Page 108 of Untouchable Player

“Hey Engels, we’re cool with you being gay, obviously.”

“Oh… um, thanks.”

They nod awkwardly and look down at their shoes.

“Didn’t I break the bro code though?”

Clarke shrugs, “I don’t think it counts with brothers.”

“Hey, go easy on captain okay,” Petroski says, “he’s just being protective over his little brother. The way you would with your sister.”

My nostrils flare instantly the second he mentions Sam.

“Jones didn’t mean to say that about your sister man,” Clarke says, “he was just pissed.”

I nod. I know that. But still.

By the time I get out to the parking lot, if Nate’s mom was ever there, she’s gone now.

When I check my phone, I have a message from Nate, warning me that Jones knows. Too late, but, oh well. It’s out now.

Nate

‘Don’t worry, everything’s fine.’Jesse texts back.

It didn’t seem like everything was fine when mom hauled Harrison out of the rink and gave him the third degree while he side-eyed me like I’d just shit in his shoe, (it was one time and I was two years old).

Mom makes Harrison sit in the backseat while she drives around to calm him down the way she tells us she did when he was a baby.

“I’m not a baby, Jesus, just take me back to the rink, I’ve got a work-out to do.”

“Not until you calm down.”

We’re silent as Mom drives through the leafy suburb surrounding campus, the radio turned so low I can’t tell what’s playing.

“Nate, how old is Engels’ sister?” Harrison asks.

“Thirteen, why?”

“Fuck.”

Mom squints at him in the rear-view, “were you going to sleep with his sister as revenge for sleeping with your brother?”

My face burns and I want to jump out of this car, even if Mom is going thirty miles an hour.

“What? No, obviously…” Harrison mumbles something.

“What was that?” Mom asks.

“I said, I asked him how he’d feel if I… you know what… his sister.”

Mom gasps.

“I didn’t know she was thirteen!”

“How old did you think she was?”

“I don’t know, like sixteen.”

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