"Hey Shamar did you hear about that little 'assembly' the coach called before homeroom? He sent letters home over the weekend. Whole team's gotta be there." Gary asked his friend as they walked down the high school hallways Monday morning.
"You don't think.. I mean I heard about the people up at Raven Lake. The only guy in the team there was Luke Snyder. You don't think something happened to him do you?"
"Snyder? Oh god I hope not, He's a good guy."
The two boys finally reached the gymnasium and sat with the rest of their teammates.
"Hey guys." They both said. They also both checked who was in the crowd.
Luke wasn't there.
Shamar was about to question it when another student spoke up.
"Yeah we noticed Snyder wasn't here. I still say he's fine." The rest of the team agreed refusing to believe that their friend was gone from their lives.
About three minutes later the boys locker room door on the interior of the gym swung open. Out walked Luke Snyder in his red Pine Lake sweatshirt and jeans.
"Hey guys, how's it goin?" He asked still awkwardly standing in front of them, hands absent mindedly picking at the sides of his jeans.
"SEE!" Gary shouted pointing at Luke. "I told you he was alive. Luke's too smart to be caught by that maniac. Aren't you Snyder?"
This caught Luke off guard. He wasn't really paying attention but he heard enough.
"Huh? You….You guys, you thought I was dead?" He asked softly.
"Well, sort of." Shamar said. "I mean you were the only player of ours that went to Raven Lake, besides Kevin but he went to the hospital after you saved his life. You know, what with all the murders and you being so late we figured the worst."
"So you guys were worried about me?" Luke questioned, his eyes becoming red.
"Well yeah Luke." Gary replied softly. "Your our friend we didn't want anything bad happening to you."
This caused a tear to escape the corner of Luke's eye.
"You guys you have no idea how much that means to me!"
"Whoa Snyder calm down. Listen coach is gonna be here soon and.."
"Coach isn't coming." Luke cut off Gary.
"What do you mean he isn't coming? We all got letters yesterday and.."
"I sent them." Luke said.
"Dude can I finish a sentence?" Gary joked and Luke laughed.
"So why'd you send them Luke?" Shamar asked confused.
"So you guys know about the murders at Raven Lake obviously. And that Kevin almost drowned right?"
"Yeah." Gary said. "He got totally smashed, fell off the boat, hit his head on an oar and you saved his life." The whole team clapped at that.
"Yeah thanks, you all would've done the same thing." Luke said.
"No we wouldn't' ve" The whole team said simultaneously.
"Fine whatever. Do you guys know why Kevin got drunk?"
"Because he's Kevin and he's and idiot." Shamar answered.
"That's not exactly the whole truth Shamar."
"Then what is?" Another teammate asked.
"Well, um, Kevin got drunk because I had told him something that he didn't like. I guess he needed to drown it out with booze."
"Well what happened? Did you do something wrong?" A redheaded player asked.
"No it wasn't wrong I was just being honest with him about something and he didn't want the truth to be… well,.. true."
"Dude what are you trying to tell us?" Gary asked getting annoyed.
"Okay well I called you guys in here because I wanted to tell you the gods honest truth before rumors started to float around school and you guys got the wrong impression of what is going on."
"Well what is going on?" Shamar prompted starting to get scared that Luke's kidneys were acting up again.
"Fine here it goes." Luke said rubbing his hands together frantically and taking a deep breath before he spoke 'no or never' he thought.
"I'm gay."
Silence.
The gym was astoundingly quiet, especially for one filled with 24 basketball players.
Until…….
Everyone burst out laughing.
Just hysterically screaming out loud laughing. Gary even doubled over onto the floor.
"What is so funny?" Luke questioned both surprised and hurt.
"Is that all?" Shamar asked still smiling trying to catch his breath.
"Wait what?" Luke asked.
"Dude we don't care if your gay!" Gary said over the still slightly laughing boys. "Do we guys?"
There was a chorus of 'nope' 'net' 'nu-ah' and 'no way dude' s singing their way through the boys on the bleachers.
"See? Don't matter to us who you wanna date. In fact it's barely our business at all." Gary finished.
"So I don't have to go clean out my locker?" Luke asked smiling feeling astoundingly, deliriously happy at how well this was going.
"God I hope not." Shamar said. "Dude we need you out there."
"Luke seriously, don't worry about this." A brunette player said gesturing to the crowd and the conversation they were having.
"As long as you work hard and act the same way on the court, you don't have to be worried about getting beat up by your own team."
"And if someone ever threatens or comes after you, tell us. Cause we're your team, we've got your back no matter what." Another blond player added.
"Thank you guys. SOOO much!! You have no idea how much your approval of this means to me." Luke said.
All the players got up and either shared a complicated hand shake with Luke, or a quick friendly hug and/or reassuring pat on the back
"Okay now that that's out of the way." Gary sated. "We gotta get moving guys homeroom starts in like, 5 minutes."
With that they all dashed out of the gym and to their lockers.
Luke, being the last one out was left with the task of turning out the lights. He walked over to the door, put his hand on the light switch and looked back over his shoulder to the empty gymnasium. The whole time thinking that that whole thing could've gone ALOT worse than it did.
Also being glad that it didn't.
He let out a sigh of relief. Feeling as if he was finally free and happy, and shut out the lights.
"Hey Snyder, you comin?" Gary called. He was waiting in the hall with the rest of the team, who were all looking at him, waiting.
"Yeah." Luke said "I am."
Then he ran down the hall and walked to class with the people he was still extremely glad to call his friends.