Page 28 of Bend Him, Break Him
Colton lost himself to the opening game of the season.
When he pitched, the world and all the problems fell away.
Family who didn’t support his goals. Gone.
Family who didn’t acknowledge his identity.
Gone. The uncomfortable truth surrounding his outing.
Gone. Difficult classes. Struggling academics.
Hot goth guys. Gone. Gone. Gone. All in all, Colton let it all vanish when he stepped onto the field.
All except for players who still resented him as the starting pitcher.
Teammates who created conflict were really the only thing locked in Colton’s head during a game because their arrogance or showboating or plain indifference usually cost the rest of the team.
He didn’t have the energy or desire to rally the players who hated him for something he couldn’t control, so he focused his efforts of morale on the teammates who didn’t judge, who still respected Colton, and who played with all their hearts even if they were up by eight.
Colton pretended not to care, keeping his expression calm as he waved to his cheering audience.
It took all his strength not to jump up and down.
Colton had tons of fans, friends, and loyal teammates, but he’d never had people genuinely go out of their way to see him play.
In high school, it was usually just school spirit that brought folks out, people who rooted for Colton even though they didn’t know him.
It was nice having people who saw Colton for who he really was, accepted that, and came to support him.
“Woooooo!” Jazz shouted, leading the GSA into a ridiculous cheer.
Okay, the calm demeanor he kept definitely broke as Mina led moves the GSA members couldn’t sync up with for the life of them, making the routine a terrible mess.
Still, it was way more fun to watch than the half-time performance or the fawning cleat chasers who didn’t so much like Colton as they did his standing, popularity, and, honestly, any boy wearing baseball gear.
As Colton lingered close to the stands, he noticed Isaac didn’t have on his usual heavy black eye makeup. Instead, he wore the school colors for his eyeshadow, and it matched everyone else on the GSA team who also sported Colton’s player number on their cheeks.
A warm buzz hit, and Colton casually wandered in the direction where his friends were lined up, a bit more excited than he expected but hopeful to make some idle chitchat during the break.
Unfortunately, Leon took the opportunity to speed walk in Colton’s direction, preventing him from casually striking up a conversation with the GSA.
“Looks like you got yourself some queer groupies.” Leon slapped Colton’s back, intentionally too hard but smiling all playful and phony as per usual. “They’re all rawr rawr something something blah blah for you.”
Colton ground his teeth, fighting back an angry expression, but he knew his eyes shot daggers. He knew because of the glint of satisfaction in Leon’s gaze. He was provoking a rise out of Colton and taking pure sadistic joy in it.
His roommates, Tim and Devon, stood halfway across the field, talking to each other, but their eyes pressed onto Colton and Leon.
Chances were, they were both looking for an excuse to mosey on over to offer backup.
Tim always managed to shut Leon down quickly and Devon successfully warped Leon’s words, painting them as friendly instead of fucked up.
“You think any of ‘em actually know how the game is played?” Leon asked loudly, drawing the GSA’s attention and definitely hoping to make them squirm as he went to work cutting down Colton.
It was something Colton had experienced in the locker rooms before, Leon saying something spiteful to get a rise out of players who weren’t bothered by Colton’s sexuality while feeding into the discomfort of those who did have a problem with it.
Now, he sought to pour his venomous feelings for Colton out on the GSA members, who would probably never attend another game under the assumption that everyone on the baseball team was like this. They weren’t. Most players were fine.
It was Leon who fanned the flames of hate—more for his craving to be the starting pitcher and less because of any actual homophobia. Not that it was an excuse in Colton’s eyes, but he wondered what tricks Leon would’ve resorted to if he didn’t have Colton’s bisexuality to use against him.
“Any of y’all actually know what’s going on?” Leon gestured to the field, the scoreboard, and the dugouts. “Or you just looking for a reason to get all dolled up and play cheerleaders?”
Leon laughed loudly, forcing it at first but then getting into a real obnoxious rhythm of taunting the queer crowd.
“And what the fuck do you know about baseball?” Isaac leaned over the railing, ready to lunge from above and tackle Leon.
