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This story is mostly fiction. Some of the situations and characters are based off people that I know or experiences I've had. However names, & locations have all been change to better suit the story. That being said this story is mostly fictional and any likenesses to any other situations are strictly coincidental.

All events that happen are completely consensual between people involved in the story. If you are not of legal age, reside in an area where viewing such material is illegal, or are offended by homosexuality and/or homosexual themes, leave this site now. The author retains all rights to this story. No reproductions or links to other sites are allowed without the permission of the author.

Half in, Half out

"The Life of a Collegiate Gymnast"

-Chapter 2-

Nowhere Fast

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. The sound of my telephones' alarm clock was going off. The sun was beaming in my room through the slits of my blinds lighting up my room. I reached over to turn off the alarm and see what time it was. I grabbed my phone off my night stand and turned swiped the alarm off. I looked at the clock and saw it was almost 11:30 in the morning. I threw the covers off of me and stretched out in my bed. It took me a second to realize that my bed was now empty. I got out of bed and looked around for any sign of Nate.

"Nate..." I said as I stepped out of bed. My mouth was parched from drinking too much the night before. "Nate... you still here?" I said as I walked out of my room. I heard the shower running I knocked on the bathroom door to see who was in it.

"Ty? Is that you?" I heard Jake ask from the other side.

"Yeah man, where's everyone at?" I cracked opened the door to make sure he could hear me.

"Uh.. Jess and Summer said they were going back to Summers place so she could shower and then they were going to do some shopping for school stuff. Who is everyone else?" Jake asked from the other side of the curtain.

"Nate and Jess' friend Jayden." I turned on the faucet and took a giant gulp of the cold water running out of it.

"Oh... I thought they went home. No one was here when Jess and me woke up this morning. Did they stay over or something?" Jake said as I started brushing my teeth.

"Yeah." As I sat there brushing my teeth I wondered if I should say something about what happened with Nate and me last night.

"Oh, well they were gone by the time we woke up. I wondered why our spare blankets downstairs folded on the couch." Well at lease Jayden is a good guest and cleaned up before he left I thought to myself.

"Yeah bud..." I spit out my tooth paste and sat down against the vanity. "Nate came upstairs to use my laptop to check out his facebook and then passed out on the floor..." I figured I would hold off on letting him know our team Captain had slept in the same bed and spooned me last night. "Jayden and me stayed up talking till like 4 I think then I came up to go to bed."

"Oh I don't know..." Jake turned off the shower. "Hand me my towel bud." I handed Jake over his towel. Jake stepped out of the shower with the towel around his waist. "They probably both woke up and were like, 'Uhh... what the hell' and peaced out. Pretty funny actually." I moved aside so Jake could brush his teeth.

"Yeah funny stuff..." I was still conflicted if I wanted to tell Jake what happened or not. I decided to tell him later. "Hey let me take a quick shower and we can go grab something to eat?"

"Yeah. I need to eat something fresh and not greasy. Maybe we'll get a sub or something?" Jake spit out the last of his toothpaste.

"Yeah same here. I'm gonna go grab my things and take a quick shower. Gimme like fifteen minutes or so."

"Sounds good bud. I'm going to jump on the computer for a second then." Jake said as he walked out of the bathroom.

I turned on the shower water and headed back to my room to grab a towel. I checked my phone to see if I had any text messages I missed while I was asleep. There was just one from my brother asking how conditioning was going. I figured I would get back to him later. I went back into bathroom and stripped down. I jumped in the shower. The water hitting my body felt amazing. The temperature was perfect, not to hot and not too cold. I sat under the shower head while the water dripped down from my head. I could sit there forever right now I was comfortable. I grabbed the shower gel and started to soap up. I was soaping up and washing off with my loufa. As soon as I got towards my dick it started to swell up. Within seconds it my cut dick was standing at its full 8 inches. I dropped the loufa and gave it a few tugs. Fuck I was horny I thought. Leaned back against the wall and started stroking my dick faster. I thought for a second about waiting till later since I told Jake I'd be ready soon, but, he could wait I told myself.

I went back to tugging on my dick. I moved my left hand over my stomach up to my chest and over to my left nipple. I gave it a squeeze and my dick jumped at the touch of it. I let out a big sigh as I continued jerking off. I stroked myself faster thinking about how good it would feel to get sucked off right now. Having a guy suck me off while he played with my balls. I moved my left hand down to play with my balls. They were getting tighter and I could tell I was getting closer. God it felt good to get off I thought. My breathing started to pick up. I started stroking faster and faster. I was getting lost in how good it felt to stroke off. I hadn't jerked off in a few days and I needed a release. I pulled down on my balls as they kept getting tighter and tighter. I closed my eyes while I jerked faster and faster. I pictured someone like Jayden sucking me off. I was going to cum soon if I didn't slow down I thought.

"Hey Ty..." Jake knocked on the bathroom door. Fuck I thought, maybe I won't respond and he'll think I didn't hear him. I continued jerking off. "Tyler..." I heard the door handle turn and the door open. "Hey man you almost ready?" I let out a silent sigh and let go of my dick. 'Yeah I WAS almost ready, dbag' I said to myself.

I tried to catch my breath, "What's up Jake?"

"Oh I was just wondering if you were almost ready.'

"Yeah just washing my hair right now. I'll be out in a minute." My breathing had returned to normal. My dick was starting to lose its hardness. I sighed and grabbed the shampoo bottle.

"Alright. Hey Ty, did Nate crash in your room last night?" Jake asked. As soon as he finished the sentence I was caught off guard and the shampoo bottle slipped out of my hand and onto the floor.

"Shit." Well I was trying to figure out if I should just go ahead and tell him. How did he know Nate stayed in my room? "Uh... yeah. He crashed on the floor. He was checking my laptop like I said and when I came upstairs he was passed out on the floor."

"Oh okay..." There was a slight pause from Jake. "Weird I found his cell on your bed. I heard it ringing and I thought it was your phone ringing so I went to go see who it was but your phone was on vibrate so I looked around and it was Nates phone. He was calling from Chases phone cause he thought he lost it last night. I told him we'd stop by on our way to grab a bite to give it to him." Jake told me from the other side of the curtain.

I turned off the water and stuck my hand out. Jake put my towel in my hand and I dried myself off. I didn't respond right away because I was trying to figure out what to say first. I stepped out of the shower.

"Ehh.." I started to dry my hair off with my other towel. "He probably dropped it before he passed out on the floor." I kept my head in my towel so I didn't have to look at Jake. I was a terrible liar and Jake would know something was up.

"Yeah.." Jake stood there for a second with a q-tip in his ear. I looked at him to see if be bought what I was saying. "Whatever. Hurry up and finish getting ready. I starved." He tossed the q-tip in the trash and left the bathroom.

