"That's all for today's lecture, I hope to see you all in the next lecture." The professor announced proudly, smiling brightly at every tired and bored face of each student trying desperately not to fall asleep. The professor didn't take it personally, knowing that he also felt the urge to catch a couple of minutes of extra sleep at the back of the lecture hall when he was an undergraduate.
But for him, that was almost twenty years ago. The tiredness that these students were encountering had nothing on the weekly exhaustion they would be feeling later in life. They'd feel lucky to get to sleep before 11 pm most nights later.
The room was bustling with the hurried limbs of tired students eager to leave the hall and escape back onto campus. Clicking and shuffling sounds echoed throughout the room, even the professor's exit was audibly evident above the noise of the other students.
However, one student remained still as they looked at the blank page staring back at them on the desk. He hadn't written anything throughout the entire lecture, and it was apparent that he hadn't been paying attention to anything in that lecture either. Something had caught his attention and was occupying his mind like a fly knocking on the window in summer.
"Hey," Jack's voice tried to shake Hayden out of his thoughts.
Jack had nudged Hayden's unmoving figure, having already said goodbye to his other friends and eager to make a new one with this mysterious boy, with his arms crossed over the desk and head hung low. Hayden hadn't noticed Jack's movements, nor his attempt to wake him out of his trance, as his mind continued to wander and battle over that one phrase that had been plaguing his mind the entire lecture.
"She hates men?" Hayden muttered to himself; a look of visible confusion clouded his face as he continued to stare at the page.
No one could say why he had grown so obsessed with that fact, but something about that curious trait perplexed Hayden beyond belief to the extent that his mind was physically buffering from the unusual piece of information.
"Hayden!" Jack's voice broke through Hayden's spiral of confusion and caused the boy to turn and look at his intruder.
Jack was looking at Hayden with concern as he laid a hand over Hayden's shoulder, having left it there after attempting to shake Hayden out of his mental cage fight. Hayden sighed and looked around him, quickly realising that they were quickly becoming the last few students in the lecture hall and began to pack away his things.
"Where were you? What were you thinking about?"
"Nothing, it doesn't matter," Hayden replied as he stuffed his notepad into his bag aggressively and flung the bag over his shoulder. "Let's go."
"Okay..." Jack responded quietly, dragging out the word as he replied. As Hayden passed by him, Jack quickly hurried to catch up and follow along after Hayden like an excitable puppy, his eyes beaming with respect and worry for his new acquaintance. "Oh, by the way," Striking up a new conversation, "I was about to head down to the field to join my friends for the rugby try-outs if you want to join?"
"You play rugby?" Hayden asked curiously, raising an eyebrow at the concept of this lanky, pale figure running across the field surrounded by a crowd of brawny, muscular men. The image brought an amused smile to his face that felt impossible to wipe off.
Not even when Jack noticed it.
"Hey! I don't play rugby, but there's no reason to think that my playing would be so hilarious!" Jack exclaimed; an obvious offence taken from Hayden's small change in expression. But Jack knew what he was thinking because he often thought the same about himself when it came to sports.
"Okay then, I'm sorry..." Hayden chuckled, patting his new acquaintance on the back reassuringly. The action brought a smile to Jack's face as he felt the sincerity in his reassurance, the smile also bringing with it a warm feeling of accomplishment. Perhaps they could be friends after all. "Who are these friends of yours anyway?"
"Well," Jack started, crossing his arms across his chest as he wormed his way ahead of Hayden and led him across the campus and towards the field. "A few of them were in that lecture we just had, but the ones we're going to meet are different. One of my friends who is actually doing the tryouts is called Aiden. He's a bit unusual and quirky, but that's what makes him so fun to hang out with."
"How quirky is quirky?"
"Oh," Jack chuckled, sending Hayden a knowing look and a mischievous smile. "You'll know what I mean when you see him."
"Fun..."
"Then there's Freddie, but we like to call him Fred for short sometimes. It annoys him, so that's why it's fun to call him that. You know what I mean?" Jack looked back at Hayden for a moment, but Hayden only met his words with another eye roll.
Soon, the two of them broke through the shadows of the surrounding buildings and found themselves stepping out onto the field, and into the sunlight. Before him, Hayden could see the vast expanse of the field, hidden behind the large, towering buildings of the campus.
