Page 5 of Offside Attraction

When he talked to me that day at summer camp, I wanted to please him so badly it made my chest ache. I would’ve done anything he asked. Anything at all—as long as he liked me back.

And he knew it.

He knew I liked him before I even understood what I was feeling, and he used that against me.

That summer forced me to face the truth: I liked Hayes Griffin.

And the realization made me sick.

I was terrified of what my parents would think if they found out I kissed a boy—and worse, that I liked it.

My parents weren’t homophobic. But when they heard about what happened, they assumed Hayes must have forced me. Threatened me.

They still don’t know the truth.

They don’t know I kissed him back.

They don’t know I wanted it.

They don’t know I liked it.

And I never told them.

Thinking about that day now makes me want to claw my eyes out and punch myself in the face.

So fucking stupid.

Dad died three weeks after I came back from summer camp.

It was hell.

My father was my best friend, and then he was just… gone. I was fourteen, drowning in grief, still reeling from what Hayes did to me, and suddenly I had to learn how to exist without the one person who made everything feel safe.

Mom decided it was time to leave town.

I didn’t argue. I wasn’t planning on going back to school anyway—not after what Hayes had done. Not when I knew everyone would look at me like I was some kind of goddamn predator.

Hayes made sure of that.

After Dad’s funeral, we packed up our lives and moved to New York to start over.

And for a while, it worked.

Now, four years later, we’re back.

Mom said she missed the peace and quiet. Said she wanted to come home. She convinced her new husband, Mark, to move back here with her, and he agreed without hesitation.

I was furious.

We’d escaped this place. I thought I was done with it. Done with the memories. Done with the version of myself that existed here. So how could she drag us back? How could she bring me right back to the town I swore I’d never return to?

But things have changed.

I noticed it the moment we crossed the town line.

And more importantly—I’ve changed.

I’m not the boy I was four years ago.