Phew I thought. I headed out of the bathroom to my room. I threw on my state gymnastics team t shirt and my black Kappa Soccer track pants. I didn't feel like doing my hair so I just threw on a cap backwards and headed downstairs. Jake was already waiting for me in the living room. He had the same idea as me to go comfortable. He was wearing a pair of under amour gym shorts and a t shirt.
"Whose driving?" I asked as I threw on my flip flops.

"Doesn't matter. You want to?" Jake asked as we headed out the house. I sent Jess a text letting her know we were leaving and telling her where we went.

"Yeah I'll drive. Lets' stop at Nate's place first so we can pick up subs on the way home." I said to Jake as I climbed into my car.

We got in the car and headed towards Nate's place. I hope last night doesn't make things weird. I was determined not to have things turn weird. It's Nate I thought. I looked up to him, he was our team captain. Definitely not going to let things get awkward. Besides he didn't even think it was me next to him. He thought it was someone named Heath. Yep I thought, I will not let things get awkward, I thought as we pulled up to his apartment complex. Jake texted Chase to let him know we were here. Nate came walking out of the apartment to my car. I put my sunglasses on and said to myself, starting tomorrow it won't be awkward. No need to rush back into talking about last night. I figure we could just leave it to him being drunk. I felt bad lying to Jake about him sleeping on the floor. I guess I could've said he slept in my bed. Sure, I would've left out the whole spooning part or him reaching over and calling me someone else name.

"Hey guys." Nate said to us. I was looking down at my phone at the time texting Jess back.

"Here ya go bro. Next time don't rush out the house we could've bought you back." Jake told him as he handed him his phone.

"Yeah..." Nate said hesitantly, "I just didn't want to wake up anyone. Everyone was still passed out and I just wanted to go back to sleep in own bed." I stopped texting and turned my head towards him.

"Well our hangover thanks you." I laughed as I said to him. He was looking at me and it didn't seem a bit awkward.

"Yeah, well mine hates the both of you right now." Nate laughed. "You guys eat yet? We just ordered some pizza a few minutes ago if you want to come in?" Jake made a fake throw up noise.

"I think we're going to eat fresh. No greasy food for me today." I said.

"Yeah, I'll up-chuck pizza right now. But we're going to get going Nate. We'll see you at practice tomorrow. Do you have rehab for the shoulder tomorrow too?"

"Yeah, I'm going in the morning to work with the trainers. I'll see ya at 4 for team practice though." Nate said.

Our sport is a bit different than other team sports. Though we're a team, gymnastics is still a very individualized sport, so our practice times on some days are staggered. We usually work out as a team 4 - 5 times a week with all the guys in the gym at the same time doing drills on equipment and doing routines. Then we the other days we come in throughout the day so we can get more one on one attention with our coaches. As you can imagine 20 guys in there at a time working out together on all the apparatuses at the same time and only 4 coaches gets a little crazy. Yeah at this stage in our career we know what corrections we have to make and what we need to work on. But our coaches might be able to spot something we might not see, so that's why our training schedules are is so different.

"Alright, lets catch lunch or something tomorrow. I know we have to go to the bookstore and pick up our books still. So we'll probably be on campus around lunch time." Jake said.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll see you guys later." Nate reached in and gave us each a fist pound and turned around and went back into his place.

Jake and me headed over to go get some subs for lunch. On way over we talked about the previous night. When I asked him about what went on with Summer and him he said they didn't do much since he was too drunk to make anything happen. They just made out and then cuddled. I teased him about being the little spoon to which he said he was never the little anything and grabbed his crotch. I left it at that and we headed back to the house to eat lunch.

The rest of the day went on pretty much as a normal Sunday would go on around here. I cleaned up the mess from yesterday and we just hung around the house. Jess showed back up later on that afternoon after running around with Summer. The three of us went for a jog around 5 through our neighborhood. Other than that nothing really too exciting went on. It was just the three of us hanging out and enjoying each other's company. Around 7 I was getting hungry and headed into Jess' room.

"Hey, I'm getting kinda hungry, did you want to go get some food?" I sat down on Jess' bed.

"Why don't we make something?" Jess said as she typed away on her laptop.

"We could. What are you thinking?" I laid there on Jess' bed staring at the ceiling listening to some random song playing from her laptop.

"Is Jake home? How about we make some Italian food?" The sound of Italian did sound good. I haven't had real Italian food since I've been back. My grandma makes the best Italian food. She makes it all from scratch. Clearly we won't be doing that but could attempt it.

"I could go for some pasta and chicken..." I yelled up to Jake who was in the front room.

"What's up?" Jake poked his head into Jess' room.

"We're hungry. We're going to have a family dinner." Jess said to him.

"Family dinner... aww you guys!" Jake jumped into the Jess' bed next to me. "I love me a family dinner." Jake started poking and fake cuddling me. "It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy." Jake said in a cutesy voice.

"Stop..." I laughed at his playfulness.

"But I want a family dinner." He looked up at Jess who was just sitting there shaking her head. Jake has his arms around me spooning me. "Aww don't worry Jessica I've got some more love for you too." He pushed me aside and stood up and hugged Jessica over the shoulders and nuzzled his head into neck.

"Jake!" She fake pushed him away.

"Alright dinner sounds good. I'm thinking Italian. What do you guys have a taste for?" God we're all one in the same I thought.

"The same. No wonder we get along so great." Jess said.

We got up and headed to the kitchen to start making dinner. We soon figured out that the kitchen was not about to hold us all in cooking and bumping into each other. I decided I would run to the store and go grab a bottle of wine so we could drink while we ate. I called up my brother while I was driving. He's so excited to come state next year it's kinda cute. Before he used to ask me about training went but now he wants me to go into detail. I try to tell him not to worry about what we're too much and just train how Mihai, my old coach trains him for now. After getting the bottle of wine I returned home to the smell of delicious food being prepared.

"Smells delicious guys." I came in and put the wine on the table in the dining room. "Kyle says 'Hi.' to you two. I called him while I was out. He's so ready to come to here to State he keeps telling me. He was telling me how he was working on a new vault too."

"Sounds sweet. Can't wait to have the Conti brothers in the same gym." Jake said as he took the chicken off the frying pan. Man these two whipped up dinner pretty fast I thought.

"Aw that's cute Ty. He needs to visit sometime this year." Jess said as she grabbed plates out of the cupboard.

"Yeah he will I'm sure. He's super excited to start and he's still a year away. I've be trying to tell him to just enjoy senior year. It'll be over before he knows it."

The food was done and we each grabbed a plate and headed to the dining room. For dinner we had Chicken Parmesan, pasta, garlic bread & pasta sauce. While it wasn't anything like my grandma or mom makes, it hit the spot. We sat around the table eating dinner and discussing random things. Eventually the conversation moved back to last night.

