clenched as anger flared in his face, and Jude’s hand settled on my shoulder with a squeeze of reassurance.

“That’s fucked up,” Cody said, and a few murmurs of agreement followed from around the room.

“You know you’re going to have to try harder than that to get rid of us, right?” Rodney offered with a grin. The tension in the room lessened as someone tossed a pillow at Rodney, and Brent called out from the kitchen doorway that he was right.

“Seriously, McLaughlin,” Brent began, “we’re not going anywhere.”

“Okay, good because well, the thing is…” I hesitated. Suddenly, the words felt stressful to say outloud. Next to me, Jude opened his mouth. I threatened, “Don’t you fucking say it for me.”

Before he could protest, Wyatt reached over and clamped a hand over his mouth. For several seconds, the conversation devolved into a comedy show as Jude tried to get free. Unfortunately for him, Wyatt was deceptively strong.

“Continue,” Wyatt said casually when he had Jude subdued.

“Okay, so… the thing is that…” Shit. Why was this so hard? “I’m dating someone, and I want you guys to know, but you can’t exactly tell anyone because it could be a real issue if you did… mostly it’d be a problem for Coach K… for Rhodes if you did.”

Silence. I was greeted with absolute, horrifying silence. Nobody even looked surprised. They just stared at me.

My stomach dropped, and my chest tightened as my gaze drifted from face to face, waiting for someone to react—to ask a question, swear, laugh, anything. Terry pressed his lips together like he was fighting some kind of expression, Rodney’s eyes darted to Cody, and Sam suddenly became extremely interested in the carpet.

Shit, shit, shit.

The longer the silence stretched, the more my nerves wound up. This wasn’t going well.

“I called it!” Wyatt exclaimed, abruptly letting go of Jude and throwing his hands in the air. “I fucking called it!”

The room exploded around us with wild reactions that made my head spin. Half the guys in the room shouted over one another, while the other half immediately started arguing like there were actual stakes involved in whatever the hell was happening.

“You did not!” Vaughn yelled back.

“I said as soon as Rhodes wasn’t our coach anymore, he’d tell us,” Wyatt shot back.

He what?

“Oh, that doesn’t fucking count,” Sam retorted. “You said when the season ended—”

“No, I’m pretty sure he said when Rhodes wasn’t our coach,” Brent cut in. “Who’s got the betting pool notebook?”

“The what?” I demanded, my voice rising to an embarrassing notch. Nobody acknowledged me.

“Shit!” Wyatt slumped back on the couch. “I left it in my room!”

“I have it on my phone!” Max jumped up, practically hopping around in place as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.