Standard disclaimers apply to this story. All rights & ownership of this story are reserved by the Author.

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. If you're not 18, come back when you are, it'll be worth it.

*Writers note*

Just wanted to send a quick thank you to my editor, Joe. Thank you for pushing me to continue writing even when I'm slacking off. You also keep me excited about writing and talking about ideas I have for the story. I really appreciate everything you help me out with!

Hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year!

Half in, Half out

"The Life of a Collegiate Gymnast"

Chapter 8

"Best Days"

"Let's go sleepy head." I said.

We both got up from our seats. Class was finally over. It took everything in my power not to fall asleep. Jayden wasn't being much help. He had knocked out about twenty minutes into class.

"Hey! I wasn't sleeping through all of class." he replied.

"Yeah, yeah..." I nodded as we walked out of the building. "Sometimes I think you only keep me around so you can copy my notes."

"Guilty." Jayden smiled. "Where you headed off to?"

"Gotta head to the gym. Interview today, remember?" I had to get to the gym pretty quickly. We had our interview for the school newspaper today and Coach liked us to be there before hand.

"Oh yeah! I forgot." Jayden started walking with me. "Want me to walk with you?"

"Sure. You can even do the interview for me." I laughed.

Jayden rolled his eyes, "Oh it can't be that bad. I wanna be interviewed!"

"It's not too bad. At least it's not a one on one interview. I really hate those. I just feel so awkward."

"Hey." Jayden nudged me. "Remember, we're embracing 'that guy'?"

"Alright. You're right." I smiled back.

We were waiting at the crosswalk when someone started calling my name from behind. I turned around and it was Chelsea. She had a big smile on her face and wave to the two of us. Jayden joked about how the two of us looked like we were brother and sister uber-fans because we were wearing shirts that said State Gymnastics.

"Shut up. It's required of all the athletes."

Jayden gave me a looked that said, 'Sure it is Tyler.'

"Hi Tyler! You have to go to the interview too?" Chelsea asked.

I sighed, "Yeah."

"That guy." Jayden said to me quickly.

"What?" Chelsea looked at the two of us confused.

"Oh, don't worry it's nothing." I smiled back at Jayden. The three of us started walking across the street.

"So who's your friend Tyler?" Chelsea asked.

"I thought you met Jayden before?"

Chelsea stuck out her hand, "Hmm...maybe? Nice to meet you again Jayden."

"You too."

As we walked to the gym, Chelsea told us how two of her friends and her were going as Charlie's Angels for Halloween. I had almost forgotten about Halloween. With so much going on this week regarding Homecoming, Halloween had almost slipped my mind.

"I don't have a costume yet." I said.

"Oh I have something amazing planned for mine." Jayden said. I looked at him trying to see if he would tell me what it was. He shook his head. "Nope! It's going to be a surprise." Jayden had a big smile on his face.

"Alright, well..." I told Jayden as I unlocked my car and put down my books and grabbed my gear. "I can't wait to see what you have planned. Where are you thinking about going Chels?"

"Oh, I don't know yet. My roommates and me were thinking Fish Bowl, but you know it gets so damn packed."

"No worries." Jayden said. "You should come with Tyler to my fraternity's Halloween party."

Chelsea got a big smile on her face while I faked a smile on mine. As of now I didn't have any firm plans on Halloween but I could just imagine Jake's face when I say that I might want to go to Jayden's. My best bet would be to get Summer and Jess on my side and Jake would be a little more receptive of the idea.

"Really?" Chelsea said excitedly. "Which frat are you in?"

"Fraternity." Jayden said correcting her. He pulled out his lavalier from under his t-shirt. I could see a hint of his chest hair from under his shirt when he did that. Jayden must've saw me smile cause he gave me a confused look. "What?" Jayden asked.

"Oh! We're in!" Chelsea said excitedly once he saw his lavalier cutting me off before I had a chance to say anything.

"Sounds good." Jayden laughed at Chelsea's excited response. "Just text Tyler who is coming with you and I'll put you guys on the list." Jayden said with a big smile on his face. Looking over at him, I noticed how the bright sun only made his smile seem brighter than usual. Jayden continued to surprise me with how nice of a guy he genuinely was.

"Awesome! Well we should get going Tyler. I'll see you later Jayden!" Chelsea waved as she walked away.

"I'll meet you inside." I told her. She nodded and walked into the gym After closing my door I walked over towards Jayden who was standing there looking quite proud of himself. "You think you're so cool." I laughed. "Didn't even say what fraternity you're a part of just showed her your letters."

Jayden laughed. "That's how it works around here Tyler. When are you going to learn that?"

Jayden had a way of making me laugh when he tries to act cocky. "Alright, well I'm going to head in. I'll text you later." He nodded back to me. We stood there for a second, for some reason it felt a bit awkward. Like one of us wanted to do or say something but neither wanted to make the first move.

"Sounds good. Talk to you later buddy." Jayden said as he walked away.

Walking into the gym I noticed Nate getting out of his car. I stopped and waved to him. He was on his phone and gave me a slight wave. I sighed and walked into the building. Eventually we'd have to talk about this.

Walking into the gym most of the other guys were already there. I hurried and put my things down and sat down between Aaron and Jake. Aaron was fidgeting and looked nervous.

"Dude relax." Jake said to him. "You're going to make me have to use the bathroom."

Jake teased him that he'll probably only have to say like 2 words max since he was just a Freshman and went back to texting to pass the time. Mentioning Summer seemed to be a bit of a sore subject, all he said was that they were going to talk after practice.

"What about Summer?" Aaron asked.

The two of us looked over to Aaron slightly confused. Jake leaned forward, "What?"

"Oh, I thought you said she was coming..." Aaron was stammering. I was confused as to what was going on. The look on Jakes face seemed like he was just as confused.

"And why would she be coming?" I asked Aaron.

"Aaron have you been day drinking?" Jake teased him.