"So you're friend Jayden..." I took a drink of my wine and looked over at Jake. "What's his story? He seems like a nice guy for the most part. I mean... I liked him, except for that 10.0 comment," Jake explained.

"He apologized for that actually." I said to Jake.

"He did?" Jake asked.

I told them everything that happened after everyone left us downstairs last night. They laughed when I told them about the giant hug he gave me before I went up to bed.

"I tell you, those frat guys love their bro-love when their drunkels." Jess teased.

"Yeah." I laughed. "It caught me off guard." I said.

"Jess now you can tease him at work." Jake added.

"Yeah I can!" Jess laughed back at him.

We finished eating and cleaned up. The rest of the night was pretty laid back. We threw in a movie and just hung out for the rest of the night. After the movie I was feeling pretty tired so I headed up to my room. I sent parents a quick email telling how everything was going, set my alarm and laid down in my bed. Before I knew it my eyes were feeling heavy and I was out for the night.

Over the next few days I started to get back into my routine here at school, I was ready for what the new semester had to bring. Conditioning was going good and I was back and getting used to my training schedule I had while I was here. Any free time I had I would usually hang out with Jake, Jess, Summer, or some of the guys on the team. I had a lot of friends but I liked to hang out with a core group of people. Leads to less drama. I haven't had time to talk to Nate about what happened last Saturday. At first it didn't seem like things would be awkward, but I started to notice he would find reasons not to be training the same apparatus as me or our conversations would be strictly about training. It started to bother me because I considered him a good friend. I had hoped that eventually it will work itself out.

That Sunday Jess, Jake, & me were going on a run around a nearby nature trail. We had reached the half way point and decided to take a break by this clearing next to a stream.

"Man, it's beautiful out today you guys." Jake said as he took off his tshirt. His sweat glistened off him from the sunlight.

I took of my own shirt and laid it out on the grass, "Hell yeah it is. I feel great." I laid down onto of it letting the sun light hit me.

"Oh you boys. Don't try to show off for the girls..." I looked up at Jess, ".. and guys! Sheesh, give me a second to catch my breath Ty." Jess said down on the grass next to us.

As we laid there in the sun, Jess was telling us how busy she's been at work lately. We talked about training with her and tried to figure out what we were going to make for dinner tonight for family dinner.

"Maybe we should invite Summer?" Jake said.

"Oh.. so someone has a crush? It wasn't a hit it and quit it sorta thing?" I teased Jake.

"I wouldn't necessarily call it a crush.. yet.." Jake playfully hit me. "We're just friends."

"With benefits." Jess said matter of factly.

"No, not with benefits. Shut up. Nothing happened. We cuddled that night that was it." Jake said as he rolled over onto his stomach. His muscular back flexed as he turned over.

"Yeah, yeah. I know about what happened last week. Quite the gentleman you were Jake." Summer said. "What about those text?"

"I was just being a gentleman." Jake said.

"That a boy." I elbowed Jake. "But seriously, where do you think this is go?"

"I don't know. Ty you know me. I like to play things by ear. I don't want to make it more than something it's not. "

"Yeah, and she's my good friend Jake so don't be douschey!" Jess said.

"You know he's not a douche Jess." I butted in.

"Hey now, boys don't gang up on me. You know I gotta stand up for my girl. Just like you boys have your whole, 'Bros before hoes!' mantra us girls have our own.

"Chicks before dicks" Jake and me said in unison.

"Damn straight!"

"So what kind of saying do I get then?" I thought to myself out loud.

"Don't be complicated Tyler." Jake said to me.

"Please Ty, don't act like you're not a bro. And gay guys can be hoes too. Thank god you're not one of those." Jess stood up. "Not that there's anything wrong getting yourself some."

"Oh Jess, you know Ty's been having a dry spell for awhile now."

"What about Jayden, Ty? He's cute." Jess asked, she did have a point.

"Is he even gay?" I asked her.

"Like that matters? He's in a frat, give him a few beers and he'll be good to go." Jess said back to me as the two of them laughed.

"Hey, a hole is a hole in the dark." Jake added. "Or is it, 'It all feels the same in the dark' that they say?"

"Shut up guys." I laughed back at them. I stood up, stretched out and wiped the sweat off me. I left my shirt off and tucked them into my shorts.

"Oh Ty, we're teasing." We all laughed and got ready to head back on the trail.

