Page 43 of Man On

My features twist. I had a protein shake for breakfast, and a spinach salad at lunch, but I haven't eaten anything since then. I got a little distracted from my dinner plans.

The guy murmurs something into Danny's ear that I don't quite make out. Something about blood sugar.

"Oh, no shit, dude? My grandma is diabetic. Do you need, like, a shot or something?"

"The other guy gave him juice," the stranger says.

"Pretty sure we have something in our room," Peters says, looking concerned.

"Wh-what? I'm not diabetic."

"His roommate said he gets kind of delirious or something, too,” the random guy says, as if I’m not sitting right here.

"Dude, I'm fine," I say, irritation clogging my throat, looking at Danny because I don't feel like anyone else is listening. "I just have a little cramp."

He nods, but still puts his shoulder under my arm. The bigger guy, the stranger, does the same on my other side. I want to shrug them both off, but as soon as I stand, I feel dizzy again, and my limbs are really weak. I wasn't lying about the cramp. The muscles in my legs are tightening and releasing painfully, and I have a tight charley horse in my right calf. Peters runs ahead to get the door when we get close to the dorm.

I'm thankful when they take me to their room. It’s closer, and Noah isn’t in there. The stranger, who eventually introduces himself as Jed, lives next door. He asks if he should go get my roommate, and I quickly blurt, "No!". I cover my outburst by telling them that Noah wasn't feeling well and went to bed early, to which Peters and Danny joke about him needing to sleep off his shitty mood from getting his ass handed to him today. Even I have to chuckle a little at that.

Jed leaves and Peters disappears to take a shower, leaving me alone with Danny. He leaves my side to rummage around in the kitchen, coming back with two pixie sticks and a glass with about an inch and a half of bright green liquid in it.

“I couldn’t find any juice, but Peters is a closet sugar junkie, so I dug in his secret stash and found these,” he says, handing me the pixie sticks.

“Thanks,” I say slowly. “I forgot to eat dinner, but I don’t have a blood sugar problem.”

Danny shrugs. “I was just going off what Jed said. He said he saw you passed out or something, and Noah told him you had low blood sugar.”

“I didn’t pass out,” I grumble, but as soon as the words are out of my mouth, I think I remember what night he’s talking about. “Why would he—” even thinking about my baffling relationship with my stepbrother is too much for me to handle right now, so I quickly change the subject.

“What the hell is that?” I ask, pointing to the glass in his hand.

“Pickle juice.”

Danny barks out a laugh at the face I make.

“You’re supposed to drink it. It helps with muscle cramps.”

I stare at the glass he passes me, but choke back the sour juice in one gulp. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, and the shock of the salty brine clears my head a little. I suck my teeth, my mouth feeling drier than before.

Danny trades my glass for a water bottle. After chugging half of the contents, I tear open a pixie stick to get the aftertaste of pickle juice out of my mouth. The sugar that coats my tongue is yet another jolt to my system, and my mind is clearer than it was before getting into this whole mess. Maybe I should start buying pickles and candy from now on. I don’t know how much of it is a placebo effect or actual science, but I do feel better.

Now that the panic and the pain have receded, I’m left feeling exhausted. But I’m not sure about going back to my room yet.

“How do you feel about grilled cheese?” Danny asks sheepishly. “It’s about all I can cook.”

“Oh, you don’t need to cook for me. I should get out of your hair.”

Danny’s hand lands on my knee when I move to scoot forward and stand.

“Stay. Hang out. I’ll make us some sandwiches.”

Now that I know what I know about Danny, or at least what I think I know, given his involvement with the Blackbird Pride student group, I can’t decide if hanging out with him is a good idea. He’s a nice guy, and I’ve liked him since I met him at tryouts. We only have one class together, but Noah’s in that class, so I’ve avoided even looking in Danny’s direction. The last thing I need is him publicly declaring I have a thing for one of my teammates. Ever since the student org fair, I’ve noticed some of the other players treating him differently, and although no one has said anything or been outright rude, that has to weigh on him. I consider every interaction I’ve ever had with Danny, worrying over whether I might have been treating him differently since seeing him in that rainbow soccer t-shirt.

I definitely have. I'm such an asshole, but I feel incredibly skittish around him now. Is it obvious?

I barely pay attention to anything he says while he cooks, too busy overthinking my entire life.

What if the reason he's been so nice to me is because he knows?

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