The story of Peter Santiago and Ouran Hayes.
The broken, bullied and desperate, willing to change himself even if it kills him.
The exalted, shamed and objectified. Too torn up to care anymore.
The story of two impossibly different bo...
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"Alright Peter, nice shot!"
Peter's teammate Alex jogged over to him and slapped him on the back in congratulations before jogging back to start the tip off again, his other teammate echoed Alex's praise and grinned at him, chest heaving and dripping with sweat.
Peter felt a rush of pride at their acknowledgment, not matter how meagre it was, because it was at least something. More than anything they had given him before. A definite upgrade from the mocking words and parroted phrases, phrases that they would repeat back to him mimicking his voice but his tone morphing into obtuse and slow, like the fat had somehow formed a layer around his brain, decelerating his thought process.
But now they were being friendly, pleasant, actually congratulating him for making shots instead of ignoring the fact that he scored a point, in the past favouring to focus on how his arms would jiggle when raises them up for a shot or how his shirt would ride up to revel a bit of his stomach.
Peter knew he shouldn't feel so happy from just a few words of praise, but he did. He did feel happy.
Mike had officially quit basketball, allowing Peter to play full time in matches and he had recently been doing extremely well in school because of the surreal decrease in bullying.
Maybe it had to do with the fact that Alfred Kirkland had been expelled for snorting coke in the bathrooms. Or maybe, just maybe, it had to do with his sudden, drastic change in weight.
Whatever it was Peter didn't care, because now he was free to walk the halls with his head raised high, free to carry himself with some semblance of pride. The constant, oppressing fear had finally let up a little, it was finally letting him breathe.
A grin spread across Peter's sweaty face as he watched in satisfaction as the three he shot tipped into the hoop, eliciting a round of cheers and slaps on the back.