We finished up our run and headed back to the house. We decided tonight to get a pizza for dinner. Our run had taken some energy out of us and it was easier than making a dinner. As soon as we got home Jake ordered the pizza while the two of us showered up. By the time I had got out of the shower and changed Summer was already over. Turns out she picked up the pizza and a twelve pack. After we ate dinner we decided to head outside and light up the fire pit Jake and me had dug last week. The night ended with the four of us in our backyard playing a game of corn hole and drinking beer.

~~~~~

I laid there bed. I had woke up before my alarm went off. It was 7:30 and I didn't have to be up for another half hour at the earliest. I rolled out of bed and headed downstairs.

"Hey man." Jake was in the kitchen filling up a water bottle. "I'm heading to the gym to do some cardio before class." He was wearing a pair or gym shorts, a white tshirt that clung to his body and flip flops.

"What time is your first class?" I asked him.

"Ten. So I gotta go get cardio outta the way." He threw me an apple. "What time is yours?"

"10:30 then I have a break so I'm going to the gym in like twenty minutes." I took a bite of my apple. "Is Jess up yet?"

"Yes Jess is up." Jess said as she walked down the hall from her room. She was fully dressed for her first day of class. "I've got a class in a half hour. When do you guys have a lunch break today?"

"I've got a break after my first class at noon then I have class from 1:30 till 3" I took a bite of my apple. I am taking 5 classes this semester, two on Monday Wednesday, and three on Tuesday and Thursday. Jake threw Jess an apple.

"Thanks." Jess took a bite of her apple, "What about you, Jake?"

"Today sucks. I've got class from 10 till 11:30 and then 12:00 till 1:30."

"Damn. Ty text me when you get out and we can grab some lunch."

"Sounds good."

Jess headed out the door and down the street. Jake and me were sitting there in the kitchen talking for a few minutes.

"You think I should text Summer and see if she wants to catch lunch with me?" Jake asked.

"Duh."

"Alright, I will. I'm going to head out, I'll see ya in a few at the gym."

"Yeah."

"Put a shirt on, noone wants to see your T.H.O." Jake pinched my nipple as he walked by me.

"Bitch." I said back to him.

"You love it." Jake smacked his ass and left out the house.

I sat there for a second laughing to myself. I honestly had the best friend a guy could ask for. I ate my apple and contemplated going up to my room to rub one out since I didn't get a chance to finish a few days ago since Jake interrupted me in the shower. I went back up to my room and checked the time. I had to be at the gym in a 20 minutes. I signed and laid down. I moved my hand down my shorts. I gave my package a squeeze. 'Maybe some other time bud.' I said to myself and got back up.

I threw my clothes in my gym bag, grabbed my back pack and headed out the door to my car to go to school. As I drove to the gyms parking lot I was going through everything I had to do today. It was going to be a bit of a long day I thought, I had conditioning, class, and then we had team practice tonight. I found my spot and headed into the training gym. Since our school was so big we have our own training facility that we share with the girls team, and our wrestling team. I also get a parking spot close to campus since we have a special lot that is used specifically for our training gym.

I headed into the gym and headed straight for the locker room. I put my stuff in my locker and headed out to the gym to do my conditioning for today. I was heading upstairs to the track when I bumped into Nate who was coming out of the trainers office with an ice pack around his shoulder. He looked like he was in a foul mood.

"Hey bud, tough rehab session?" I asked him.

"What do you think?" He shot back at me.

"Nate!" I yelled at him. "What the hell man? Why have you been acting like a dick to me lately?" I said to him. We were the only two in the stairwell.

"What..." He stopped and turned around.

" You've been hot and cold since last Saturday." I said to him.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I've got a lot going on right now and rehab on my shoulder isn't going good."

"You don't know what I'm talking about?" I looked back at him.

I wondered if I shouldn't have said anything to him. I sighed. I was about to say something back to him till I heard a few people walking towards us from the running track upstairs. I heard coming Jake around the corner.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Jake asked completely oblivious to the situation.

"I was just asking Nate how rehab was going."

"Ouch.." Jake said as he walked past me down the stairs. "Bad session today?" He asked Nate.

"Yeah, rehab isn't going as good as it should be." Nate told Jake.

"Don't worry about it bud, I'm sure it'll get better." I said as I started to walk upstairs. I wasn't about to let one drunken night ruin our friendship. I was going to have to work this out with him. If anything, I would have to for the team.

"Thanks Ty." Nate said back to me a little nicer.

I saw Jake look back up at me and then at Nate trying to figure out if that was what was going on. I shot him a look that I hope he understood meant, 'We'll talk later.'

I went on with conditioning as I usually do. Got warmed up, did my running and some drills on the floor before calling it a session and heading to the locker room to change for class. I headed towards campus to class. My first class of the day was this random nutrition class I was taking as an elective. I let Jake talk me into it since he told me it was easy and he'd help me with it. After taking a look at the syllabus and the book I thought otherwise. I had to remember to hit him for talking me into that class. During class I was texting Jess to see where she was so we could meet for lunch. She told me she would be in the oval with Jake and to meet her there.

Once class ended I quickly headed to meet them in the oval. Walking through campus it was nice to see it so busy again. The oval is a giant field shaped in an oval with walk ways leading in different directions to other buildings and grass areas where you can sit and hang out between classes. It was located between the library and student union at the center of campus so it was a busy and quite popular area.

"Hey Ty!" Jess called to me.

"Hey buddy." Jake flashed a smile to me as he packed up his things. "Got to head to class. Everything okay between Nate and you? Seemed like I walked in on something."

Here it was, my chance to tell him what was going on. But I figured I wouldn't since he was about to go to class. "Oh nothing. Don't worry about it." I said to him. I tried to not make eye contact because he can always tell when I'm lying.

"Alright..." He looked at me. I kept my sunglasses down as I looked up at him. "Well, have a good lunch you two."

"See ya bud." I reached up and we exchanged a little fist pound. Jake waved by to the two of us and headed to his next class. "So how was your first class?"

"It was good. You know the first day of class is always syllabus day."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. My nutrition professor did not get the message." I said to Jess and told her how we jumped right into lecture as soon as he was finished going over the syllabus.

"Well it's not too early to switch. And you're an athlete, they bend over backwards to accommodate you guys."

"Yeah, I'll just wait and see how I like it first."

"Gotcha. Alright lets go get some food, boy." Jess said.

We walked towards High St. to eat at Panera. High St. was busy with people going to and from class. We ordered our food and sat down to eat. While eating we talked about our next classes. Once we finished we said bye and headed our separate way to class.

I walked into my next class and saw a few familiar faces. I took a quick look around to see where I wanted to sit. I looked towards the windows and saw Jayden sitting there. I started heading towards the way when he looked up and nodded his head toward the empty seat next to him with a smile. I smiled back at him and sat down.

"Hey Tyler, what's going on man?" Jayden asked me. He had that same smile on his face as he did the first time I met him.

"Not much. Crazy we have class together. I forgot you said you were minoring in my major." I looked back at him. Jayden was wearing a white Hurley shirt that had some black and green in it with some black plaid shorts and black flip flops. His hair was done the same way as last Saturday.