"Well, here we are. Welcome to the rugby team tryouts!" Jack chuckled, dramatically gesturing to the large field laid out before them. He smiled as he watched Hayden's expression, watching Hayden drink in the sight in front of them.
The field was much larger than Hayden had been expecting, especially due to the small size of the town and its island. He had always had very low expectations of this place. Within the field, there was a large red, worn track lining the perimeter of the rugby pitch, which was marked out on the inside of this track's circle. There were two large U-shaped posts at either side of the pitch, each had the white-coloured paint peeling from its skin as the sun had warped its coating, showing its orange, rusty wounds beneath. Hayden hadn't seen many rugby pitches in his life, him being much like Jack in the sense that he wasn't particularly very sporty himself.
Lining the outer perimeter of the field, and overlooking the pitch and its track, were large rows of bleachers lining either side of the pitch, however, none were behind the goalposts for obvious reasons. Hayden and Jack had entered the field from in between two of the large lines of bleachers on the side that was closest to the main campus. The underside of these bleachers was not easily visible and had been constructed in a way that made it difficult to venture beneath. But as Hayden passed by the bleachers, and onto the field ahead, Hayden swore he could make out a small gap in the wall blocking the underside of the bleachers from trespassers. He noted it as a possible place of isolation for himself later.
Storing the information away, Hayden returned his view to the pitch in front of him and continued following Jack towards the middle of the main rugby pitch. As they walked, Hayden couldn't help but let his eye wander at every person running around the field, either for tryouts or for daily exercise, it was hard to distinguish between the two. There was a whole variety of different people who had shown up to the field that afternoon. Hayden spotted a few groups of people occupying the seats on one side of the pitch, eager to watch the fit men in fitness gear trying out for the rugby team. He did his best to ignore their presence and focus on where Jack was leading him.
"Hey, Freddie!" Jack called out loudly, almost bursting Hayden's eardrums from the volume. Jack waved to a distant, but broad, figure as he suddenly broke off into a light jog towards them, leaving Hayden lagging behind and completely clueless.
"Yeah, don't wait or anything, just... run off without me to someone I don't know yet," Hayden grumbled to himself as he trailed along behind Jack like a lost duckling and soon joined Jack and his friends on the pitch.
The boys that Jack appeared to be friends with seemed to be an odd pair of people, they were not the kind of people Hayden ever imagined pairing up together and forming a friendship circle. But Hayden couldn't help but feel a swirl of pity for Jack and his friends. Hayden had never had less than five or six friends when he grew up, he had known everyone in school and was always friends with everyone he met. He was just that kind of person.
So, he found it weird that a kind, handsome guy like Jack struggled to make a larger friendship group than just those two. Although he knew that Jack had made a couple of friends in the lecture, it seemed like these two friends were his best friends. A small group of friends like this was an unusual sight for Hayden to be involved in.
"Hey, Hayden!" Jack called him over, although he was only a few strides away from them by that point. Hayden quickly joined them and stood awkwardly at the edge of their small circle. "This is Hayden. Hayden, these are my friends." Jack gestured to the two boys in front of him. "This is Freddie," He pointed to a fairly large figure, someone who Hayden imagined liked playing a lot of D&D at home or playing video games in his mother's basement. "And this is Aiden." Then Jack gestured to a slim, but reasonably built, boy clad in full rugby kit. He didn't yet have the jersey for the team, but it was obvious that the jersey was his goal.
However, there was also something off about him that intrigued Hayden.
"I don't mean to offend you in any way but... Are you...?" Hayden pointed at Aiden with a curious finger, but his mouth felt too shy to fully convey the word he was trying to conjure up in his mind. It felt too insulting to say out loud, so he just let his weird aura do the talking for him.
Luckily, Aiden caught on to what straw Hayden was trying to grasp.
"Gay?" Aiden replied bluntly, finishing Hayden's thought, and causing the boy to nod in affirmation of his question. "Yeah, I am. It's okay, don't feel guilty about asking, I'm just impressed that you could guess from just one look at me." Aiden chuckled, noticing the small blush of embarrassment and slight guilt dusting across Hayden's expression.
He thought it was cute. But Hayden was not his type.
"Sorry, I just have that skill of being able to figure out people in that way. I've always been able to tell things about people since high school." Hayden shrugged, trying to find a light-hearted reply to Aiden's weirdly flattering words.
