Chapter Thirteen Los Angeles
Piper headed to practice on time as usual.
In the locker room, Hypnotize by The Notorious B.I.G. blasted at a volume that could burst an eardrum.
Tank Jefferson sat at his locker, lacing his cleats. He looked up as Piper entered.
“Sup, my guy.”
Tank studied him.
“You look tired as fuck.”
“Didn’t sleep much.”
Tank nodded. “How was the party? Sorry I couldn’t go, my brother is in town, you know the drill.”
“It’s all good, you know I hate parties and all the bottom feeding influencers sucking the joy from my fucking soul,” Piper replied as he rolled his eyes.
Tank didn’t ask anything else. Tank didn’t pry unless Piper was in a sharing mood, which was after a bottle of wine during off season when they would head to Vegas to gamble, drink, and see whatever was the hot new residency.
He said what mattered and left the rest alone.
He was the ideal best friend to Piper and the teammate he depended on to win the most. Piper never spoke of Atherton to Tank, Never spoke of it to anyone, even Joan was left out of the loop.
“Bro, your little underwear campaign blew the fuck up this week.” Tank pulled out his phone.
“Social media’s going feral over the two of you,” Tank continued. “The comments are wild. Social media says you got the gays calling pro football their new RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
“No shit.”
Piper grinned.
“You okay with all this attention?”
Piper shook his head. “No, but the money was nice.”
Tank watched him.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” he said. “I’m still shocked you did it, it’s not your vibe, but I get it, feed the fucking machine, right?”
Piper’s phone buzzed on the bench. He glanced down.
Tank looked too, but Piper flipped the phone facedown before he could read the screen.
“Whatcha hiding?” Tank asked.
“Nothing.”
The coach’s voice cut across the room.
“Five minutes!”
Players started moving toward the field. Pads snapped. Piper stood, slipping into his practice jersey.
This part made sense to Piper, on the field, practicing what he excelled at, made him feel safe.
The team was headed to Chicago for an away game that evening.
***
Seattle
On the opposite end of the coast, Noah walked into the Seattle facility with a quad latte from Starbucks in one hand and his phone buzzing in the other. Notifications were rolling in, either shaming him or praising him for the campaign.
Darius ran toward him. “Noah, dude, this underwear thing is wild.”
The campaign was everywhere. Sports talk shows. TikTok edits. One post read: LEAGUE RIVALS OR SOMETHING MORE? Noah shook his head and shoved the phone into his pocket.
The locker room greeted him with slow clapping, blasting music, and immediate shouting. Stay Fly by Three 6 Mafia playing over the speakers.
“LOOK WHO BLEW UP THE INTERNET WITH HIS HALF NAKED ASS.” His teammates yelled.
Noah laughed.
“Shut the fuck up.”
One of the linemen slapped him on the ass.
“You and Ashton, huh?”
“It’s a fucking campaign.”
“Sure it is.”
Laughter rolled across the room. Noah dropped into his locker, shaking his head.
“Y’all need hobbies.”
“Bro, winning is our hobby,” a defensive line end yelled.
That got another round of laughter.
Noah leaned back, letting the noise wash over him.
“You assholes would not have said no to the amount of money they threw at us to get naked in front of a bunch of fucking taxidermy!”
For now, Noah could control the jokes.
His phone buzzed, it was his older brother, Danny, Bro, the family is not happy with these photos and the attention. This is NOT how we were raised.
A pit in Noah’s stomach started to grow. He had told the family what he was doing but maybe left out the finer details around it being homoerotic for engagement sake.
He started typing, Well the Reyes vultures have always been fucking happy with the money.
His finger was hovering over the send button, but he stopped before he sent.
He did not want to start more beef with his brother and would never win.
The house he just bought Danny in cash was apparently not enough to make him leave Noah alone for once.
He put the phone face down. He had been paying them off since his rookie deal.
The house for Danny, the cars, the winery.
As if he paid enough, the love would come with it, but it never did.
The money was the only part of him they ever wanted, and he had started to believe it was the only part worth wanting.
Piper already had everything Noah could think to give him.
That should have been reassuring. It wasn’t. Only time would tell.
He deleted the message and typed, noted, he hit send and his brain shifted focus to the moment a day before with Piper. The chemistry, the explosive sex, Piper’s laugh. The whole event felt like a fever dream he never wanted to wake up from.