"Yeah. That was a fun night last week." He looked up at me with his brown eyes. I tried my best not to stare at him.

"Hell yeah it was. Even better that I didn't have a hangover when I woke up."

"Man you suck." He playfully said. "I felt like crap when I woke up. Sorry I left so early but I woke up and wasn't feeling too hot. You're friend Nate woke me up when he was coming down the stairs."

"Oh, it's not a problem. Don't worry about it." I told him. Talking to Jayden put me in a better mood after getting off to a rough start with the one two punch of a crab ass Nate & nutrition. 'I still have to hit Jake for that class' I told myself.

Class started and we went over syllabus. Jayden kept making some smart comments that were making me laugh. He leaned forward and I saw that he was wearing a necklace with his fraternity letters. I never got the obsession with fraternities. Yeah there are some good guys, we even have a few guys on the team that are in a frat. But most guys can be a bit much to say the least. I don't know, once you turn 21 it's kinda like, if I'm going to go out, I'd rather go to a bar with my friends.

"Hey man, what are you doing after class?" Jayden asked me.

"I've got an a hour break before I have to head back to the gym for practice."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you were on the gymnastics team." The professor must've heard him because he looked over at us. "10.0!" Nate said.

I shot him a look and said, "Shut it."

"Excuse me, Mr. Conti but do you have something to say?" Our professor said to me.

"Uh..." I hate being put on the spot I thought to myself. "No Professor Voorhees. Sorry about that." Luckily I knew the professor from previous classes and he was a nice guy.

"Alright, well since we're going over the syllabus and we're at the part that talks about a partner project I will assign partners now." Great I thought. If there was one thing I hate doing for school it's group projects. It is just very difficult to try to accommodate others people schedule with myself. At least the season hadn't started yet so that would make things a bit easier."I'll start with you Mr. Conti, since I see Mr. Banks and yourself have already be introduced you two will be partners."

It took me a second to realize who, 'Mr. Banks' was but then I quickly realized it was Jayden. "Not a problem Mr. Voorhees." I said to him. I looked over at Jayden who was smiling at me.

"Hey partner." He said with a devilish smile on his face.

"Say 10.0 again and you'll be finding yourself without one."

"I kid, I kid, Tyler."

"I know, I'm just joking with you... mostly."

We finished up going over the syllabus and our professor let us out early. I looked at the clock and saw that we got out a half hour early. I started to packed up my things and head out towards the oval.

Jayden stopped me, "Hey man, what you doing now?"

"I was thinking about heading towards the oval and laying out for a hour or so since we got early."

"Oh I was going to see if you wanted to grab a bite to eat or something since we'll be partners and spending time together outside of class. Plus you're Jess' friend and she's a sweet chick." I liked that he wanted to hang out outside of class but I wasn't really hungry.

"Ah..." I said to him. I was still full from lunch with Jess.

"Nah, if you're too busy don't worry about it." Jayden said.

"Oh, no, it's not that. I grabbed a bite to eat with Jess before class. How about a cup of coffee or something?" I said to him. I wanted to hang out with Jayden and get to know him, if anything he seems like he'd be cool to be friends with.

"Man... I would but I'm starving. I'll take a rain check on the cup of coffee." Jayden said

"Okay." I said nonchalantly.

"Sounds good. I'll catch you later Tyler." Jayden said to me.

I headed towards the oval to catch some sun and start reading some of the chapters I had to read for my classes. There were people all over laying out, playing frisbee and what not. I found a spot that was by a tree and set up camp there. I started to read my nutrition book when 3 pages in I wanted to stab my eyes out. I pulled out my phone and sent a text to my brother.

Tyler: Hey Kyle. What are you doing? I'm sitting out in the oval bored as hell.

Dammit, I forgot about the time difference. He's probably in class right now I thought. Then I felt my phone vibrate.

Kyle: Hey bro. Yeah I'm pretty bored right now too.

I laughed at the text. Typical Kyle I thought. Any excuse not to pay attention in school he'll take.

Tyler: Get your nose in the books baby bro.

Kyle: Shut up Ty. I got my scholarship... lol... What's up?

Tyler: Nothing. Just killing some time right now between class and training. How's training going?

Kyle: Good. I'm working on your old vault still, the handspring one and a half twist.

Tyler: A Rudi? Aw.. cute. My mini me... I'll still put you to shame. :)

Kyle: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut it. You finally get yourself a guy yet?

Tyler: Whatever. Nah. Just training mostly. You get yourself one?

Kyle: Sounds about right. ;-p I'll leave the guys to you.. lol.. Hey bro, I gotta go before my teacher bust me and takes my phone. Text me after practice or something.

Tyler: Sounds good. Tell mom and dad I said hi.

Kyle: No prob bro.. l/y

Tyler: You too.

I looked at the time. I figured I might as well head to the gym a little early. Once I got to the gym I hurried and got ready for practice. Coach gave us his little speech he usually gives us and then we broke out into our training groups. I headed to pommel horse first to get it out of the way since it's my least favorite event. We don't really have a set way of training. We just have to make sure we at least hit every apparatus and do two full out routines. I wasted no time on the pommels and got straight to business. In the gym I usually am one the more social ones when it's not the competition season but today I just wanted to get pommels and rings over with as soon as possible.

I decided to work with one of the freshmen, Aaron. He was from Northern California and pretty quiet. He was one of our shorter and smaller guys on the team, only 5'5 or so. He had a smaller build than I did. However he had the same tan skin I had. His hair was blond and he always wore it a little shaggy. Some of the guys play with him and call him Hollister because of the way he looks and the fact that he's from California. I told him not to worry, some of the seniors used to call me the same name during my first year. I don't know I think he was still adjusting to being so far away from his family and around a completely new set of guys with a different way of training than he was used to or what but he hadn't been having the best practices lately. We were both trained by Romanian coaches and the Romanian way of coaching was much more strict than what we do here at OSU so it does take some getting used to. Aaron reminded me of myself a few years ago. So far away from home and knowing no one. I have taken him under my wing the same way the Nate took me under his wing. We knocked out pommels, rings, and p.bars first. We headed over to vault next.

Vault happens to be my favorite event. It's actually a lot harder than it looks. Most people when they think of gymnastics I feel like they think of the 1996 Olympics back when the women won gold. I used to hate it when I was younger. I used to be scared I was going to slip and slam into the horse, I actually have a few times and does it hurt. But as I got a little older and got a bit stronger it quickly became my best event. Last year I came in 4th place at college nationals just barely missing out of the medals. The past year I've been working towards upgrading my two vaults and they're finally coming together. If I can get them I should have one of the highest if not the highest start values in colligate gymnastics. I was waiting on my turn and I looked over and saw Jake and Nate talking, they were both looking over my way. Jake nodded towards me as they talked, I wondered what they were talking about.

"Tyler." I heard Aaron say to me but I was focusing on the two of them. "Tyler?"

"Oh, sorry Aaron. What's up?"

"Did you see that last vault?" Aaron asked.

"No... I'm sorry." My head was somewhere else.

"Damn, I stuck it cold but no one was watching." He sounded disappointed.

"Do it again bro. You've got my full attention." I turned away from them and focused on Aaron.

