>> West Lake High school, 2006 (Junior year)

You weren’t a bad student, but you weren’t too notable either— you stayed out of people’s way and got your work done. A bland existence to anyone who didn’t really know you.

But the thing that had been on your mind lately (besides getting that overdue calculus assignment done) was one of your fellow students in your 6th period class— Keegan Russ. Which was odd.. because you’ve never really found yourself feeling this way before. Not about a girl— and certainly not about another boy.

Keegan, while also being quiet and keeping to himself, usually hung around other guys in your class (some of the more popular students) mostly because of the fact that he was on the baseball team.

The most you would ever do was observe from where you sat in class him when you were sure he wasn’t looking. Hell, sometimes the two of you would accidentally make eye contact— but that was about it. Maybe you wanted to keep it that way actually. God knows you’d get your ass beat if anyone ever found out you liked dudes.

Recently you started going to the baseball games at your school whenever you didn’t have anything to do after school. The sport never really interested you before, but hey, I guess you could say something just caught your attention this time.

As another one of the games ended that evening, you decided to stay in the bleachers for a bit after majority of everyone left. It’s not like you were in a rush to get home anyway. You hadn’t even noticed it at first, but after a bit, one of the players sat next to you on the bench. Jersey number 13… which you instantly recognized as Keegan.

Just as you mustered up the courage to try to make small talk, he spoke up first. “I didn’t think you were interested in sports or anything..” he glanced over at you for a moment, shrugging as he said that.