Jake and I went back to our conversation. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Aaron still acting a bit nervous. "Dude it's not going to be anything major. Just take it one question at a time." I told him. I couldn't help but feel a little bad for him.

After a few more minutes passed, Nate walked in with Coach and the person who was going to be conducting the interview. Nate sat down next to Jake. I tried to look at him but he looked away quickly. He seemed annoyed, either with me or something else. Whatever it was I just shrugged it off and went back to paying attention to the interviewer.

"Hello guys. I'm Ryan Abrams, a sports writer from the school newspaper." Ryan smiled at us. All of us stood up and shook his hand. "I just want to thank you for taking time out to do this. This year we're really trying to bring more attention to some sports that don't get as much of the limelight like football and basketball. So this year we're actually going to be working with you all more than ever to help bring awareness and attention to the sport and team." He looked over at Jake, Nate, and myself, I couldn't help but feel like I had seen or met him before. "So today we'll just start with some basic questions and get to know guys."

Ryan started with the basic questions most of us had become used to by now. The questions mainly consisted of asking us how we got our start in the sport and such. After that he went down the line asking us each a question or two.

"Aaron, so tell me. Your coach told me you remind him of Tyler his freshman year. Is that something you ever consider?"

"Well, Tyler is amazing." He told Ryan. I could feel my face start to turn a red "If I could be a tenth as successful as Tyler was in his freshman year I'd be really pleased with myself. He's someone I look up to. Both in and outside of the gym."

"Aw geez Aaron." I joked with him. The two of us started to laugh.

Ryan continued asking us questions. I had started to daydream until I realized it was my turn to be asked a question. I shook out of my haze."I'm sorry. Can you repeat the question?"

Coach shot me a look that could kill.

"Sure, not a problem." Ryan smiled, "What I had just asked was with this upcoming season, your coach had told me that this could be a big one for you. Saying that you are one of the rising stars on the team. How does that make you feel?"

I looked back at Coach then over to Ryan and gave a nervous laugh. I felt good knowing he believed in me. "Well...if you would've asked me that the past two years I would've told you that I'm not that good or something along those lines." Jake looked at me surprised. "But, I will say that this year I'm healthier than I've ever been and training harder than ever. I'd be lying if I didn't say that national champion in the all around wasn't something I was gunning for."

Coaches eyes lit up. It was the first time I've said such a thing out loud and it felt good. Jake put his arm around me and gave my shoulder a squeeze.

"Well then I look forward to following you on your quest this year."

I smiled back at him. "Thank you."

"Not a problem. If I could ask you one more question before moving on to your buddy over there." He pointed over at Jake. "What motivates you?"

"These guys." I pointed to everyone around me and laughed. "Seriously. These guys push me every day to be the best I can be. But, I also have a few other people outside of the gym who motivate me too."

"Oh. Well I'm sure that's good to have influences inside and outside of the gym." Ryan said. "Care to share any of them?"

I hesitated a bit then formed an answer, "Well there's my family. My mom and dad have been super supportive of everything I've done. They encouraged me to follow my dreams. The best part is that they understood that it's important to keep my life outside of the gym serperate from my life inside of the gym. My dad always says, 'it's better to have a set of parents and coach than two sets of coaches. There's my little brother, Kyle who has has actually been recruited and is starting here next year. Also my club coach, Mihai. He's amazing, probably one of my biggest influences. Now, if only I could understand him more than half the time." I laughed.

Jake laughed with me and spoke up, "He's Romanian. His accent is very thick so sometimes it's hard to understand him. I used to tease Tyler the reason you the two of them would argue sometimes is because you couldn't understand him when he was correcting you."

Ryan nodded, "So Tyler and you trained together?"

I spoke up, "Oh no. Jake trained with me back at home over the summer, so he's familiar with Mihai."

"Oh, well you guys sure are good friends. Now onto you Jake. Asking your coach about you, he said if there was one person who could challenge Tyler as a future leader of the team it was you. How do you respond to that?"

Jake sat up confidently in his chair. "Well, this guy." He pointed to me. "Is my best friend. We actually live together. If there was someone who could push me to be better it would have to be Tyler. But my individual success is only secondary to what is most important to me this season. That is bringing the team title back to State." Jake said. I felt a little jealous of his answer. Jake just had a way of saying the right thing all the time.

"That's awesome Jake." Ryan said as he continued to write down everything we were saying. He asked Jake another question before moving on to Nate. "Now Nathan. You're the Team Captain?"

"Yes." Nate replied calmly. "You can call me Nate by the way."

"Alright, Nate it is. So you're coming back from an injury you sustained last year at Nationals is that right?"

"Yes. It's been a hard road. I had a pretty decent sized tear in my rotator cuff. Though I've been 100% cleared physically. Now it's just a matter of pacing myself and becoming more and more comfortable with my shoulder again." Nate smiled back at Ryan.

Ryan nodded. "Any personal goals this year?"

"Well, I do all around, but with my shoulder injury we're still working on coming back from that and getting my routines back to where they need to be. It's been the worst injury I've had in awhile. It's been quite a learning process. But this year I'm looking more towards to event specializing, mostly cause of my shoulder. Floor Exercise is a title I'd love to take this year. Maybe even give Tyler a run for his money for the Vault title." Nate said looking down at me.

I was caught off guard at that but figured I should speak up. "I'm all for a challenge." I nervously laughed.

"I can clearly see you guys are all close. Nate tell me, do you consider these guys your brothers?"

"Definitely. I sure do. We're all so close. These guy even the ones that aren't here are all like my brothers. Even the girls team. I mean..." Nate paused and laughed, "I don't mean I consider them my brothers." We all laughed at that. "But they're like our little sisters here. We look out for them. But don't tell them that." Nate joked. "We're always in here all working hard together. But I consider these guys my brothers. We may fight at times." I felt like Nate was talking directly to me. "Not always see things eye to eye. However, as with any sibling relationship at the end of the day, I can't think of any other group of guys to represent State with."