I wanted to make sure he doesn't end up hating it out here and wanting to leave and go back home. When I was a freshman I was the one who was the furthest from home. It sucked, so I wanted to make sure he knew he had a whole team who were his whole family. He vaulted again and sat down the landing. I felt bad and he was looking pretty beat up.

I met him half way down the runway. "Dude don't worry, they don't call it practice for nothing." I put my arm over his shoulders as we walked back to the end of the run way. "You can't rush it. You gotta just let it happen."

I continued to give him some tips. I used to do the same vault he was working on right now so it was easy for me to give him some tips.

"Yeah, I got it. Sorry Tyler, it's just so different being so far away from home and not knowing anyone."

"Don't worry about it Aaron. We all have those tough days at practice. Remind me to show you my videos of my first college meet. I didn't hit one routine perfectly that day. You'll get used to it, and you'll meet a lot of people. Plus you've got us. We're one big family." I looked over to the high bar where I saw Jake and Nate working together. "Even if we have our disagreements."

"Thanks man. You going go?" Aaron asked me.

"No problem. Trust me, once you get comfortable here you'll be practicing like you were back at home." I told Aaron. I stepped onto the runway and got ready. I cleared my head and did my vaults. I decided to throw one of my new vaults for fun to see if I can land it on the competition mat. I started running down the runway gaining speed. I did my round off onto the board. I could tell this was going to be a good vault. I did my half turn off the board into the handspring position onto the vaulting table. I hit the table just right and pushed off into the air do twist around two and a half times. I saw the floor and prepared for my landing. I nailed the landing perfectly.

"WOOOWW!!!" I heard from across the gym I looked over toward the high bar and I saw Nate with a big smile on his face.

"Oh YEAH! TYLER HIT HIS NEW VAULT! OH YEAH!" Jake was laughing doing his Pauly D impression again.

I gave them a fake little bow. Aaron met me half way down the run way. "Dude that was sweet!" He gave me a high five.

"See what I mean, we're a family." I told Aaron and smiled at the fact that even though Nate and me had some awkwardness going on we still can put that aside and support each other.

We finished up practice with a small talk from the coach. He said he was proud of how good we're looking but not to rush our new skills. He looked over at me. I can tend to push myself a little too hard when I'm trying a new skill or combination. He talked about how important pacing and being safe was important. At the end of his talk Nate got up infront of the crowd.

"Alright guys. I was talking to Jake and we both think we need to have some team bonding going on. So.." I nudged Jake who was sitting next to me. "... we decided that Sunday we're going to have a barbeque at his place. We're going to grill some burgers, play some bags, and just hang out. Maybe if we're nice, Jake and Tyler will ask their roommate Jessica to invite some of her lady friends over for those of you without girlfriends can meet some women." Our coach rolled his eyes and shook his head. Overall I was alright with the idea of a barbeque. I wonder how Jake expects to tell Jess. Nate finished talking and we did a team huddle then headed for the locker room. It had been a long day and all I wanted to do was head home to shower and eat. Jake must've had the same idea because we both grabbed our bags out of the locker room and headed to our cars.

"That was a nice surprise Jake." I said to him as we walked down the hall towards the doors.

"Yeah sorry. I meant to tell you but you were working with Aaron a lot today during practice."

"You know I'm cool with it. A little warning would've been cool. You get to tell Jess though." I said to Jake. I realized I left my phone in my locker and headed back to grab it out of the locker room. I told Jake I would see him back at the house. I got my phone out of the locker room and headed back to the parking lot. The sun starting to set. I looked at the clock on my phone after I threw my bag in my back seat, it was 7:30.

"Hey Tyler." Nate called out to me from his car."Hey man, thanks for letting us have the barbeque at your guys' place."

"Yeah... no problem."

"So, I was going to see if after practice on Saturday you wanted to go to the grocery store with me to grab the stuff for the barbeque?"

I figured why not? "Sure, sounds good. You want to grab some dinner and maybe hit up a movie too then?"

"Uh.." He hesitated. I felt a little hurt cause prior to our spooning session he would never have. "Yeah, that sounds cool. No Mexican though. Don't want to get too crazy the night before the barbeque."

"No problem." I said bye to him and got into my car.

The rest of the week past without anything major happening. My course load was going to be a bit more work than I originally thought. Practice was going smoothly as well. My new routines were coming together. Jake and me trained together mostly but I still tried to include Aaron with us too. I feel like I train better when Jake and me work together. He always has good pointers for me and hopefully I have good ones for him. We push each other in the gym too which is good. Jess was probably busier than the two of us. I didn't get to hang out with her too much besides at night or when we'd go for lunch which kinda sucked. She was cool with the barbeque on Sunday since she had to work till 5 that day. She just said there better be left-overs for her.

Before I knew it, it was Saturday and we were wrapping up practice. Nate reminded everyone to head to our place at noon for the barbeque. Jake and me showered at the gym because we were going to meet Summer for lunch. We hurried, got ready and met Summer at Panera.

"Hey guys." Summer said to us.

We got in line and ordered our food. We sat down at a table and started chatting about how busy our week had been. I hadn't seen Summer since Sunday but I know she had been over one day hanging out with Jess and I know Jake and her had been texting each other.

"So have you seen any potential out there yet Ty?"

"Some, you know how it is for me. I gotta be smart about it."

"Yeah..." She said apologetically "It has to suck. I mean yeah you're comfortable with who you are, but you can't come right out and be like I like guys or just hook up like some of us can." Summer said.

"What you don't want to know if I've seen any potential Sum?" Jake cut her off.

"Watch it." Summer shot him a look. I know they were talking, I knew it probably would only be a matter of time before they made it official.

"No it's cool you guys. I tell you guys all the time, I'm happy!" I said.

"Well what about that guy I saw in your room like 2 weeks ago after we went out that night? What's going on with him?"

"You had a guy in your room?" Jake leaned in close to me.

"Yeah dumb ass, Nate. He passed out on the floor."

"Uh and he levitated to your bed?" Summer said sarcastically.

"Summer!" My mind was blown. How did she know that he was in my bed? "How did you know..."

Jake cut me off. "How did you not tell me?" Before I could say anything. "Is that why there is this awkward tension going on with you two?"

Summer cut off Jake, "Sorry Tyler! I thought you told Jake... I did think it was weird that he didn't say anything to me about it. But when I woke up Sunday morning to run to the bathroom, someone's phone was going crazy so I ran into the room to turn it off and when I opened the door I saw you two laying in your bed cuddling. It was so cute." She said, "But I turned the phone off and ran right back out. Promise."

"CUDDLING?!" Jake said loudly.

"Alright, alright, alright. Everyone calm down. I'll tell you what exactly happened. Did you tell Jess?"

Summer got a guilty look on her face, "Yes, but I made her promise not to say anything to you until you told her."

"I'm going to punch you for not telling me! We have no secrets." Jake said, I hope he wasn't really mad at me about that. It's true we have no secrets, I just didn't know what how to tell him.

"Jake, I'm sorry. Don't be pissed at me. I didn't tell you because of who it involved and the situation."

"I'm a little bummed you didn't think you could tell me. I guess I get why though."

I suddenly lost my appetite. "Look, it was eating me alive not to run into your room that morning and tell you." I explained to the both of them what exactly happened. Jake just sat there listening intently.

"So who is Heath?" They both asked.

"I don't know. I wanted to talk to Nate about what happened but then he has been avoiding me."