He had wild eyes, like a deranged tiger on the prowl…or what Colton would assume a large cat about to pounce looked like. It startled the laughter out of Leon’s lungs.
“Yeah, punk ass.” Mina lounged on the railing beside Isaac, tapping her nails to draw Leon’s attention. “You’ve been sitting side-bitch all night long.”
“That’s not true,” Jazz interjected, wedging herself between an angry Isaac and an enraged Mina.
“He was lucky enough to get off the bench long enough to strike out at the plate both times his coach called him in, which was considerate since it helped remove the strong lead their team had and afforded the opposition an opportunity at a solid comeback.”
The wave of embarrassment that struck Leon’s face left him and Colton speechless, all while Jazz continued listing off player stats like she had the entire college MLB roster memorized. Then, she took her seat, inviting Isaac and Mina to retake their vicious positions.
“For someone who regularly professes his macho bullshit with pathetic posturing, you’ve had your ass pressed to hard wood all night.
” Isaac nodded to the bench in the dugout where Leon had desperately waited to sub in for Colton.
“Maybe if you scream daddy to the dugout, you’ll get to pitch, bitch. ”
“The only pitching I’ve seen him do is pitching a tent with an envy boner as the rest of the team scores,” Mina added.
Isaac and Mina continued hurling more insults at Leon until his face turned beat red and he seethed through gritted teeth, unable to find a comeback or time for one during the onslaught.
When one of Leon’s lackies came to interject, Mina shut his ass down with a comment on his inability to land her a homerun when they hooked up.
She might not have known much about the sport, but her analogy on his weak batting and premature swing leading to a quick completion and her lack of even reaching a base got a lot of the crowd’s attention.
By the time the game had resumed, Colton found himself on a new kind of high. He had the support of the GSA, who would shut down any members of his baseball team that didn’t support him. Those who did were met with cheers, while those who didn’t faced the wrath of Pride.
While this certainly wasn’t his best game, and eventually, he had to sub out for Leon, Colton loved how the evening went. Leon’s balk pitches were called early on, his confidence was shaken, and he ended up helping the other team land more scores than strikes.
It afforded Colton a chance to return to his role and help the team finish barely ahead by the time the game was called.
Everything in Colton’s life was so hard to control, but something about handing over the reins to Isaac lessened the weight constantly on his chest, his shoulders, and his back.
The pressure of failing the world, faltering after so many years of hard work, fumbling his biggest dream…
All of that washed away when he submitted to Isaac.
It gave him a sense of freedom while simultaneously stripping him of his choices.
He savored every whim from the angry goth who claimed he felt nothing for Colton.
He must’ve felt something. The way he fucked Colton with such hate and care…
That required feeling in both extremes. And the way he kissed Colton, even when he thought the jock had dozed off.
His lips were soft in the middle of the night as he kissed the crook of Colton’s neck before he snuck in to snuggle again.
Isaac could pretend he didn’t care, and he likely was still mad and hurt from the past, but Colton knew the truth.
He believed they’d repaired something. He’d keep it to himself; he’d serve at the altar of Isaac and work to rebuild what he broke so long ago.
Colton quickly got into the swing of things—pleasing Isaac, balancing his schedule, baseball games, and GSA events.
Leon and the other players had even stopped hassling him, finding the new queer squad members lining up and biting back every time someone caught wind of certain closed-minded jocks being dicks.
They’d harass Leon during practices, in classes—hell, sometimes, someone would even walk over to him during team lunches.
Colton let it be. Just like he couldn’t control Leon and his homophobic beliefs, he couldn’t very well control the GSA members who lashed out in response.
Colton was convinced Isaac had a hand in it, instigating Pride students and reminding folks this wasn’t some conservative stomping ground.
The University of CLIT was queer, feminist, and fucking liberal as hell.
But whenever he brought it up, Isaac simply stared at him, taking long, slow blinks like a wicked cat with a million secrets.
Isaac did a lot of tiny things to help Colton over the next two months.