Page 4 of The Jock
It wasn’t a bad childhood, up until the point when it became very apparent to everyone that Milo wasn’t straight. His dad had done his best to flat-out ignore Milo’s sexuality. Which meant that eventually he ignored Milo entirely. Milo’s best friend, Gino, and his Gran were the only reason he made it through to adulthood with his spirit intact. The older he got, the more time he spent away from his relatives, wrapping himself in the safe cocoon of his found family.
“Ugh.” He got up, trudged to his bedroom, and grabbed his gym bag. Emotional upheaval made him antsy and the best way he’d found to cure that was to sweat it out. To make his body so tired it couldn’t twitch and itch and drive him insane. Milo had grown up in an active family. His older brother ran marathons and his dad coached football. Milo didn’t like team sports and the problem with running outdoors was that you couldn’t stop when you got tired because you still had to get back.
And Milo also found it tedious. He’d tried a few different things over the years, but the thing he found that he liked best was CrossFit. It was fast and, yeah, hard as hell, but the circuits were always different and he burned through the sets so fast Milo never had time to get bored.
The problem with going to the gym was…that was where he met Neville. Milo cursed under his breath and set his gym bag down. He flopped onto his bed and pulled his phone out. It took entirely too long to figure his way out of the membership for the gym where he’d met Neville, and by the time he’d scoured the listings for a different gym, Milo no longer wanted to go anywhere.
He heaved himself up off his bed and kicked his gym bag out of the way before shuffling into his bathroom. After starting the water, Milo went to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of wine. He took the glass and the bottle back to the bathroom and set them on the vanity. The water was hot enough to turn him into a lobster, which was perfect.
Milo stripped down and turned the water off when the tub was full. He stepped in, hissing as his feet plunged into the heat. After retrieving his wine glass, he sank down and settled. Leaning back, he took a sip of his wine and wondered how he’d gotten here.
His life wasn’t bad, but it was hardly remarkable. He didn’t have the grades for college, but he’d never met a job he was too good for. Over the years, he’d done a number of things. He delivered pizza in high school, which led to him making pizza for a while. He did a brief stint as an assistant manager, a job he got sort of by default when half the crew walked out one day.
The assistant manager job there turned into a full-time gig for a few years, then he took a few night classes to upgrade his skills. Eventually, that place folded and he ended up working as a bartender for a few years at a dive that had an open mic night.There were a few regulars he’d hit it off with and they were still his friends.
It was Gino he called now. He knew Gino was going to gloat over being right about Neville, but Milo sort of figured maybe he needed a little well-meaning harassment.
Gino answered on the first ring. He was one of the few people Milo knew who would actually answer a phone call over a text message. Milo knew it was because Gino was close to his grandma, who still had a landline and wouldn’t know how to use a cell phone if her life depended on it. She’d raised Gino and even when he came out as queer, she’d never batted an eye.
“Hey, Milo, just the man I needed to talk to.”
“Me? What for?”
“There’s an event in a couple weeks and we’re a girl short. Alex busted his ankle. Do you think you can come out of retirement for an evening? You still have all your gear, don’t you?”
“Course I do. I didn’t retire—I was busy.”
Gino snorted. “You retired because that idiot child you’re dating disapproved. I swear to God, Milo?—”
“Neville is a thing of the past. I dumped him.” Milo didn’t need to tell Gino why. He’d rather not, if he was honest. The way he’d let Neville treat him made Milo feel small and cheap. He regretted giving things up for Neville, because nothing he’d done had been good enough.
“Are you okay?” Gino sounded concerned instead of triumphant, and it threw Milo for a moment, until he remembered that of course he sounded concerned. Gino was always the first to check on people.
“I’m good. It was a long time coming. He won’t be missed.”
“Good.” Gino went quiet and Milo took a sip of his wine.
“Okay, say what you know I need to hear. I’m ready.”
Gino took a deep breath. “I swear, Milo, if you don’t pick a man with more than seven brain cells next time, I’m going to slap you so hard you sleep for a week. What is with your taste in men? Do you like dating people who hate you?”
“Nev didn’t hate me.”
Gino made a sound in the back of his throat. “The only thing that man has any real affection for is his own reflection. He wasn’t good for you. You stopped coming out with us. You stopped being you, Milo. I don’t know what you think you deserve, but it’s fucking better than that rat ever gave you.”
“Are you done?”
Gino exhaled. “I think so. I’ll let you know. Do you need company? I can come over with ice cream and we can watch something on Netflix.”
“Nah, I’m in the bath and I’m going to finish this glass of wine and maybe turn in early. I had to switch gyms because I don’t want to keep going where Neville goes, and there’s a class in the morning I want to check out.”
“Just so long as you don’t fall for another gym bro, Milo. I swear to God.”
“That’s very shallow of you.”
“You have a type, my friend. Pretty, but brainless. Neville was jealous of you, you know.”
“Pfft. He was not.”
