Page 50 of The Brotherly Shove

He doesn't punch me.

He kisses me, right there on the field.

"Oh my god," I gasp. "That was real? I thought I dreamt that."

"It was real, baby."

"You really kissed me out there? We kissed? On national television?"

"We did."

"The world knows about us?"

"A good portion of America, at least."

My breath is shaky as I take in the magnitude of the situation. The magnitude that…

Well. Doesn't feel that earth shaking, if I'm being honest. It feels right. Perfect. Exactly how the world is supposed to feel.

Me and Lennon together. In front of everyone.

Except…

"Ah, shit. Is Ma pissed? Did she try to make you eat soap?" I ask, wincing at the only physical punishment my mother ever doled out to me when I was a kid. She forced a bar of Dove soap into my mouth for saying 'Jesus Fucking Christ' when my kindergarten teacher told me it was time to get off the monkey bars and back into the classroom. Then, Ma cried and apologized for ten minutes, promising to never make me eat soap again. Lennon just lets out a hearty laugh.

"No, she didn't try to make me eat soap. She knew. In fact, so did my parents. Apparently they had a whole casino's worth of bets on when we'd finally come clean about the whole charade."

Though it hurts like hell, I laugh, too.

"God I should've known. The woman is practically omniscient, at least when it comes to me. And what about…everyone else?"

Lennon sighs, and I know. I know it can't be good.

"Tell me, Len," I whisper, and he shrugs.

"I haven't looked. Haven't had the courage. Coach was pissed, though. He wouldn't let me back here until Adler put him in his place. But I gotta say, Breaker, I really don't care. I know what I said, but I don't care anymore. If the media, the fans, the public, if they can't see past a tiny little thing like us being in love, then they don't deserve to. You're an incredible athlete, and the people who matter will see that. I don't want to hide anymore, B. I've loved you in the shadows for as long as I can remember, and I'm done. Tonight, watching you go down, thinking I was moments away from losing you? It was the push I didn't realize I needed. Fuck what people think. Fuck waiting until the end of the season. I need every single person in this world to know that I love you, and that you're dumb enough to love me back."

I smile up at him, tears welling in my eyes. The pain in my head and my shoulder has faded to nothing. Nothing exists, not time, not space, not anyone else. It's just me and Lennon, right here, right now. Forever.

"So, what you're saying," I giggle as Len swipes a tear from under my eye with his thumb, "is that maybe, in order to 'love me out loud', you just needed a little…shove? Huh,bro?"

The roll of his eyes is so over exaggerated that I'm almost shocked when his face doesn't get stuck like that, but his smile?His smile is undeniable. It's that gorgeous, warm, soft, inviting, glowing Lennon smile that I fell in love with so long ago.

The smile that I know he saves just for me.

"Shut the fuck up and kiss me, baby," he says as he tilts my chin up to him.

"As you wish," I murmur against his lips, melting into him. To his mouth, to his arms, to his soul.

Right where we belong.

EPILOGUE

A Few WeeksLater

Glendale, Arizona

“You know, there is so much that I want to call complete bullshit on now that we’re real adults,” Breaker whines from his seat next to me. The crowd in Arizona is practically deafening as the eighties pop star I didn’t recognize but who’s songs I somehow knew every word to finishes her set down on the field. At home, the Big Game seems huge, gigantic, ethereal.

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