Page 5 of Out of Bounds

“Ninth. It was an amazing feat!”

“Almost as amazing as when somebody kicked the soccer ball square into Tim Jenkinson’s nuts.”

“That was an accident!” Alex broke into a serious fit of uncontrollable laughter. He hunched over and squatted down as the laughter ripped through him. It was contagious: watching him made Brennan crack up over the memory as it replayed in their heads.

“Remember the face he made?” He and Alex looked at each other and tried to do the impression of the guy’s eyes bulging out as the ball made contact with his delicate area. Alex had to hold onto the hightop to compose himself.

It felt good to laugh. It was a start for cleansing away the bad shit from last year.

“Fuck, man. I can’t believe you’re here.” Alex looked at Brennan, still processing that he was now a Whitetail. “This is so wild. I mean, I got that text from you in July saying you were transferring. I had no idea you were even thinking about it. It just...happened.”

“That’s how I like to do things.” That was what happened when someone needed to escape. He and Alex had started to drift apart when they went away to different schools, but ultimately, he needed his friend.

Alex sat at the hightop. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?” Brennan asked, playing dumb as a brick settled in his stomach.

“I thought things were going well in Florida.”

“FSA wasn’t really my place.”

“I remember you posted about this award you won in the art department last year.”

Alex had quite the remarkable memory, especially for someone who was three margaritas to the wind.

“It started out good, but…” Brennan’s stomach twisted into a tight knot. “Art schools can be…it just wasn’t my scene.”

“You don’t like to paint anymore?”

“No, it’s not that.” The pure joy Brennan felt seconds ago, laughing with his friend, dissipated. He didn’t want to think about the Florida School of the Arts anymore, but he also hated the feeling of holding back from his friend.

Brennan exhaled a breath weighing him down.Here goes nothing.“Things went south because of an ex...”

“Ahhh.”

“...Boyfriend. Paul.” Brennan watched Alex’s face for a reaction.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“I gotcha,” Alex said, a perfectly midwestern response. “I’m sorry about that.“

“It just became a really toxic environment, and I had to get away.”

“Yeah.”

A quiet moment descended on the two friends. Alex took a drink of his margarita.

“There are tons of gay guys at Browerton. I can introduce you,” Alex said.

Brennan felt his body relax. “Thanks, buddy.”

“You seem awkward. Did you think I was going to bitchslap you with a bible or something?”

Brennan had lived a life of people close to him turning on him in the blink of an eye. His parents had ditched him for better lives. And then there was Paul, said toxic ex-boyfriend. Brennan had learned to enter relationships knowing where the exit signs were.

“Thanks for understanding.”