"That's impressive. Usually when you think of gymnastics it seems like such an individual sport. It's good to see the sense of team with you guys." Ryan wrote something down and looked back up at us. "One last question for you Nate."

"Sure."

"Do you see one of these guys filling your role as Team Captain next year?" Nate paused for a minute. There was an immediate tension felt throughout all of us sitting down. I felt a little awkward because just Jake and me were the only two juniors being interviewed.

Nate adjusted himself in his chair and spoke up. "I could potentially see some of these guys stepping into my role in the future."

Ryan continued writing down what Nate was saying. "Alright. Well thank you guys so much. Hopefully the girls are just as fun to interview." He said to us. We finished up the interview and headed back to the locker room to change for practice.

I had wanted to try and talk to Nate but he was busy with Coach talking to Ryan. I figured I would just wait till later to talk to him again. Jake and me changed into our workout clothes and stepped outside to get some fresh air.

"Well that was fun." I said.

"And interesting too." Jake added.

I looked over at him. "What do you mean?"

"The two of yours, Nate and you, your answers just seemed interesting to me. In all of the years I've known you, this was the first time I've ever heard you say that the All-Around Title was a goal for you."

"Are you mad?"

"No!" Jake said. "Not in the least. I'm proud! Maybe what I've been telling you all these years is finally starting to sink into the head of yours."

The two of us laughed, "Well you know I can be a little hard headed. But, you totally took the cake with your answer about your goals."

"Nah." He said nonchalantly.

"Oh please." I rolled my eyes at him. "You practically had Ryan eating out of your hand."

The two of us joked about how nervous we used to get. Now, it's something the two of us are so used to. It's still taking me some getting used to than it is for Jake. I envied him at times. He was every bit as good as I was. I just wish he worried less about me and more about himself.

Throughout practice Nate and me didn't speak much. We kept our distance throughout rotations. It was probably for the best that we left this out of the gym and talked at a later time. Jake mentioned Eric saying something to him about noticing how we weren't speaking again. I tried not to be so obvious about it. So throughout practice I would yell an occasional encouragement toward Nate. Nate knew what I was doing. I could hear it in his voice when he would do the same for me.

During our last rotation I was working on tumbling passes switching between working on the tumble track and floor. Nate was sitting out his vault rotation because his shoulder started to bother him. He came over and joined some of us on floor doing some light hands free drills. During warm ups for floor something felt a little off with my left knee. I did my best to ignore it but Nate had noticed me favoring it.

"What's wrong with your knee?" He asked me.

"Nothing. Just feels off." I told Nate.

"Why don't you go get taped?" He said to me. I couldn't tell if that was more of a demand or concern coming from him.

"Nah, I'm sure it's nothing." I went back to working on the tumble track. After a few passes into the foam pit everything felt back to normal. I was ready to move from the pit onto the floor surface. The first pass I did felt good. I noticed Nate talking to Coach, I could only assume he said to watch my knee. It was my turn to go and I went for my second pass. This time I miss-timed where I was in the air and sat down on the landing.

"Do it again Conti." Coach said walking away from Nate. "Nate spot him."

While I stood in the corner I cleared my head. I was my own hardest critic so whenever something that should be easy to be gave me trouble I got frustrated. After clearing my head I went back and tried the same pass again. But the same thing happened like last time.

"You're twisting too soon Tyler." Nate said looking down at me. "You gotta punch then start twisting." He motioned with his body how I should look in the air.

"I've got it." I shot back at him. I put my hand up for him to help me up. He turned away from me and turned his attention to another one of the guys. "Seriously?" My feelings felt a little hurt. Trying my best not to get annoyed with Nate. "Asshole." I said under my breath.

Nate turned around back towards me quickly. "Then do it." Nate said a little more sternly.

I looked over at Coach and he nodded his head. "Go ahead Tyler." He told me and tried to help point out my corrections.

"Watch your knee." Nate said.

I shot him a glare and nodded. I walked over to the corner to stretch out my knee some before going again. Taking a few deep breathes to calm my nerves, I readied myself. Making sure that I didn't frustrate myself anymore than I already had, this is something I've done so many times. It was finally my turn to go. I shook out my legs to get rid of any tenseness that had built up. Taking a deep breath, I glanced over at Nate was in the opposite corner watching me. The start of my tumbling pass felt good. I punched the ground to take off into the ariabian double layout. Everything felt fine but then it happened again, coming up short I landed on my backside with a thud.

"Fuck!" I yelled and pounded the floor with my fist.

"Conti language!" Coach shouted over at me.

Nate had a bit of a smirk on his face which really upset me. Knowing that we weren't on great terms only frustrated me even more. I wanted to go yell at him for the way he was acting towards me today. Getting up I walked away from the floor and sat down to compose myself.

Nate came over to me. "You're rushing your twist before you're in the air." Bitting my lip all I could do was nod back at him. "Leave the drama outside of the gym. We've got a job to do."

That was it. I stood up. I was furious with myself and now getting even more mad at him. "Dammit Nate. Get off my case!"

"I'm not on your case anymore than anyone else. Get it together." Nate tried to act surprised.

"You're trying to piss me off. You know you are! Look be mad all you want about what happened that night but it wasn't only my fault." I said back to him. The fact that there were people within earshot of people who didn't know our secret was lost on me. "Give me a break dammit."

"Toughen up then." He said. "Contrary to popular belief, this isn't all about Tyler. We've been slacking a bit lately. Coach has noticed it too. You wanna be a leader. Prove it."

"Toughen up, huh?" I rolled my eyes at him. "Be a leader. Why don't you act like my fucking Captain instead of treating me like a piece of shit every time something doesn't go your way. Nate, nothing will ever happen between the two of us. Especially after the way you've acted towards me since Saturday."

Nate and me were chest to chest. Nate smirked and said, "See what I mean, you think it's all about Tyler. 'I wanna be National Champion this year.' Way to be a team player."

