AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You aren’t considering him because you think he’s gay. You think because I’m gay, and I hugged him, he’s gay too… you bigot.”
The owner froze and stared at me, shocked. There was an unwritten rule with bigots. It’s that they can insinuate things all day long. But as long as they don’t say it directly, they can’t be held accountable for it. Well, fuck that! I continued.
“Because I’m gay and you saw us hugging,” I said, emphasizing how ridiculous it was, “you think he’s gay too. And that’s why you don’t want him on the team, you fucking bigot!”
Dumbstruck, the owner looked back at Papa, Vincent, and the manager and then back at me. For a second I thought he was going to back down. I had trapped him. What I had said was true, and he knew it.
But when wounded animals are cornered, they don’t give up. They attack.
Stiffening his spine, he gathered himself. As if I had never said it, he replied, “I’m dismissing him because your friend there can’t pass, is as slow as molasses, and can’t do a split to save his life.”
“He can. He just needs more time to get ready. Before I went up there, he hadn’t touched a football in two years.”
“What?” The old man said, suddenly on the defensive.
“That’s right. That’s how good he is with time off. Imagine how good he’ll be once someone works with him.”
I thought I had him. His fangs had retracted. His venom was gone. Turning to me calmly, he said,
“Then I guess you should have thought about that before scheduling the workout, shouldn’t you?” He told me, making everything that was happening my fault.
Having rocked me back onto my heels, the old man walked off. I didn’t know what else to say. Turning to Papa, I headed towards him.
“You had asked me to bring him as soon as I could.”
In front of Claude, he said, “But you didn’t tell me that he hadn’t touched a ball in two years. What were you thinking bringing him here? You knew that bastard was looking for any excuse to make our lives harder. You didn’t have to help him.”
“But you told me to bring him as soon as I could,” I repeated, feeling my resistance slip away.
“I did. But sometimes you gotta think, Son,” he said as if I were the biggest idiot in the world.
Papa turned to Claude and offered him his hand.
“Thanks for coming down, Claude. It was truly good to see you. I’m sorry things didn’t work out,” he said with genuine disappointment in his smile.
“You too, Coach,” Claude replied as if to him, none of this was a big deal.
Once everyone had offered Claude their tight-lipped smiles and had left, I turned to my once best friend. With tears pooling in my eyes, I said, “I’m sorry.”
“Can we go?” was his only reply.
Neither of us said a word as we walked back to my car. The silence continued until I opened my mouth to speak, and he cut me off.
“Can you reschedule my return flight? If I can, I would like to leave tonight.”
A chill washed through me. Everything I feared was coming true.
“But, why? You don’t have anything you need to rush back to, do you? You can stay with me. We could catch up,” I said, feeling my world fall apart.
“Merri, I need to go. Can you change my return flight, or do I have to buy a new one?”
“I can change it,” I told him, trying to hide the tears that rolled down my cheeks.
Back at my place, neither of us spoke. Changing his return flight and then watching him gather his stuff, I said, “At least let me take you to dinner. Can we do that?”
“I’m gonna head out,” he replied as if none of this meant anything to him.
“I’ll take you to the airport.”
