Bounce Back

Chapter 22

Ryan's POV

I had been sitting in the library for fifteen minutes and I hadn't seen Tyler yet. He hadn't been this late to tutoring before so I didn't know where he was. I stood up after packing up and headed over to talk to my friends.

"Have any of you guys seen Tyler today?" I asked, standing behind Drew.

"I saw him between classes but I didn't talk to him," Morgan said.

"How come you want to know?" Drew asked.

"We agreed to study and he isn't here," I explained.

"Do you want to stay and work with us?" Jordan asked.

"I'm going to have a look for him but if I can't find him then I'll come back," I told him.

They all nodded and I headed out of the library. I wasn't really sure where Tyler would be if he was even still at school but the only place I could think of was the gym. I was still slightly surprised to see him standing on the court.

He was shooting free throw after free throw and was getting the machine to shoot balls out at him so he didn't have to move. Each ball would thud on the ground and he hadn't even noticed me come in yet.

I dumped my stuff beside his by the bench and headed over to him. I'm not even sure he noticed me when I stepped in front of him and he didn't say anything until I switched the machine off and he threw the last ball.

For a moment we stood there in silence. The last ball continued to bounce until it came to a rest on the ground.

"Honestly, Tyler, what's the matter?" I asked.

He gasped and collapsed on the ground. At first I thought that he was hurt but when I sat down as well I realised that he had tears running down his face. We didn't say anything for another couple of minutes as I rubbed my hand up and down his back.

"Tyler, what's the matter?" I asked again.

"I think that I'm gay," he muttered.

"Is that problem?" I asked indignantly.

"No, no, but the locker room is a little homophobic and I don't know what to do and what my friends will say," he explained.

I didn't say anything because I knew what he was talking about. Aside from my fucked up back that was the other reason that I stopped playing. I knew that I was gay and I didn't love basketball enough to make it worth it so I stopped.

After a couple of minutes Tyler managed to calm his breathing down but he did get up from the floor so I didn't move either.

"Is that what you have been quiet about?" I asked.

He nodded.

"How did you realise?" I asked.

"I don't know really. I have a crush on a guy but it was in the locker room one day which was weird because the guy isn't even in the locker room," he said.

I nodded and we continued to sit on the gym floor.

"How come you aren't making a big deal out of this?" he asked.

"It would be a little stupid given I'm gay," I told him.

His head snapped up and looked at me. I smiled slightly and he didn't say anything. We continued to sit down on the floor in the gym.

"I'm sorry for not coming to study with you," he said.

"Hey, this is more important than some math study. Let's get out of here," I suggested.

He still seemed a little muted so I offered him a hand so we could get off the gym floor. We slowly grabbed our stuff from by the door. Tyler seemed a little out of it still and I kept an arm around him and he seemed to be using me to stand.

I didn't feel like ice cream today so we headed to my favourite café instead. I asked Tyler if he minded and I guess that he didn't because he didn't say anything. We took a small table in the corner and I ordered toasted sandwiches for both of us.

"How are you going?" I asked.

"I don't know what to do," he said softly.

"Just talk to one person at a time. I talked to Jordan first before talking to anyone else. Do you think that you would talk to James?" I asked.

"I don't know because he's part of the locker room problem. I don't want to talk about it at the moment."

"Of course. What do you want to talk about?"

"Can you tell me about your experience being gay?"

I froze for a second before nodded and starting to talk. I talked about how I realised and who I talked to and I think that that helped Tyler calmed down.

"What about the guy that you have a crush on?" I asked.

He blushed slightly before ducking his head.

"He's way out of my league," he said softly.

"Really? I don't think that anyone could be out of your league," I told him.

He shrugged and I then asked him why he liked the guy.

"He's always been really nice to me and he's kind of cute and I think that he is really easy to spend time with," he explained.

"You should talk to him at some point. You don't know," I said.

He nodded and for the rest of the time we talked about other things. I thought about asking him if he wanted to do some maths work but I realised that that could wait until tomorrow. We ate our sandwiches before heading out.

"Thanks for talking to me," he said.

"Of course, you can call to me whenever you need to," I assured him.

"Thanks."

"And talk to your Mom."

"What if she is angry?"

"I've heard you talk about her and I've met her. I'm sure she will still love you," I told him.

He nodded and wrapped me in a tight hug. I relaxed into his arms and for a second we stood like that on the street.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow," he said.

"You better," I teased.

He smiled and we headed our separate ways. I had my own things to think about because now I knew that the guy I had a crush on was gay and I wasn't sure what to do about it. I told Tyler to talk to him but I wasn't sure that I could follow my own advice.

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The Wise One