That was it. He had really pushed me too far this time. I pushed him away from me. "Dude back the fuck up. You're just mad you'll never get that chance. Especially now. Oh that's right, how's that shoulder treating ya?" I said sarcastically and tapped him on the shoulder. "Oh yeah, that's right. You can't even finish practice today." I looked at him in disgust. The fact that we were back to being on bad terms again shocked me. I did my best to fight my temper and not say the wrong thing.

As I started to walk away Nate grabbed me by the arm. "Don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you." Nate shouted at me. I yanked my arm away from him and gave him the finger as I walked away.

Walking past Coach, I told him I was done for the day. He nodded back at me. The look on his face said to me that he was confused and disappointed with what was going on. Anger was all I felt right now. My main concern was getting out of the gym and heading home. I hurried into the locker room and grabbed my things. I threw my warm ups on over my clothes and walked out of the locker room. I still had my wrist guards on as I walked out of the lockeroom. I saw Eric, Jake, and Nate were standing outside.

"Where are you going?" Jake asked.

"I'm going home. I'm done practicing for the day." So angry and disappointed how the day had went I didn't even bother looking at him.

I was almost to the door Nate muttered something under his breath. Stopping at the door I took a second to debate if I should even acknowledge it.

"You heard me, go run to Jayden then!" Nate yelled.

That was it. Dropping my bag to the ground I turned around and started running back toward him. I was determined to let him have it. As I got closer to them Jake must've known I was going to throw a punch or something and jumped in-between the two of us.

"Jake let me go!" Doing my best to get free from him.

"No!" Jake yelled at me. Nate started walking towards the two of us.

"You really want to fight? We can go right now!" Nate yelled back at me. Eric hurried in front of him to block him from me.

"How are you going to sit there and let him talk about me like that!" I looked at Jake. Nate was still being held back by Eric. "Dude what the fuck is your problem! Get over it! Quit being an asshole to me because your..." I caught myself cause outting Nate wasn't something I was going to let happen.

"Tyler!" Jake said to me. "Calm down!"

Jake and me struggled with each other as he tried to get met back to the doors and out of the building. Some of the girls team had come into the hallway to see what was going on.

Eric looked back at Nate and then at me. He was clearly confused by everything going on. "This obviously isn't just about a rough practice is it?" Eric asked. "What's going on between the two of you guys?"

"Are you going to tell him or do you want me to Nathan?"

"Oh, fuck you Tyler!" Nate yelled as he waved me off.

"Fine! You know what this is about Eric?" I started walking back towards the two of them. "Our Captain and I..." Jake covered my mouth and pushed me back into the door.

"Enough!" Jake sounding more angry than I've ever heard him before. "Tyler go home!"

"Yeah, get your ass out of here!" Nate yelled down the hall.

"Shut him up Eric!" Jake turned around pointed at the two of them and yelled, "He's going to have to deal with me in a minute!"

Coach had come out to see what was going on in the hallway. He looked between the two of us. The look on his face turned from confusion to anger. "Jake get Tyler out of here, now!" He yelled down at us. "Nathan, get your ass in my office!" He grabbed Nate by the back of his neck and pushed him towards his office. "Eric get your ass back inside the gym and finish up practice!"

Jake and me walked out of the gym. The cold October air hit the two of us hard. The breeze took my breath away. I looked over at Jake and he instantly he started to shiver. He didn't have a shirt on and was only in gymshorts and barefoot. His ankle was still taped from practice. The fact that he had to leave practice like that cause of me made me feel even worse. I took off my jacket and handed it to him. Jake snatched it out of my hand and put it on. He was pissed at me.

On the drive home neither of us said a word to each other. He grabbed my phone to text someone, assuming telling them to bring his stuff to our place. After everything that just happened my only concern was getting home. Not wanting to be around anyone the two of us went straight to our rooms. Jake was so mad that when he slammed his door one of my picture frames fell off it's nightstand.

Over the next few days, things in the gym were tense. Coach told the two of us to stay away from each other until we worked things out. I wasn't interested in working things out with Nate right now. Knowing he probably felt the same way as me we did our best to keep distance between the two of each other. It didn't help that everyone was walking on eggshells around the two of us. Homecoming week was not going the way it was supposed to.

Friday night after practice Jake, Jess and me were looking around a costume store trying to figure out what we were going to wear the following night. Jake had calmed down but I could tell he was still a little annoyed with what happened.

"I still can't believe that happened." Jess said and she searched through the racks looking for a costume she liked. "That was a dick move on Nate's part."

"I know. I guess I could've tried to be a bit more calm. "

Jess stopped looking through the racks and looked up at me. "You could've. But he's supposed to be the Captain. That wasn't very Captain-like."

"Well I hope they work it out sooner rather than later. I can't take practice being as serious as it's been lately." Jake added.

"I'll talk to him Jake. I already said I would. Just give me a few days."

"Why don't you invite him to the Halloween party?" Jess suggested.

She had a point. "Do you think he would come though? I doubt it." I was going to originally invite him but it was doubtful he'd accept my offer now.

"Can we please start talking about something other than Tyler and Nate?" Jake tried his best not to sound annoyed. "Tyler lets go look at some of these guy costumes."

"Alright." I nodded and walked with him to the guy section of the store. Jake just starred at the wall not saying much. "Jake..." He was still wasn't talking to me. "Dammit Jake I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say."

"Tyler I know. Lets just focus on finding a costume."

I sighed. "Alright." The two of us looked up and down at the wall of costumes trying to find something the two of us could wear together. Looking over the wall it finally came to me, "Jake!" I waved him over. "How about we do something like this?" I pointed to a picture of the Mario Brothers.

Jake laughed for the first time in days at something I said. "You think so?" He stepped closer. "I don't know Tyler, it's been done before."

"So?" Shrugging at his response. "Who cares? We don't have to get the costume we can make it ourselves. Lets do it!"

"Alright... alright... but I'm Luigi." Jake laughed. "We'll just buy the cap, hands, and mustaches here and put the rest together ourselves."