"So do you like him?" They said together again.

"I don't know..." I truly had never thought of him like that. Yeah he's hot but I never considered him bi let alone gay. "He's Nate."

"You guys going to date?" Jake asked.

"I don't know... No." This was why I didn't want to talk to them about it because now I would have to think about what it meant, "I mean... that could complicate things for the team."

"Yeah..." Jake said.

"I didn't mean for anything to happen. We only cuddled. He was wasted and I was pretty buzzed. And besides, I'm not Heath. Maybe he meant Heather."

"Uh, I'm pretty sure Heath means Heath, Tyler." Summer told me. "I mean, he said HEATH and not like Heth or something short for Heather right?"

"It was definitely Heath." I said.

"I mean, bud I'm happy you got your cuddle on. I mean we all did that night." He nudged Summer with his elbow.

"That's enough." She said.

"But it's just so random. I mean I've shared a bed with a guy before. I mean we've shared a bed before Ty. But I didn't reach over and cuddle you."

"You just wish you would've."

"I knew it!" Summer said trying to prove there was something going on between the two of us.

"You knew deez." Jake said playfully to her.

"I mean, I support you buddy, you know that. Just play this one carefully. Why don't you date Jayden? He seemed nice. You said you have class with him anything happen?"

"Yeah he was. But, he could be straight. We don't talk too much in class. He wanted me to go eat with him after class one day but I had practice in an hour and didn't want to eat before then, so we rain checked a coffee date."

"Maybe I should hit on him?" Summer said playfully. "I mean if anything, maybe I could get him to smush with me." Jake rolled his eyes at her latest comment.

"Yeah..." I changed the subject back to Nate. "I'm going to see Nate later when we go grocery shopping for the BBQ. Which by the way, what exactly are you doing for this BBQ, Jake?"

"Supplying the house. Duh."

"How nice of you."

"I'm a sweetheart." Jake said with a smile and looked over at Summer.

We finished up lunch and headed back to our place with Summer. I headed up stairs to check facebook and take a quick nap. I sent Nate a text,

Tyler: Hey, I'm going to look up movie times. Just tell me what you want to see. I'm going to take a nap for an hour too.

I laid the on my bed checking my email and playing around on facebook. My brother and me talked on the chat for a bit. I felt my phone vibrate.

Nate: Sounds good. Let's go see Piranha 3D

Tyler: Uh... kiss my ass we're not seeing that. lol..

Nate: I know.. just kidding. How about we see.. The Town or Scott Pilgrim?

I checked the movie times for both.

Tyler: Alright they're both around the same time. How about we go see the movie first then grab a bite to eat and then the food? I'll drive. Be at your place around 7.

Nate: Sounds good. :)

It felt like I had just laid down to take a nap when I heard the alarm going off. I stretched out and got out of bed. I checked the time, I threw on a tshirt and shorts grabbed a cap and my keys and was out the door. As I drove over to Nate's apartment I had a nervous feeling in my stomach. It was different this time since we had that night hanging over us. I was determined to make things better with him tonight. When I pulled up to his place Nate was sitting outside with his roommates Chase and Eric. It looked like they were playing beer pong. Nate saw my car and said 'Bye' to them.

"Hey bud." Nate said as got in the car.

"Hey, were you guys already drinking?" Left his place and headed towards the theatre.

"Nah, not me. They were playing some pong, I was just waiting outside with them on ya."

"Ahh, so what do you want to see?" I asked him. It seemed like things were normal again. At least he wasn't as stand offish as he had been in the past.

"Let's go see The Town. The previews for it looked good."

"Sounds good."

We got to the theatre and got in line for the tickets. Nate was ahead of me and paid for the tickets. I told him he didn't have to but he said it wasn't a problem. We watched the movie and I thought it was pretty good. I usually prefer light and fun movies as opposed to darker more dramatic movies but this was done good. We exchanged in some light conversation while we waited for the movie to start. I would tell him which movies I wanted to see after seeing a preview.

After the movie was finished we headed out of the theatre. We decided to eat at Fridays since it was just down the street from the theatre and we could walk there. As we walked there we talked about how good the movie was. Nate seemed to really like the movie and whatever awkwardness was going on between the two of us had seemed to disappear for the time being.

Once we got to the restaurant we were quickly seated near the back of the restaurant. For a Saturday night the restaurant didn't seem too busy. We ordered our food and drinks and continues in small conversation. I was really happy about how things were going tonight. The waitress bought us our drinks and our food followed behind soon after.

"Want a piece of my chicken? It's really good." Nate asked me. He cut a small slice and placed it on a fork.

"Yeah go ahead and put it on my plate." Nate slid it off his fork. I would've offered him a piece of what I was eating but you can't really share a turkey burger.

"Yeah, it is really good." I told him after I took a bit of it. Things seemed to be going good so I thought I would bring up the past week. We were on our second tall boy beer at this point so maybe he'd be a little more talkative to me. "Hey, can I ask you something Nate?"

"Sure..." He took a bite of his food and looked me in the eye. "...ask away."

"I just wanted to talk about this past week. I felt like you were mad at me for something that happened?"

"What happened?" He said.

Great I thought, he's going to make me say it out loud. "Well you know..." I paused and took a swig of my beer. "I'm talking about last Saturday night after the bar when you stayed the night."

"Yeah, I passed out in your bed, I'm sorry about that. I figured it wouldn't be a problem."

"It wasn't."

"So then what was the problem?" He took a swig of his beer. "I mean, I figured we're close and Jess' friend Jayden was going to sleep on the couch so I figured your bed was better than the floor."

"True.." I was starting to wonder if he remembers saying Heaths name and cuddling. "Well that wasn't exactly what I was talking about..." I took a big gulp of my beer. " I meant that fact that..." I paused for a second. "The we kinda... we kinda cuddled that night."

"What? We didn't cuddle." His demeanor seemed to change instantly.

"Uh.. well it was more like you spooned me that night."

"You're crazy... I'm not gay..." Crap, I thought. This conversation was going to hell fast. ".. and you're not gay either."

"I never said that." I told him.

"You sure you weren't dreaming things up Tyler? I mean I know we had a lot that night."

"And why exactly would I dream that?"

"I don't know... I'm just saying we didn't cud.. er.. I didn't spoon you that night." Nate had stopped eating. The waitress stopped by to see if we were done. I shook my head quickly, neither of us said anything. The waitress probably understood something was going on because she quickly walked away.

"Well no... you probably didn't realize you were spooning me. You called me Heath. Who is Heath?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Dude, Nate you're my good friend. I'm not trying to say anything, I'm just trying to clear the air with you so we can move past whatever happened last weekend. I things to be normal between us." I sighed. I was going to need another beer after this. Nate said nothing. I tried to read his face but couldn't. His face was expressionless. It was the same way his face was right before a meet.

He let out a sigh, "We're going to need another beer if we're going to talk about this." Nate finally said.

I didn't say anything, I just nodded my head. We ordered our drinks and I didn't say much. "We don't have to talk about it." I told him.

"No, it's been driving me crazy, maybe it's good to talk about it." The waitress came back with our beers. Nate took another drink of his, "Heath is a guy I met this summer. You know how I picked up a part time job for the summer?" I nodded back at him. Nate had got a job at a restaurant during to try and save up some money so his parents didn't have to foot the bill so much for him this year since during the school year we're so busy with training we don't have all that much extra time. "Well Heath was also a server at the restaurant. We kinda started hooking up and then he wanted to get serious and I backed off."

