Pride

*Bonus Chapter* Car Wash

Chase looks a little stunned. Levi rolls his eyes. "No more fighting. I find you fighting again and I will implement a six-foot rule. Do I have to remind you that if you get in trouble again, you'll both be off your teams?"

"We weren't fighting, though," Jordan pipes up. "It was just a friendly discussion. About... naps. In general."

I don't buy that. Jordan didn't say anything before- he's only protesting now because he's worried about staying on the team. Still, Levi and I let them go back to work. They didn't actually get in a fight- and maybe now, with the reminder, they'll be able to check themselves.

— —

After partially intervening in Chase and Jordan's argument, I relax a little. With the reminder of what happens if they get into an actual fight, I'm optimistic that they'll be a little less eager to start picking arguments with each other. I know Chase is the one starting it, most likely because he has no idea how to act like a normal human being when it comes to Jordan, especially with his newfound feelings. He probably thinks he's flirting.

I am curious about Nate's reaction when Chase said they were talking about naps, though. He clearly didn't think Jordan would be willing to discuss that topic, which is interesting. I know it's really none of my business, but it's interesting. I remember having dreams about Chris Evans when I first started feeling attraction towards guys- I was a huge Marvel nerd at that time. Anytime my parents asked if I had a good sleep or some other innocent question like that, I'd go red and change the subject. So what if...

Maybe I'm biased because Chase is my best friend, but I'd love to believe that Jordan could return his feelings. And it's definitely a stretch to say that Jordan had a dream about Chase, but maybe just a dream about some guy (I've always had this weird, preconceived notion that Jordan's gay). I don't know. I should probably just leave it alone.

The car wash goes very well, especially with Chase and Jordan's help. They work extremely well as a team, even if they hate each other. I'm honestly impressed with how well they've been able to put aside their three-year-long-rivalry within less than a week. They're both extremely prideful and I know Chase at least is obsessed with antagonizing Jordan, plus the aforementioned three years of passionate animosity, so just the fact that we've gone one week without both of them getting booted from their teams is a miracle.

Still, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. It feels inevitable that some kind of incident will occur. And I'm caught between wanting to be completely ignorant of that when it happens (and have Nate also be completely ignorant of it) so that I don't have to worry about telling the coaches, versus wanting to intervene so that neither of them gets physically hurt (in which case the coaches would probably figure it out anyways).

Honestly, this is a terrible position. I've almost asked to be removed from this entire situation at least three times (in the five days since this started). But I know I can't just ditch Chase (even though it would probably be better to have someone objective doing this, or someone who doesn't have my morals and wouldn't tell the coaches anything regardless). And I know that Nate won't leave Jordan's side no matter what happens, and I don't want to leave Nate alone in this situation either. So... here I am.

The traffic for the car wash has slowed down a lot, so I let Chase and Jordan know that their shift is over, since Jordan and Nate have football practice in a little bit anyways.

Of course, as soon as that happens-

An inelegant screech splits through the air. Nate and I immediately look over to see Chase spraying Jordan with a hose, a villainous leer on his face, like the one he always gets when he antagonizes Jordan. I deflate a little. There goes everything.