Page 162 of The Locker Room

The Locker Room 139

“I swear to Christ, Karcek, if you try to injure yourself out of spite

for this season, I will fucking out you myself.”

Xander looked at him, horrified. He"d thought they"d keep this

civilized, and that the fucker"s prejudice would remain as on the down-

low as he and Christian had tried to keep their relationship. Apparently,

prejudice was more socially acceptable.

“Why didn"t you?” he asked. “Why not just out us both?”

Wallick looked away, uncomfortable. “I promised this town a

championship,” he said.

Well, tough!

“Then why send Chris away!” he challenged, thinking it was a

pretty good thing that he didn"t have a ball in his hand today, either.

“Because what you were doing was wrong!” Wallick snarled, and

for a moment, Xander thought this was easily fixed.

“I"m sorry, Coach. We don"t usually, you know, do that when

we"re not at ho—”

“I mean you two, screwing each other! It"s wrong, and… I swear

on my church, I don"t know why God would give a gift like yours to a

couple of queers who spit on the game!”

“God didn"t feed me!” Xander snapped, not sure where this was

coming from, except he couldn"t remember the last time he"d felt this

alone. “God didn"t feed me, or clothe me, or put a roof over my head.

YourGod didn"t give adamnabout me! But Chris did, and so did his

family. If I"ve got a gift, it"s because Chris wouldn"t let me starve on the

streets, and his folks wouldn"t let me die in a hole. So don"t ask me to

give afuckabout your God. I love this game, and this phobic, pissant

town, and I will play my heart out for them. But don"t talk to me about

God. You sent Chris away—and until that gets fixed, I"m not talking

about your God ever fucking again.”