Page 105 of Goaltender Interference

“So I can be—be gay and play hockey and be myself?”

“Totally,” Jesse assured him. Honestly, Nolan should know all that, but if he was feeling less than confident about things, it made sense he might question it. Need some reassurance. “And you’re gonna be a better hockey player if you feel good about being yourself, you know?”

Jesse honestly believed that. He’d seen it happen in Toronto. And he was pretty sure the same thing had happened in Evanston. The guys who were no longer hiding, the ones who felt safe and happy and liked themselves, played better. They felt better about themselves and that translated to their game.

Confidence bred confidence.

“I know.”

“And hey, youknowyour family will be supportive so that’s good.”

“My mom won’t,” Nolan said bitterly and Jesse winced because fuck, he’d forgotten about that. Fuck Viv and her stupid fuckingchurch. Connor’s church wasn’t so great either but he was open-minded enough to step away from it when it came to this shit.

“Fuck,” Jesse said.

Nolan nodded. “Exactly.”

“Okay, well … I’m definitely not gonna tell her,” Jesse assured Nolan. “You don’t have to tell anyone about that.”

“Good. Because like … I’m not sure I’m ready to tell anyone but you yet. You won’t tell Dad, will you?”

“Uhh,” Jesse said, because that put him in a really awkward position. “I don’t love having secrets from my, uh, my captain and my friend, Nolan.”

“I know.” Nolan’s shoulders slumped.

“But Idefinitelydon’t want to out you without your permission.”

“Really?” Nolan glanced up, eyes big and worry filled.

“How about this?” Jesse said. “I won’t say anything to himifyou promise you’ll think about telling him yourself. I’m not like, trying to force you to do it. This isn’t an ultimatum, but I think it would be good if you considered telling him.”

“Ugh. Fine.”

“He loves you, Nolan,” Jesse said softly. “He really does. And he wants to support you. I’m not trying to pressure you, I swear. I just want you to remember that. Give the dude some credit—it sounds like he’s come a long way since your Uncle Kelly came out.”

Way, way further than Nolan knew.

“Yeah, true. He has. He was the first parent who spoke up and supported Jayden—this guy on my team—when he came out last season and some of the other parents were being weird about it.”

“See? There you go. He’ll totally be in your corner if you need it.”

Nolan stared Jesse in the eye like he was testing Jesse to see if he really believed it, before he nodded. “I know.”

“So, are you and Kyler …”

“Ugh.” Nolan made this weird flopping motion in the chair. “I don’t know.”

“Well, have you ever talked about it?”

“No! He has no idea I’m into him. Or … any guys.”

“Do you know if he is into guys?”

“No. Like … sometimes I think maybe he’s into me too? But he was totally flirting with this girl at school. He asked her to borrow a pencil for the quiz the other day.”

Jesse raised an eyebrow because it had been a while since he was fourteen but he was pretty sure even then he wouldn’t have called that flirting.

“Are you sure he wasn’t being, you know, polite and friendly to her?” Jesse suggested.

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