“I’m sure. We’ve got so many clothes. And wear it when I’m out for away games too. So I know I’ve got a lucky charm here rooting for me.”
“I, yeah. I will. And, in that case—” He stops for a minute and puts my jacket back on. “My literature professor is always trying to see how cold he can keep his classroom before the AC breaks. This is going to come in handy.”
“Good. See, you’re already wearing it, like, two hundred percent more often than I would, and it’s only been three days.”
“Okay, math major.” We keep walking on what’s become our usual route, going the direction of his next class and as far that way as I can before I’ve got to take a sharp right and head for my building. “Anyway, let me know what your schedule looks like for the near future. We’ve got a midterm in a few weeks, and I don’t want you trying to cram everything in last minute.”
My face goes up to the sky, eyes scrunched as I groan. “Don’t remind me. What if we did just a little last minute? Give it a good week and then we’ll come back around. How about if, when we get back our essays on Wednesday and I’ve got at least a B, we wait until next week …endto start studying.”
“B plus.”
“Deal. Oh, and still going to see you at lunch today, right? You’ll sit with me and the boys?”
“Yeah,” Vale answers, smiling. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“See you then.”
Every other day, I take a sharp right, hustling toward the building where my eleven thirty class is as soon as we say bye, fast enough to be in my seat right on time. Today, though, I’m rushing into the room a minute late. Because something about Vale walking away wearingmyjacket, withmyname on the back of it, had me needing to stand there in the middle of campus watching him go.
I let out a grunt as I push the barbell up, feeling the strain in every arm muscle. My face scrunches as I push a little more and …there.
Once the bar’s locked back in place, I sit up, catching my breath, eyes closed, thankful that set’s over. Behind me, I can hear Kat taking off some of the weight, prepping it for their turn. One more breath in and out, and I’m up, cleaning off the bench and getting into position to spot them if they need me.
“I could’ve switched the weights for you.”
“You looked like you needed those ten seconds,” they say with a smirk. “Nothing I couldn’t do myself.”
Kat takes a seat, gets about halfway to lying down, and then, after a few seconds of making a human obtuse angle, sits back up, spins around to face me, and crosses their arm over the bar. Their eyes stay on me, and if we weren’t the only ones using the athletes’ gym right now, I’d say to be serious and stop shitting around. Instead, I keep quiet, an eyebrow perked up, waiting on them to say whatever is obviously on their mind. We’ve got the time tonight.
“Can I—” comes out before they’re sighing. Their face goes tense as they keep thinking before trying again. “Circle of trust for a minute?”
“I—yeah. Sure. What’s going on, Kat?”
“You realize I’m, like, different from everyone else on my team, right?”
My eyes go into a line, trying to read further into this, hoping to see the point of their question. “Obviously. You …they—”
“You can say what it is. I’m sitting here asking for it.”
“They put you on the team you’re on because you’ve got a, you know. Vagina.” I don’t know why I circle my own junk when I say that. I, just as, if not even more, obviously do not have a vagina. But that was a choice my hands made before I could think about it.
“I—yes,” Kat says, the words catching in their throat as they try to keep down their laugh and look anywhere except where I was motioning. “That was wild of you, but yes. Yeah. I just … wanted to say that I know what it’s like to be on a team where, even among all the ways I’m a lot like all the girls, I’m still the odd one out because I’m not one.”
“Well, yeah. You’re also like one of the guys too. I mean, you’re definitely one of the boys.”
They smile and pat my hands now safely gripping the bar as they say, “Thanks. But, you know, the NCAA thinks my identity doesn’t matter on the pitch. Or that what I’ve got going on underneath my shorts matters more. Either way, weird stuff.”
“And you’re a great player, Kat. One of the best on the team. Which is something I’d still be saying if you were with us, playing with me and Pérez.”
“Exactly. And I know that it wouldn’t be a one-for-one comparison; everyone’s life and experiences are different. But what I’m trying to get at is if—and I’m not saying there is, so please don’t assume I’m assuming—ifthere’s something that’s been going on in your life that makes you feel like the odd one out, maybe even uncomfortable or unsafe or like you can’t talk to someone on your team about it, or even your roommates, you can talk to me, alright? And it can stay between us.”
“Oh, I’m not nonbinary, Kat.”
They suck in their lips and close their eyes, letting out a breath through their nose. Even with their mouth like that, I can see how they’re having a hard time forcing down a smile as they shake their head. “I realize that, Gabo. I—there can be more than one thing in the container of things that makes someone a potential target for ostracization.”
“Coming out with the big, pre-law words today.”
“Gabo.Seriously.”
