26. Lucas #2
Cam laughed. “He’s getting desperate now. Everyone’s getting some. He just wants a little bit.”
“Aw...well, Cam. What do you think? Threesome?”
Ty looked hopeful, but I’m pretty sure he was pretending.
“I hope you’re kidding, Luke. One man is enough for me. And remember, I don’t lust after straight guys, that’s your thing.”
“Well, you turned out to be not so straight. There’s hope for Ty.”
“I guess bisexuality would increase my chances,” Ty said, stroking his chin.
“You can’t be serious,” I said.
He waggled his eyebrows. “I don’t have to fall in love or anything.”
Cam’s mouth dropped open. “No way.”
“I’m just fucking with you dudes,” Ty said. “See you for dinner? The twins and I were thinking of pizza.”
“Sure thing,” Cam said.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what Ty said. Did someone put something in the team’s water bottles? I knew that wasn’t how it worked, but still.
First, Cam. Then, Graham. And Noah and Shane. And now Ty was teasing us with the idea.
The pizza place was a twenty minute walk from the village. Ty was excited. He had spent the last five minutes summarizing the reviews for us and planning his meal.
“How long has it been since you had pizza?” Grant asked.
“Why?”
“Because it sounds like you haven’t had it in years!” Graham answered.
Ty laughed. “Well, it’s been a while. I miss my California hangouts. Including my favorite pizza bar, if you must know. Ah! Here it is,” he yelped, running ahead to hold the door open for us.
We poured into the restaurant, our group’s muscular frames taking up the entire entryway.
“Well, look who it is!”
I turned to see Rebecca Fox standing up with her arms out.
“Why don’t you come join us, boys? Oh, Camden, you can sit next to Erika!”
Mr. Fox was there too. David, I think. And Austin, smiling at me.
I tried to sit next to Cam, but Rebecca took that seat, so when I tried to make my way around the table to sit across from him, the only seat left was next to Austin.
Of course.
“Hi, Luke!”
“Hey, Austin.”
At least Ty was on my other side, but Rebecca ended up across from me, with Cam to her right.
“Congratulations on your team medal, boys. Quite an accomplishment.”
We all said some version of ‘thank you’ as the server came and took our drink orders, handing us menus.
“Did you already order?” Ty asked.
“We did,” Erika answered.
“What’d you get?”
“Two pizzas. One thin crust margherita, one thick crust meat-lovers.”
I swore Austin looked at me when he said meat-lovers, but I was probably just imagining things. Then I glanced at Cam. I could tell he was annoyed, too. I offered a faint shrug. Not quite the evening I had planned.
A different server came over to take our food order, and he had nail polish, and his eyes definitely lingered on me and my teammates a little too long. And damn it, if Ty didn’t act flirty with him. Interesting. The server said he’d get our order in immediately and turned to the table next to us.
“Oh no, we ain’t havin’ a poofter for a waitress. Get us someone else.”
I was on my feet before I knew it, marching over there. I saw Ty get up behind me.
“What did you say?” I practically yelled at the guy.
“It ain’t any of your business, but I said,” he replied, sneering. “I ain’t havin’ a poofter for a waitress.” He stood up to challenge me. He was a few inches taller, but I wasn’t afraid.
“It’s really not a problem. I’ll get someone else to take the table.”
“No,” Ty spoke up. “No one talks to someone like that.”
I heard more chairs scrape behind me. I knew Cam and the twins were there. The restaurant was dead silent. An older man scurried over to us. “What’s going on, Jeremy?”
The customer didn’t wait for the server to answer. “You the manager?”
“Yes, I am.”
I interrupted before he could reply. “This dude’s hurling homophobic slurs at your waitstaff. We didn’t like it.”
I held my breath, but didn’t have to wait long.
“Is that true, Jeremy?”
Jeremy nodded.
The manager turned to the asshole and said, “I’m sorry, sir, but I won’t tolerate harassment of my employees. If you would kindly apologize to my server and treat him with respect, you can stay. If not, I’m going to ask you to leave.”
“Don’t bother asking. Let’s go, Darlene.”
“Oh, why do you have to ruin everything? You always do this,” she said, grabbing her purse. “Every time. Sometimes a girl just wants a nice quiet romantic dinner.”
“Why don’t you sh-”
And the door closed, muting the rest of their argument. The applause surprised me. I made to go back to my seat, but the manager stopped me.
“Thank you very much for standing up for Jeremy like that,” he said to us. “Your food’s on me tonight.”
“You really don’t have to do that,” I said.
“My mind’s made up. We’re a family here,” he said, holding his hands up and walking away. The guys turned to settle back into their chairs. I went to join them.
“Thank you, Luke,” Jeremy said to me.
I looked at him, shocked. “You know who I am?”
He blushed and nodded. “You’re kind of hard to miss. I know I’ve caused enough trouble, but can I get a pic with you?” he asked, holding out his phone.
