The Prophecy

6: Bonding

"You ready to see our skills, Ari?" Micah asks, pulling me into their conversation about the game tonight. I nod in response, smiling up at him. Despite the pain I know it'll cause, I'm really excited about going to my first football game. My friends don't realize yet that all these ordinary things are all new experiences for me. I'll tell them eventually, but how can I explain something I don't even have the answers to myself?

"Do you even know anything about football?" Oliver asks curiously.

"Yeah, I know all the rules and everything," I answer, suddenly thankful for the many afternoons I'd spent watching football on TV with my dad and Lucien. I don't exactly love it, but I do understand it.

"Seriously?" He asks, his voice full of skepticism. After a few random trivia questions about the sport thrown my way, he looks at me in surprise. "Are you sure you're not Google? Because you've got everything I've been looking for."

We all laugh at his typical antics, but none of us bother responding to his comment. Hazel was right. You get used to his pickup lines pretty quickly. It no longer surprises me when he throws one out of nowhere, but they never fail to amuse me.

"What's so funny?" Emily asks, turning up next to us out of nowhere.

"Just Oliver being Oliver," Hazel responds with a shake of her head.

Being familiar with Oliver, she just nods with a chuckle. "Hey, Ari. Do you want to sit with me at the game tonight since the rest of them will be on the field? I usually have to sit alone."

"You don't sit with your parents?" I ask.

Emily looks more than a little uncomfortable with my question. So, Micah jumps in to answer for her. "Our parents don't come to the games."

I can't help wondering why, since their son is supposedly one of the best players on the team. Opening my mouth to ask, I pause when I catch sight of Hazel giving me a subtle shake of her head. Snapping my mouth shut, I choose to let it go. There's plenty of questions I don't want to answer. So, I know when to drop it.

Before I can respond to Emily about us sitting together, though, Micah stops walking in the middle of the parking lot and spins to face me. He takes a deep breath, looking nervous.

"I'm gay, and our parents don't approve," he says, clearing his throat awkwardly.

My eyebrows nearly hit my hairline while I study his face. He continues to stare back at me with a blank look, waiting for my reaction. Saddened by the uneasiness wafting off of him, I drop my eyes to the ground.

"I'm sorry," I mumble.

"That I'm gay? Or that my parents don't approve?"

"That I brought it up, and that they don't approve," I respond with a shrug.

With a nod and a little smile in my direction, he continues walking towards his truck. We all follow along behind him, and Hazel's comment on my very first day suddenly comes back to me. She'd said, "No chance of anything happening there, but he's so much fun to look at." That comment had confused me at the time, but it makes perfect sense now. Considering River's obsession with him, I wonder if only our group knows or if it's common knowledge.

Oliver, Emily, and Hazel pack into the cab with him when we reach his truck, and I hesitate.

"Hey, Emily. Since we're sitting together at the game, and the others all have to be there early, do you just want to come with me to my house? Then we can ride to the game together?" I haven't asked permission, but I'm assuming that since Lucien and Uncle Ben have given me freedom, it includes having friends over.