Jake finally not being so short with me for the first time in days felt great. "Sounds like a plan, buddy." We grabbed two pairs of the gloves and got our caps. Walking towards the front to find Jess, I mentioned Summer. We hadn't talked about their talk since the fight between Nate and I.

"Yeah, she's coming tomorrow. I already texted Jayden and let him know." Jake said. I looked at him a little surprised that Jayden and him texted. Jake noticed and gave me a funny look, "What? I can't be friends with him too?"

Smiling back at him, "No! I like that you two are friends!"

"Good."

"We just have to get through the game tomorrow and then we can start celebrating."

"Yeah. Hopefully Summer won't end up sleeping in Jess' room again."

Jess walked up looking confused. "Summer in whose room?"

"Your room." Jake said. "You know, she crashed in your room last Saturday. I never said sorry about that."

"Summer didn't crash in my room Saturday night."

Now Jake looked just as confused as Jess was. "She told me she stayed the night though."

"Well maybe she slept on the couch. Cause she was NOT in my room...." Jess stressed. I presumed to emphasize the fact that Matt and her had hooked up, but she didn't want to say it out loud.

"Hmm..." Jake looked away. "Maybe she slept on the couch then or something?"

Just then everything clicked in my head. If Summer didn't stay in Jess' room and I doubt she slept on the couch, she had to be the other person on the air mattress bed with Aaron. I whipped my phone out and started texting Aaron.

Tyler: You better be honest with me. Last Saturday when you stayed the night, who was in the room with you? Do NOT say no one cause I saw someone else in there.

Jake would kill him if he found out about this. Summer wouldn't have done something like that to Jake would she? I did my best not to get ahead of myself and acted as nonchalannt as possible.

"You alright man?" Jake sensed that I was distracted.

"Yeah. Sorry. Got distracted for a minute." I put the things on the counter for the cashier to ring us out. Just then my phone vibrated.

Aaron: I can explain...

The following day Aaron was doing a pretty good job at avoiding me. Since we had to be at the pre-game tailgate party for current and alumni athletes it was easy for him to avoid me. Every time we got into close proximity of each other he would find an excuse to be talking to someone else. I was torn as to what to do. Should I tell Jake? No. That'd be stupid. Jake would kill him. Talking to Summer about it probably wouldn't get me anywhere. My main concern was making sure Jake wasn't being played. It was about 15 minutes before we needed to start heading into the field when I saw Aaron standing by himself. Now was my chance to talk to him.

"Hey Aaron!" I said as I walked closer to him. Aaron looked around to see if there was anyone else around he could possibly use as an excuse not to be alone with me. "We need to talk."

Aaron nervously looked around. "What's up Tyler?"

"We need to talk about what happened last weekend."

"Oh yeah..." Aaron sounded a bit nervous. "I can explain. It's not what you think."

I crossed my arms across my chest, "Continue."

"Well I was in the room with someone. But I can't tell who I was with. I swore."

"Well it's a little late for that." Sounding as condescending as possible. "I'm pretty sure I've figure it out who you were with. This is not the week for it Aaron. How could you? Jake is my best friend and I've taken you under my wing ever since you got here."

Aarons face twisted almost as if he was trying to figure out what to say. "Tyler all I can say is it's not what you think."

"But where you with who I think you were with?" I asked.

"Yes." Aaron looked at me nervously.

Trying to not overreact I felt a rush of anger come over me. One almost fight was more than enough for this week. Just when it looked like Aaron was about to explain himself Coach came over to us.

"Hey guys we're all about to head into the field in a few minutes. Can you go and try to round everyone up?" Coach asked Aaron and me.

"Sure." Aaron said and started to walk away. He stopped and turned around and said to me, "Tyler don't be mad. It's not what you think."

I felt a little better after hearing that. As I started to walk away Coach stopped me and asked if we could talk for a second. "Tyler. What's going on between Nathan and you?"

I felt a lump grown in my throat. "What do you mean?"

"Well that incident Thursday at practice. I'm telling myself this is an isolated incident but Nate won't talk about it so I figured I would ask you. Please tell me a girl isn't coming between the two of you."

Doing my best to not laugh at what he just said, "No Coach. No girl at all." Saying that with a serious face was a bit harder than I had thought. "We're just hitting a rough patch in our friendship. I'm sure it will work itself out."

"Well, I'm only asking you because you know those guys in there look up to you two. I don't want this to spread. I'm willing to let you two work this out yourselves. But the second it spills into the gym again it becomes MY issue." Coach said sternly. "And you don't want it to become my issue."

I nodded my head to reassure him we had an understanding that he was serious. "I understand. It won't happen again."

"Good. Tyler, try and stay away from each other for a few more days let everything blow over."

"Will do."

"Show me you want to make Jake have to work for Team Captain next year." Coach patted my shoulder and walked away.

I stood there taking in what Coach had just said to me. 'Team Captain' I said to myself. That was definitely not something I had ever envisioned for myself.

"Hey Tyler. Let's head in." Jake said to me. He was with Eric and a few other guys on the team. Aaron was nowhere to be found and Nate kept his distance from me. I was sure Coach probably had the same conversation with him. Though his conversation was probably a lot more stern than mine was. Nate was our Captain after all.

Once we got to our seats, Jake and me snuck off to go chug a beer from the concession stand.

"So have you talked to Summer?" I asked Jake.

"Yeah. She said Jess and her are with Matt and some of the brothers at the `OH!' off of 15th street on the patio drinking. She said we should stop by."

"Yeah. I could go for a drink before we finish shopping for our costumes."

"Sounds good. Jayden is there too." I gave Jake a look that said, 'why would I care' if he was there or not there. He clearly saw right through me. "Don't act like you didn't wonder if he was with them."

We both laughed at that and finished off our beers. "You know me too well."

We returned from our trip and it was almost halftime. The rest of the game went by quickly. We killed the opposing team. The crowd was going crazy. After the game was over, Jake and I headed down the street to meet with everyone else. Walking up to the bar, the patio looked pretty crowded. We were able to quickly make our way through the crowd over to where Jess and Summer were. As soon as we walked up Summer handed us shots.