Aiden's voice was almost angelic, and it almost made Hayden swoon from the sound. But he wasn't attracted to men in that way, nevertheless, Aiden brought that into question. He was an impressively attractive man, his features practically shining beneath the sun and his smile, blinding. He chuckled at Hayden's obvious embarrassment. Aiden's hair was tied back in a short, stubby ponytail, clearly to keep it out of his face during sports. Despite his demeanour, which did nothing to hide his true character, Aiden still looked like he played the part. A typical late teen jock ready to abuse some power on the field. Hayden admired Aiden's pride, eager to get out onto the field.
However, Freddie was the complete opposite, almost seeming like an elephant in comparison to the dainty (but muscular) man beside him. Freddie was a little taller than Aiden by quite a few inches and towered over all three of them quite a fair bit, but not enough to make them all feel small in comparison. He seemed like a friendly giant, the kind of guy anyone would want to befriend on their first day of school. Both boys contrasted greatly with the brightness of Jack, who stood beaming at his friends proudly whilst sticking out like a sore thumb. Freddie welcomed Hayden into the group without needing to say a word, one look at the friendly giant was all it took for Hayden to recognise the guy as an ally.
"Nice to meet you, Hayden," Freddie spoke up, his voice coarse but cheerful. "I don't suppose you're gonna do the try-outs, are ya?" As he spoke, Hayden noticed a slight accent in Freddie's voice. Even though he couldn't quite pin the region, it was stronger than most of the people he'd met so far. "You sure would give Aiden a run for his money!" His joke earned a hard elbow in the side from Aiden, ready for another attack.
"Nah, I'm not really a sports person." Hayden shrugged, burying his hands in his pockets in the same motion, looking elsewhere.
"Good, I know you wouldn't stand a chance against me." Aiden chimed in, sending a small death glare to Freddie who stood beside him. "I just don't want to embarrass you on the pitch."
"No one wants that." Hayden chuckled, looking behind Aiden to see a familiar figure walking over to one of the other rugby players warming up on the pitch. Nudging Jack lightly to gain his attention, Hayden gestured his head towards the pair with a quizzical brow. "Is that Alice?"
Jack, Aiden and Freddie all followed Hayden's gaze and gave a quick look over to the pair that Hayden was eying with furious curiosity. Aiden groaned, rolling his eyes heavily and quickly turning away, clearly disgusted by the sight as he wanted to get his eyes as far away as possible from that kind of scene. Freddie smiled knowingly at the couple and turned back to Hayden, noticing his confused stare.
"Yeah, that's Alice," Freddie spoke up, realising that Jack couldn't quite see the couple due to Aiden blocking his view. "The guy she's with is called Kris. She and him have been friends since childhood."
"More like friends with benefits." Aiden spat moodily, rolling his eyes again and letting out a frustrated sigh. Hayden frowned in confusion, puzzled by Aiden's words.
"What do you mean?" Hayden looked between Aiden and Jack. "I thought you said she hated men."
The confusion was evident in his voice, he sounded like a lost kid begging to know the answer rather than figure it out himself. Jack sighed and shook his head lightly at Hayden's question, although it was not a stupid one, he just felt exhausted trying to explain it.
"She does hate men. But Kris was friends with her long before her hatred of men started, so I guess you could say he's immune to her hatred because she trusts him more." Jack shrugged, before poking Aiden's shoulder and waking him up from his moody trance. "And you. We keep telling you that nothing is going on between them."
"Besides," Freddie joined in, "I don't even think Kris is actually gay. You've seen the line of women he had in high school."
"I know." Aiden shrugged, looking over his shoulder at the pair once more before turning away from the scene. "It's just that... a part of me wishes he is."
Jack patted Aiden's shoulder lightly in comfort, reassuring his friend that his one-sided crush wouldn't end in heartbreak. But it was clear to Hayden that Aiden had already accepted the prospective pain of his heartbreak, and if Kris were to reject him, Aiden would be crushed.
"Well!" Aiden announced, jolting himself out of his mourning quick enough to give himself whiplash. He smiled at his friends, patting them on the shoulders and sending Hayden a cheeky wink instead of patting him on the shoulder. "I'd better get going!"
With that, Aiden joined the other players on the field and forgot about his friends.