AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Those pictures were taken without Mr Flaharty or his partner’s consent from private property. An investigation is being conducted to determine who the trespasser was, and appropriate action will be taken against them,” Hayden answered in a no-nonsense tone. “In the meantime, we ask that you respect Mr Flaharty’s privacy.”
Question after question was fired at him, far too many about whether he could still play the game if he was gay. It was frustrating and unfortunately, everything Bryce expected. He wanted to rail and shout, to protest that he was the same person the media had complimented at the end of last season as the year’s best-performing rookie. He wanted to tell them he’d done that with both Cole and Ava at his side. He was no different from what he’d been the entire season. It was just their perception that had changed. It was their understanding of who he was that had been altered.
Hayden refused to allow answers to some of the less respectful questions, even asking a journalist to leave if he couldn’t be polite. Coach interrupted one of Hayden’s answers, telling the reporter flat out that the question she’d asked was disrespectful of a professional team and its players. Bryce wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out when she’d asked Coach if they’d signed Bryce because his sexuality would get people talking more about the team.
“Let’s focus on Bryce’s playing ability, not his sexuality,” Liam said matter-of-factly from beside him. “That’s what we should be talking about.”
“Why are you sticking up for Bryce? Are the two of you in a relationship? Are you the person he was cheating on his girlfriend with?” a dumb-arse journalist asked.
Liam laughed and Bryce couldn’t help the twitch of his lips when he flicked his gaze toward Cole. The man looked murderous. His lips were set in a harsh line, the crease between his brows deep as he willed death on the reporter. Cole flushed red, his fists clutching the chair in front of him in a white-knuckled grip.
“No, he is my mate, though.” Liam paused and Bryce tore his gaze away from Cole, looking to his friend. He blew out a breath and steeled his spine. “You’re all assuming that Bryce is the only player in the men’s competition who is LGBTQIA. Statistically speaking, it’s highly unlikely. It’s also homophobic. The level of toxic masculinity in this game is pretty horrifying sometimes, and from a group of educated people, it’s disappointing that these are the questions that are being asked.”
“Thanks,” Bryce murmured, but Liam wasn’t done talking.
“You’ve never questioned my playing ability. Why is that?” Liam raised an eyebrow and looked out over the sea of faces.
Bryce’s mouth popped open, his eyes widening in panic. What was Liam doing? People would start talking. They would start rumours about him. He’d be put under the microscope.
“Is it because you assumed I’m straight? Is that why I’m a good enough player to be professional? Because of who I love?”
Murmurs went around the room, and Bryce looked out toward Adelaide and King, waiting for them to put a stop to this madness. Bryce gripped Liam’s forearm, squeezing it and shaking his head.
“No,” he murmured. “Liam, don’t do this.”
Liam patted his hand, and he watched as Liam met Adelaide and King’s smiles with one of his own. They were proud of him. King’s chest puffed up, a smile breaking over his handsome face, and Addy held a hand over her heart, smiling softly at him.
“Well, your assumption was wrong—”
“Liam, please,” Bryce whispered, panic for his friend clawing at his throat. He didn’t want him to be under the same kind of scrutiny as he was. He didn’t want it to tip the team over and have them both on their butts without playing contracts. He didn’t want the other players to turn on them. What if they wouldn’t share a locker room with them any more? What if it destroyed the team dynamics? Liam didn’t seem to be thinking about any of it.
Liam smiled, wrapped an arm around Bryce’s shoulder and pulled him closer, murmuring under his breath, “I told you that you aren’t in this alone.”
“But—”
Liam leaned closer to the mic, cutting off Bryce mid-sentence. Bryce’s belly swooped, and his chest clenched tight when his friend spoke.
“I’m pansexual too. I’m in a relationship with both a man and a woman.”
The room erupted, questions being hurled at them, fingers typing on phones to tweet the news first. It was utter chaos. But Bryce was slowly sinking underwater, that same detachment he'd experienced before filling him again. He opened his mouth to suck in a breath, but it was like the noise had taken corporeal form. His lungs seemed to fill with water rather than air. He snapped his mouth closed again, concentrating on Liam’s arm tightening around his shoulders. But just as suddenly as the overwhelming sensations crowded him, the air cleared, and his lungs emptied.
This was his chance to set the record straight. Another chance to control his story. To say the words out loud himself rather than letting strangers tell it for him.
He took a deep breath and leaned forward. The room hushed, anticipation rippling through them. “For clarity, Liam and I aren’t together. But as he said, both of us are pansexual, and we both have a girlfriend and boyfriend. Like his, my girlfriend and boyfriend are together, too, and we love one another deeply.” He shrugged, not knowing how to simplify this relationship any more than he already had. “There are three of us in our relationship. None of us are cheating on the other because we’re all together.”
Bryce knocked on the table, taking his time to choose his words and shove down the anger and desire to scrub his body clean from the feeling of being violated. He rested his elbows on the table and opened up to the people in front of him, saying, “Those photos that were taken of my boyfriend and I aren’t me cheating. We’re three adults in a committed, exclusive relationship. Regardless of what you think of it, surely we deserve the right to… I dunno… be together in our own house behind closed doors. The person who took them may have gotten a scoop, but they also committed a crime.”
Liam squeezed his shoulder as Bryce’s voice wobbled, and he sucked in a breath, blinking back the burning behind his eyes. Reporters were asking questions, challenging some of his comments and others expressing support. He appreciated that support. He’d at least made some of them think about what had happened. When he’d turned pro, Bryce knew he would be in the public eye. But he’d never imagined that the photogs would be so relentless to take images of him having sex.
The whole experience was appalling. He couldn’t believe it was happening. Whose life had he fallen into? He wasn’t a Kardashian. He wasn’t worthy of a sex tape. Cole and Ava certainly didn’t deserve it.
Bryce liked to see smiles on the people he was with. He wanted laughter and happiness surrounding him. He wanted love, and he’d go to the ends of the earth to defend those people who made him happy and loved him like Cole and Ava did.
He wanted to say a lot more than he had. He wanted to tell people to butt out of his relationship, that they would answer to him if they hurt the two people who meant the world to him. But he held his tongue.
“No, we’re not together,” Liam agreed. “I’m asking that readers and viewers don’t share the images and boycott any publication who does. My friends deserve that respect.”
“Thank you,” Bryce murmured under his breath, forever grateful for the friendship that Liam had shown him. Liam, his cousin, and their friends hadn’t hesitated to stop in the middle of a party—a celebration of another throuple’s commitment to each other—to help. He hadn’t met many of them yet, but they were there for them, giving them advice and lending an understanding ear.