I smiled. “It’s no trouble. Ty, would you mind?”
“No prob, bro.”
“Thanks again. To all of you. I’ll go check on your pizzas.”
I sat back down.
“Well, that was something!” Rebecca said. Here we go. I wondered what she had to say about it. “That was inspiring, Lucas. The way you didn’t hesitate to stand up to that bully.”
I stared at her, half in shock. “It was nothing.” I tried to play it off.
“It was not nothing. You are an inspiration. You didn’t have to get involved, but you took a stand for a total stranger. It was so...so,” she couldn’t finish, and dabbed her eyes with a napkin.
“Fearless?” Erika suggested.
“Well, to be fair, he had four Olympians covering his back,” Ty added.
“I think that guy noticed,” Austin said. Laughter sprinkled itself back into the conversation.
“I’ll admit it, Lucas,” David said. “My first impression of you was that you were a cocky celebrity gymnast, but damn, was I wrong. You’re a goddamn hero in my book.”
Is he tearing up?
I couldn’t hold back the blush anymore. I wasn’t used to this kind of praise. I stuttered, but remained speechless.
“We never told you kids, but remember Uncle Timmy?” David asked.
Austin nodded. “The one that lived in our garage apartment?”
Erika added, “The one that died in the motorcycle crash when I was ten.”
Shit.
“Yes,” David answered. “My littlest brother. We had him move in with us to show our support. Our parents disowned him when they found out he was gay.”
I heard Erika gasp.
Rebecca said, “We’ve never been a fan of homophobia. We saw what it did to Tim.” She turned to Erika, and I saw David put his arm around Austin. “I’m sorry we never told you any of this, but it was a complicated time, and once he passed, it felt-”
“Like it happened to someone else,” David said.
David leaned forward to look at me. “I was transported back to high school as soon as you stood up for that server. I defended Timmy many times, and I am proud that you are here with us, that you’re friends with Erika, and that you represent our country.”
Okay. Now I was the one in need of a napkin.
“Here, here!” said Ty, holding his iced tea up.
The pizzas came, and the server brought us extra appetizers too, so the table was filled with yumminess. I felt my phone buzz. I ignored the hundreds of notifications. Ugh, what happened now? And focused on Cam’s text.
Cam: They’re right. You were amazing.
I looked up at him and smiled.
“Well, while we’re discussing secrets. Now seems as good a time as any,” Austin said.
Ohholyfuck.
“Mom, Dad. Not sure if you had any suspicions, and I hope based on what you just said, you’re as cool with it. But, uh, I’m like Uncle Timmy. I’m gay too.”
“Oh my goodness, sweetie!” Rebecca exclaimed, standing up.
David’s arm was already around his son’s shoulder when he said, “Of course, that doesn’t change a thing. We love you no matter what.”
Rebecca hurried around the table, and Austin stood up to hug her. “I love you, honey. I’m so happy you felt comfortable enough to tell us.”
Why couldn’t my family be like this?
Rebecca sat back down, turning to Erika. “So, you knew?”
“Only recently.”
“I actually started coming out because of Luke.”
I almost spit out my water, as he explained.
“Goddamn hero, what’d I tell you?” I heard David mutter.
“So…” Rebecca said, raising her eyebrows, “are you and Luke together?”
My jaw hit the floor, and I saw Cam giggle.
“I wish!” Austin said. “Shit, did I say that out loud? Shit, I said shit. Okay, I'm going to crawl under the table now.”
“What are you going to do under there?” Erika teased. And Austin seemed to get what she was hinting at, because the poor kid turned beet red.
I patted his back. “Welcome to the club, kid. How does it feel?”
“Good. It feels good.”
We left the server an enormous tip, said our goodbyes to the Foxes and headed in the opposite direction as them, back to the village.
“What a dinner!” Grant said.
“We have a real-life superhero on our team,” Graham gushed.
“Everyone back off, he’s mine!” Ty said, grabbing me from behind.
“Ha ha!” Cam said. “Get your own studmuffin.”
“Maybe I will!” Ty retorted, sticking his tongue out.
Again with the homo subtext, Ty. Really?
My phone rang for the fourth time since leaving the restaurant and I finally didn’t ignore it. It was Shane.
“Hey Shane, what’s up?”
“Did you really almost brawl at a pizza place?”
“What? How do you know? And it wasn’t a brawl. We stood up to a bully.”
“Okay, okay. I’m generalizing. But, damn, Luke. The story is taking off. The interview requests have already started. Just look at the internet. We can discuss what to do at the team meeting tomorrow morning.”
“What’s up?” Cam asked after I hung up.
I pulled up Google and typed my name. The first result was a video clip.
GAY GYMNAST DEFENDS BULLIED SERVER
I recognized the pizza place. I stopped walking and hit play. Someone got the entire thing on their smartphone.
One and a half million views. In an hour.
“Holy shit,” Ty said.