"Alright! About time you guys got here!" She handed us shots.

"What are these?" Jake said looking at them.

"Summer shots! Jayden and I were talking to the bartender and I decided to create my own shot." Summer said.

"That's my girl." Jake said putting his arm around her. She smiled up at him with a big smile.

Just then Jayden walked up with a tray full of shots. "I think I got all of them!" He said with a big smile on his face. "Tyler! You came."

"Of course."

"Good." Jayden smiled at me. For a second I felt like it was only the two of us.

Summer brought me back to reality, "Alright you two. Enough of that. Let's try these shots!"

"Alright. Let's do this." I said. It took some effort to act like I wasn't aware that something might have gone on between Aaron and her. Since Aaron was getting the benefit of the doubt, Summer might as well get the same treatment.

Scooter got in the center of all of us and said, "Alright, this is to a kick ass Halloween party tonight at the NUMBER ONE fraternity on campus and to State kicking P.U.'s ass today!" We all cheered and took our shots.

It went down smoother than I thought it would. "Well Summer, if Physical Therapy doesn't work out for you, you could always become a bartender."

"I know right. You know bartenders do great things." We both laughed. I knew she was referring to Angelina from Jersey Shore.

"Angelina!" Jayden yelled.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the patio. I was nursing my beer because I didn't want to get too drunk before tonight. The group of us were having a good time. A little later, I was ready to leave since Jake and I still had shopping to do. I turned to Jayden who had to at least be buzzed at this point.

"I think I'm going to head out. I've got to finish shopping for my costume tonight."

Jayden threw his arm around me. "Come on let's go do a shot first."

I shook my head. "No more shots!"

"Shots!" Jayden yelled back at me.

"Fine! Let's go asshole." I teased him. We started talking towards the bar. "But I get to choose the shot!"

Jayden was leading the way back into the bar he turned around. "Fine!"

"Lets do Boilermakers since we just kicked their asses today." I said.

Jayden looked back at me a bit surprised. "I'm impressed, I like your thinking."

"Guess I'm just awesome." We walked to the bar and ordered our shots. "So what are you dressing up as tonight?" I asked him.

"I'm not dressing up." He said with a straight face.

"Bullshit." I said blankly.

Jayden laughed at that, "You're right. I'm not telling you. All I'll say is that it involves green. A lot of it."

I rolled my eyes, "Some hint."

"You'll just have to find me buddy." We cheered each other and took the shot. Jayden finished his before I finished mine. He squished his face together, "God that was rough. I think I'm going to be good now till tonight."

"Don't get sloppy drunk before I get there."

Jayden nodded, "I'll try my best." We walked back outside. "So I gotta head back to the house soon and finish typing up the list. Is Nate or anyone else coming?" I must've made a face because Jayden stopped walking and got serious for a second. "Did something happen between you?"

"We kinda got into it a few days ago at practice. We're keeping our distance for a few days."

"Bummer. You want to talk about it?" Jayden seemed genuinely concerned. Though the thought that he wanted to talk about this in the middle of the bar was quite funny.

"Nah, but we will probably need to talk about it later." I said.

Jayden smiled back at me, "Sounds good."

We met back with the group. Some of the guys seemed like they were already drunk. I had no idea how they were going to make it the rest of the day. Jake and me said our goodbyes and left. I was starting to feel a little buzzed from the shot Jayden and me had took. Jake and me hurried and did our shopping so we could grab a bite to eat and then rest before getting ready.

As I was pulling into the driveway after we had finished shopping Jake turned off the radio and moved in his seat to face me. "Tyler. I need to tell you something."

I looked at him. His face was serious. "Sure buddy. What do you want to talk about?"

"Summer. She's been acting weird still. She apologized for freaking out last week but it feels like she isn't telling me something." Jake told me. Looking back at him I didn't know if telling him what I knew was a wise decision or not. "Do you think that maybe she doesn't want to get serious because there's someone else?"

Staring at Jake he looked so conflicted. I didn't know what to say mainly because I was still unaware of what had gone on. No sense in stressing him out if it actually turned out to be nothing. "Umm.." Doing my best to figure out the right thing to say. "I think, I mean, you know she's not good at relationships. Maybe she's just freaking out a little. You said you two decided to start taking things a bit more serious didn't you?"

"Yeah. I meant to tell you more but then Nate and you got into that fight and I was pissed at you for a few days."

I laughed. "Sorry about that."

"But that's not important right now. Though I'll say this, next time you decide to get kicked out of practice, could you at least do me the favor of waiting till I have some damn clothes on?"

The two of us laughed together "I'll try my best."

"Good. Now, do you think that's why she was freaking out?"

Taking a deep breath, I knew telling him what I knew was probably the right idea. "You know. I think it was just her freaking out. I mean you guys just started talking again a few days ago. Maybe she knows she fucked up and is just... I don't know. Just trying to be more cautious?"

"Yeah, you think that?" He asked me.

I nodded back at him. "I'm positive." Only I wasn't. The feeling that went through me after lying to Jakes face was horrible. Talking to Aaron tomorrow was going to need to happen so I could put this issue to rest. We got out the car and headed into the house.

"Here." I handed Jake my bag. "Can you take this in? I'm going to make a phone call. I'll be in in a second." I waited till Jake was in the house and pulled out my phone. I started to text Aaron:

Tyler: We still need to talk about whatever happened last week. Jake thinks Summer might be seeing someone else. I lied right to his face and told him I knew nothing. Jake.and.I.don't.lie.to.each.other. Call or text me.

After that I headed up to my room for a quick nap. The drinks from earlier were sitting in and I was feeling a little buzzed. Falling asleep was easier than I thought.

The alarm on my phone started going off. It had felt like only a few minutes had passed since falling asleep. I grumbled something under my breath and turned it off. Squinting I tried my best to see if anyone had texted me. Mainly I was trying to see if Aaron responded to me or not. After I saw that he didn't I got out of bed and walked downstairs. Jess and Jake were laying around on the couch watching tv.

