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I glanced at him. “Maybe in front of Coach.”
He shook his head. “Not just in front of Coach.”
Jamie was nodding, and I divided my stare between them. “What did you do?”
“We just had a little talky-talk with the guys,” Jamie replied.
I made a noise and looked directly at Ryan. “I told you I don’t need you to fight my battles.”
“I saidwe,not Ryan,” Jamie muttered.
I shot him a dirty look. “We all know Ryan is the one they all bow to.”
Ryan grunted. “I’m not fighting any battles. I just asked the locker room if there were any issues.”
I pursed my lips. “And no one said anything?”
“Nope,” Jamie replied.
Ryan shook his head, backing him up.
“I don’t know. I think it’s hard to believe Rinkin is the only asshole on the team.” I disagreed.
“Oh, there’s definitely other assholes, just not homophobic ones,” Ryan replied.
I hesitated.
Kruger glanced up. Sometimes his different-colored eyes were startling. “It’s true. No one has a problem. Rinkin is outnumbered, and with Coach threatening his spot on Elite this morning, he’ll calm down.”
“Don’t worry about the guys on the team, bro. We got your back,” Jamie tacked on, obviously seeing my hesitancy.
I fidgeted a little in my seat. “It’s not that easy.”
“Why?” Jamie pressed.
Madison gave him a baleful look before turning to me to gently say, “You don’t have to tell us.”
I swallowed thickly. I knew I didn’t have to tell them, but I wanted to. “The last time I came out to a group of guys—guys I thought were my friends—they turned on me.”
The air around Ryan went flat. “Turned on you how?”
In the spirit of facing things head on, I said, “They put me in the ICU. I had to have surgery to relieve the swelling on my brain.”
“They attacked you?” Madison paled, immediately turning into Jamie’s chest.
A muscle in Jamie’s jaw ticked as he wrapped his arms around her, eyes looking at me but not really seeing. With a small sound, Rory looped her arm through mine, laying her orange head on my shoulder, and all the other guys at the table sat stunned with varying degrees of anger and shock on their faces.
“Seriously?” Kruger finally asked. Beside him, Prism looked pale.
I nodded, trying not to get too caught up in the memories of that time. Of being held down and beaten. “Yeah.”
“When was this?” Ryan demanded. Bro always said he wasn’t about fighting my battles, but he looked ready to go to war.
In that moment, I appreciated it. It made me feel less alone. Hell, everyone at this table made me feel that way. It was a sentiment I was inanely grateful for because I’d felt alone for so long. Sure, I had my two brothers, but given the way I felt about Max… yeah, I sometimes felt isolated.
“I was sixteen, so three years ago. After that, I kept to myself. I only hung out with Max and Win. It was why I wasn’t too keen on telling people about my orientation when I came to Westbrook.”
No one said anything, so I continued. “Recovery took a while. I left the swim team and wasn’t sure I’d swim anymore. I missed it, though. Win hired a personal coach, and I swam on my own. It took a while to build my time back up.” I glanced at Ryan. “I didn’t rejoin a team until I made it into Elite. You training with me these last few months really helped.”