He explained to me one night they were working late and went out for a drink after work that night. One drink led to another and before he knew it they were heading back to Nate's apartment and started messing around with each other. Nate told me that Heath was the first guy he'd ever messed around with or even felt anything for. Up until that point he had, had a few girlfriends but he spent all of his time training mostly and didn't have any time for a relationship. He told me that he knew Heath was gay and they had been spending a lot of time together. As the summer went on they were spending a lot of time together and Nate's roommates had started to notice it. Nate told Chase what was going on but didn't want to tell our teammate Eric since they we're on the team and he didn't want rumors to swirl around. He said a few weeks before school started Heath asked him about making things official. At first he didn't know what to say, he liked him but he never thought about being in a relationship with a guy. But he knew he liked Heath a lot. Initially Nate agreed to being exclusive and dating but for obvious reasons he wasn't about to make it official since he wasn't out. He said that a week before the rest of the team returned Eric asked him about Heath and he freaked out. So as a preemptive move Nate ended things with Heath. I could understand where he was coming from. I asked him if Eric had threatened to out him. He told me no, but he could tell Eric didn't feel good about it. He figured if Eric figured it out it was only a matter of time before it got out to the rest of the team and if the coach or athletic director found out he worried his position on the team or scholarship could be put in jepordy.

"I'm sorry, Nate."I looked over at him. This was a different side of Nate I than I knew. Gone was the confident guy at this moment, this was a much sadder version of Nate. I could sympathize with him almost.

"It's okay. .."

"Well since you're being honest I might as well be too..." I took a drink of my beer. "I'm gay too."

"I sorta figured. I mean you never would join in conversation when the guys would talk about girls and seemed to do your own thing when the topic would come up. And besides Jake and you, Jess and you are insanely close and you're not dating. It's not obvious but when you spend as much time together as we do, you could kinda tell."

"Yeah.. we're in the same boat buddy. So do you still care about him?"

"Yeah, I felt like such a dick head. Heath told me he was worried about what could happen dating someone like me but I assured him it would be fine. We would just have to take it slow. Then out of nowhere I break up with him 3 weeks in without an explanation other than, 'I can't." The waitress came back and I told her we were ready for our check. I handed her my credit card. Nate tried to object but I told him this one was on me.

"I think you should try calling him and talking to him."

"What about Eric?"

"Talk to him. He's your roommate and our teammate. I'm sure it might take some adjusting but I don't think he's the type to go yelling from the top floor of the union that our captain was gay."

"I don't know. He was pretty hurt."

"Well... lets' just take it one step at a time then." We got up to leave to restaurant and head towards the grocery store to do the shopping. Before we got into my car I stopped at the front.

"What's up?" Nate said.

I gave Nate a hug. He stiffened like a board for a second before I felt him put his arms around me. "We've got each other and we're going to go through this together."

"Thanks Ty, it's good to know I'm not the only one who knows what it's like to go through this. Glad to know my secret is safe with you for now." I let go of his hug.

"You think about coming out?"

"Yeah, sometimes, I don't know if it's the right time to do so or not yet."

"Well, you have my support. I feel the same way." I told him that the only people who knew about me being gay were, Kyle, Jake, Summer, and Jess."

"I'm a bit jealous. The only person I've told so far besides Heath was Chase. Can you do me a favor and not tell Jake yet?" I stopped in my tracks. Should I tell him that Summer saw us that morning and told Jake?

"Yeah, no problem." Shit. I thought. I hurried up and sent Jake a text telling him not to mention about what happened between Nate and me to Nate yet.

We got into my car and drove off. I was waiting for Jake to text me back something but I figured he probably just checked his text message and then thought whatever and put it back. The whole time we were grocery shopping it felt like this weight had been lifted off our shoulders. We were 100% comfortable and back to normal with each other. I bought a six pack and told him he should come back to the house with me for a little bit. Jake was there with Summer and Jess. Nate agreed and said he didn't feel like going home yet any ways.

Once we got home I could smell the smell of burning wood coming from our self made fire pit. Jake helped bring in groceries. I grabbed a beer for Nate and me and we went outside to join them. We were sitting there listening to some Zac Brown when Jake started to say something to Nate.

"Glad to see you guys worked everything out." Jake said.

"What do you mean?" Nate asked.

"You know, the whole Ty and you cuddling a few weeks ago. It's no big deal if you're gay man. I don't care."

"You told him?" Nate turned to me and pushed me on my shoulder.

"Dude Jake what the hell?" I asked him. "Didn't you get my text message?"

"No..." then I think it clicked in his head. "My phone is charging upstairs..."

I sighed before I could say anything Jess spoke, "Nate it's cool don't worry. We won't say anything."

"You know too? Jesus Ty, who didn't you tell?"

"Well it wasn't me..." I turned to Summer for a second but didn't want to put her out there for inadvertently outting Nate. Summer started to look uneasy as what was going on unfolded. "I mean.. it wasn't something that I meant to say, it slipped my mind when we were eating dinner the next day. I was confused."

"So you lied to me in the parking lot tonight after you hugged me?" I didn't say anything. "I trusted you man."

"Nate, I'm sorry." Man he was laying it on thick. "I just didn't want to, I mean, I didn't mean to lie to you. I was just so happy that we had cleared the air."

"Nate calm down. It's not a big deal, we won't tell anyone. I've known about Ty for the past 3 years and I haven't said a word." Jake tried to reason with him.

Nate took a drink of his beer. "Yeah..." he paused. "I think I'm going to get out of here. I'll see you guys tomorrow. It's just been a long day."

"Nate don't be stupid." Jess said.

"Enough." Nate said sternly. "I'm not mad, I just need some space." He finished off his beer and threw it into the recycling box. "I'm going to walk home. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Nate turned around and walked out the back yard.

"Nate." I said as I got up to go after him but Jake held me back.

"Let him go. Don't you remember when you came out to me?" I thought back to that night and how much of a mess I was. After I had come out to him all I wanted to do was to go for a walk before he had a chance to tell me he was okay with it.

"I don't want him to do anything stupid." I told him.

"He won't." Jake said.

We stood there for a second. I didn't know if I should listen to Jake or not. But I thought it over and realized that maybe it was best if he could go walk this off. I sent him a text saying to text me when he made it home. We went back to the fire and sat around and talked about everything that happened. They asked about if I found who Heath was. I gave them the short explanation. We changed the subject to what we were going to do the following day at the barbeque. The fire started to die out and it was only Jake and me out there. I checked my phone to see if Nate had texted me back. No response. I sent him another one that said 'sorry' & Chase one that told him to text me when Nate came home.

To Be Continued...

Thank you everyone for reading! I also want to thank everyone for the great feedback I received. This is my first story I've wrote on nifty so I'm still getting into my groove and getting a feel for this. It really made me happy to know so many people liked chapter 1. I hope chapter 2 was worth the wait and you all enjoyed it.

Once again any questions, comments, or feedback is greatly appreciated. My email is HalfIn.HalfOut7@gmail.com