"You guys look comfortable." I said.

Jess yawned, "Well yeah. We had to sleep off our midday buzz." She laughed back at me. "What time did you guys want to head over to the house?"

"I can't believe I'm spending my first Halloween as a 21 year old at a frat party." Jake said. "The things I do for you two."

"Oh shut up." I said and sat moved his feet so I could sit down on the couch. "But I'll say this, for Black Wednesday we'll be out at a bar."

"Good!" Jake moved his legs back on top of mine. I made a face at him. "What? I was here first."

"Alright you two. I think I'm going to start getting ready." Jess got up. "It's 8:00 right now. Lets aim to leave here around 10:30."

"Sounds good." Jake said. "We pregaming a bit?"

"Yes!" The two of us said in unison.

I decided I'd jump in the shower first. Jake said to wake him back up when I was finished. As I was showering up the my excitement for the night grew. Trying to figure out what Jayden was going to be was on my mind. 'Something green...' I said to myself out loud. Whatever it was I couldn't wait to see it. Summer showed up and Jess and her were getting ready. Jake had made some pretty strong drink that I could only sip on. By the time I was finished putting on my costume the drink was starting to kick in.

"You girls almost ready?" Jake yelled down to them. "Hey Tyler you ready yet?" I looked up at him. Jake had his whole costume on and I couldn't help but laugh at the oversized mustache on his face.

"Yeah buddy." We walked downstairs. It was a little past the time we wanted to head out.

"Ladies!" Jake yelled as we walked downstairs.

"We're ready!" Summer said. The two of them walked from down the hallway. The girls took advantage of Halloween and dressed slutty as could be. "What do you guys think?"

"Hot!" Jake said giving Summer a kiss.

"Yeah, you guys look pretty hot." I said looking at them. Summer was dressed up as Snooki. Her tan skin and boobs were pushed up so high she looked spot on. The best part of her costume was her poof.

"I had to use a bump it." She laughed.

Jess was dressed as Ke$ha. She had glitter all over her body. "Alright, let's go. We're running late already." She said.

After parking in the lot we walked straight into the house. You could hear the music coming from inside. There was a decent amount of people out on the balcony as well. Walking in the music was loud and the lighting was low so it made it a bit harder to see. We walked straight to the bar area they had set up. I was looking around to find Jayden but didn't see anyone who looked like what Jayden told me to look for yet. Matt saw us and came over.

"About time you guys got here!" He said putting his arm around Jess. "Damn girl!" He said checking her out. "And you too Summer!"

Summer laughed and gave him a hug. "Where's Jayden?" She asked.

"Oh he's around here somewhere. Wait till you see him. You'll die." Matt said.

A few minutes later I saw him. I shook my head in disbelief. "The Incredible Hulk?" I laughed at him.

"At your service, Mario." He poked me in the stomach. "What do you think?"

He had painted his body green. I couldn't help but check him out. He didn't have a shirt on. It was the first time I had seen Jayden without a shirt on. I was impressed. I knew he wasn't as built as I was but he was definitely toned. He was wearing a pair of gymshorts that hugged his backside quite nicely.

"Gotta say." I checked him out one more time. "Looks pretty good. Good luck getting that off your body tonight." I laughed at him.

"I'm sure it will be fine." Jayden said back to me. "Lets go do a round of shots." Jayden said excitedly.

"Yes!" Summer said.

Jake and I just shook our head at the two of them. We walked back to where we got our drinks and did a round of shots. As the party went on I was starting to get a pretty good buzz on. Jayden would wander off occasionally to talk to some of his brothers. I was at the point where I had wanted to dance. Jess must've known cause she grabbed me and took me over to where everyone was dancing. We started dancing to 'We R Who We R". As we were dancing, I felt someone grab my ass. I turned around and saw Jayden giving me an innocent look. There were so many people dancing around us that he didn't seem to care who saw and put his hands on my waist as we danced. Jess saw this and got a big smile on her face.

"Could you be any hotter?" Jayden whispered in my ear.

I turned around and looked at him. "I don't know. You're looking pretty good yourself there."

He shrugged, "I try."

Jake and Summer joined us soon and all of us were dancing together. Jayden saw me waving my hand like I was getting hot. He started tugging at my shirt. I laughed and slipped it off.

"Great. Now I went from being Mario to white trash Mario." I laughed.

"You look better like that I think. I'm going to go grab us a drink. I'll be back." Jayden said and walked away. I could tell he was already well on his way to getting wasted. I wasn't too far behind him. Jake nodded towards the balcony and the two of us went outside.

"Are you two going to hook up tonight or what?" He asked me.

I shrugged, "I don't know man. I wouldn't say no. But I know he's still dealing with all that Ethan mess."

"True. But I think you should. He could have is cake and eat it too. And so can you!" Jake slapped my shoulder. "Man up and suck that D!"

The two of use busted out laughing. "We'll see where it goes, he's already pretty drunk."

"Tyler!" I heard someone yelled my name. The two of us turned around to see Jayden standing there with two drinks in his hand. "I think one of these are yours!" He said with a big grin on his face.

"See..." Jake said to me.

I took the drink from Jayden. "Going pretty hard tonight aren't we?"

"Sure am!" He said with a big grin on his face. "And you need to be too! We got pledges being DDs so don't worry about driving tonight." He threw my arm around me. I leaned in towards him a little. He looked down at me, "Thanks for coming tonight."

"No problem man." I scooted in a little closer.

"What happened to your friend Chelsea? I thought she was coming." Jayden asked me.

I shrugged, "Chelsea is flakey. I texted her and she said her roommates were dragging her to the Fish Bowl tonight."

"Oh well." Jayden said. "Do you want to..." Jayden looked around nervously. "Do you want to head somewhere a little more quiet?"

"Sure." We got up. I felt a chill going through my body. "Where do you want to go?"

"My room." Jayden turned around and led the way. "No funny business. Don't worry."

