Synchronised Motion (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 12

I roll my eyes, ignoring the irregular thumping of my heart. "Why do you care?"

He ignores what I say and lets go of my arms taking a step back. "Pull that shit again Beau, and I won't be this easy on you."

I scoff, arching a brow. "This is easy?"

He chuckles leaning back in my space, standing to his full height and those few inches feel like a lot. "Yes, this is easy."

There's a loud banging on the door. "Oi Beau, get your arse out here!" Coaches voice yells.

Coach is next.

He yells at me and I take it. Again. I sit there and take all the shit he gives me. I don't even bat an eye. All I want to do is crawl into bed and never get out. Screw swimming. I don't even care that I got disqualified from my last race, that I risk losing my scholarship. I don't care at all. And that would worry me—if I cared.

After a few good minutes of Coach yelling at me, he sees me.

Really sees me.

He sees how broken I am. I may have landed more punches on Josh, but I'm the bruised and battered one. I'm the beaten one.

I'm the broken one.

Coach stop yelling at me when he sees it gets no response out of me. His eyes soften for a second and he sighs deeply before sitting down so he is eye to eye with me.

"We're going to talk about this later." He touches my shoulder, a comforting touch. "Let's get the team back to the hotel now and get ready for our team dinner tonight."

He gets up, pausing at the door to look back at me. "Don't worry kid, you're going to be okay. Everything is going to be alright. "

I sigh, rubbing my palms on my pants and getting up.

I hope so Coach. I really hope so.

***

Fries always lift my mood. They always have and I always thought they would... except, it's not.

Not tonight.

I stab my fork into my food almost aggressively, shuffling it around on my plate.There's nothing wrong with the food, in fact, it looks so fucking good. I know it is from the multiple moans of the swim team and the shovelling of food in their mouth.

But I don't have an appetite tonight.

I feel sick.

My knuckles are bruised, the skin split, red and raw. I get a sick feeling in my gut every time I see them, so I try to keep my eyes focused on the plate.

I think I single-handedly fucked up our team's chance of winning overall points for this race, and everyone knows it.

Not to mention risking my spot on the team and scholarship, the consequences of my actions have well sunk in over the last few hours. God—I can't believe I sucker-punched Josh.

I mean... yeah, he deserved it. But there is such a thing as wrong timing, and thinking back—I could have picked a better time.

"You going to eat it, or just play with it all night?" Sophie nudges me with her elbow beside me.

"Play," is my short blunt answer.

Andy grabs my fries with his bare hands and relocates them on his plate, then continues to eat them with a self-content expression on his face.

I glare at him. That bitch.

He gives me an innocent look. "What? Play with the salt, pepper, and shit. These chips are too damn good to be wasted."