"I'm not."

"Good."

The two of us walked through the crowded party and up to Jayden's room. I felt a little anxious because it was the first time I had ever been in his room. We got to the door and Jayden unlocked it. He nodded his head to come in. I took a deep breath and walked in. I looked around. He had a room to himself so it was pretty neat. The bed was made. The walls were plastered with a few posters and various things related to his fraternity and State.

"So what do you think?" He asked.

I surveyed the room, "I think I like it." Walking over to the corner I was surprised to see a acoustic guitar on a stand. "I forgot you told me you knew how to play guitar."

"It's a work in progress." Jayden said while he sat down on his bed. "I'm exhausted man. It has been a long day."

"I bet. How many times did your buzz come and go?" I joked with him.

"Oh shut up." Jayden threw one of his pillows at me.

Over by his desk he had a corkboard with a bunch of pictures on it. I looked over the pictures. It was a mixture of pictures of him and friends. I recognized a few of his brothers in the picture. Then in the bottom right corner there it was, a picture of Ethan and him. I felt a rush of jealousy come over me. I couldn't stop looking at it. The two of them looked so happy. It was a picture of the two of them and a dog in between them. I looked away and then I saw towards the center was the picture Summer had taken of Jake, Jayden, and me. Any jealousy I felt left me after seeing that.

"Hey quit creeping on my pictures. Come over here." Jayden was laying down on his bed. I walked over and sat down on his bed. "Tyler you can lay down next to me. I said no funny business."

He put his arm out. I laid down next to him. "I had a good time tonight." I said. Jayden's arm was under my neck.

"I'm glad. See, us fraternity boys aren't that bad are we?" He propped on himself on his side and looked at me.

"Well there's the drinking. You've only got a few more weeks of that `til I gotta dial it back a bit."

"Deal. But until then..." Jayden reached for our glasses. "drink up!"

I smirked at him, "Are you trying to get me drunk tonight?"

"Maybe..." Jayden had that devilish smile on his face again.

"You don't have to get me drunk, Jayden." I took his cup out of his hand and finished his drink. "I'm here cause I want to be." I moved in closer to him.

"That's good to know." Jayden said in a lower voice. He put his hand on the side of my face and pulled me in closer. "Cause I'm glad you're here tonight." Jayden pressed his lips against mine.

We fell back onto his bed. We started to kiss a little more passionately. Our tongues circled each others. I was pressing my body into his. I could feel him starting to get hard. Rubbing my hands over his chest I stopped at his nipples and gave them a slight pinch. Jayden moaned in pleasure. He pulled me closer to him. I sat up for a second. He undid my staps of my costumer so my chest was exposed to him.

"You're so hot Tyler." He said to me breathing heavily.

He grabbed me and threw me on my back on his bed. I was a little surprised by his strength. We continued making out and grinding our bodies into each other. There was no mistaking that Jayden was hard. I could feel his hard on rubbing against me. We were both breathing pretty heavily. Being with Jayden like this is something I had wanted for so long.

"Jayden..." I said. "I've wanted to kiss you again ever since you kissed me the for the first time in my room."

Jayden smiled at me. "Me too."

We went back to making out. I moved towards the side of his face and bit down lightly on his earlobe. Jayden thrusted his waist into me hard. I ran my hand down his body and grab a hold of his dick. I gave it a hard squeeze. It took all my control not to pull it out from his pants.

"Tyler..." Jayden was breathing heavy still. "Don't get me wrong...I'm clearly enjoying this. But I don't want to be the first time we hook up to be when the two of us are wasted." I left go of his dick. I felt a little embarrassed. "I just mean, I want to emember what we did. So do you care if we keep it...you know...above the clothes tonight?"

I didn't feel as embarrassed anymore. I felt good knowing he didn't want to just hook up with me. "Sure Jayden." I leaned down and kissed him.

"Stay over tonight?" Jayden said to me. The look on his face made the decision even easier.

"Of course." Jaydens face let up instantly. He pulled me in and kissed me. "Do you want to go back outside or stay here?" I asked him.

"Uh..." He looked down at his hard on still standing at full mast. "Clearly stay here." He laughed.

"Alright. Let me text Jake so I can let him know what's up. " I pulled out my phone and texted Jake. Jayden got up and went over to his dresser.

"Here. I'm not about to spoon with you in a pair of jumpers." He pulled out a pair of shorts and threw them to me.

"Why not? I thought you said this looked hot."

"Oh it is. But I think a guy wearing a pair of gymshorts and nothing else is even hotter." Jayden came closer to me and pushed me back onto his bed. "Here, let me." He took my shoes and socks off and slowly pulled down my pants. My hard on had gone down a bit but it was still noticible. Jayden looked at the outline through my boxer briefs and then back up at me. "Why hello."

I laughed at him. "Stop dork."

Jayden turned on some music and came back to the bed. We got comfortable against each other. Jayden threw his arms around me. All I could do was lay there in his arms and take it all in, the smell of his cologne filled the air around me. At that moment I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. Being with Jayden was something that I had wanted and we were on our way to that. The song changed to Matt White's "Best Days". Jayden acted like he was playing the guitar against my chest. Pushing myself close to him Jayden pulled me in even closer. He was whispering the lyrics of the song to me. "The fires burning, softly singing songs so close to you."

I rubbed my hand against him arm. The fact that his arm was still green made me laugh. "It's going to look like I killed the Incredible Hulk in the morning when your paint rubs off."

"Don't act like you're mad." Jayden said to me. I could tell that he had a smile on his face. He kissed me on the back of my head. "Goodnight Tyler."

That was all I needed to hear as I drifted off to sleep.

To Be Continued.

Hope you all enjoyed that chapter. Thank you to everyone who has wrote in and stayed with the story even though I have been slacking a bit. Sorry this chapter kinda got lost in the Christmas/New Year shuffle!

As always any questions, comments, concerns, feedback is greatly appreaciated and you can write me at halfin.halfout7@gmail.com