The Last Out - 1. Chapter 1

It’s not supposed to snow in April. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love the snow, and I especially love the snow when I’m grinding a rail or shredding the mountain on my board. But right now I’m wearing my baseball uniform trying to catch fly balls, and I can’t even see the damn ball because of all the snow coming down. I’m not afraid, not really. I’ve been playing baseball for longer than I can remember, why would I be afraid of a baseball coming at me?

I can’t help but glance at my right elbow and wince at it. I’m not afraid of the ball, I’m not afraid of the ball… I just have a healthy respect for the ball, that’s all. It’s nothing serious.

My name’s Devin Williams. I’m seventeen now, and I started playing ball when I was seven years old. I almost quit that year as well; I hadn’t been paying attention and took my eye off the play, and I had the luck of getting hit right in the elbow with the ball. Line drive too, so it hurt. I’m only lucky because my elbow was in the way, everyone says that if it hadn’t hit my elbow, the ball probably would have hit my head instead. I swear that there’s still an indentation in my elbow where I got whacked, but of course no one believes me.

I’m not afraid of the ball.

Right when I was about to get myself prepared for the next batter, I heard a voice call out to me. I recognized that deep, masculine voice anywhere. It was Sean. Sean Cobb is the school stud, and he makes sure everyone knows it. I’m sure it’s all bull and that he hasn’t done even half of what or who he says he’s been with. Still, I can’t deny that he’s hot, really, really hot. This is when liking dudes really sucks, because I don’t have a chance with him and I don’t need anyone knowing I’m not what everyone thinks I am. Could be bad for my reputation and my ability to get through each day, if you know what I mean.

“Hey Williams, you going to choke on some more balls?”

I winced again, because as much as he’s hot and I guess I do want to sleep with him, he’s also the biggest jerk on the planet. I guess that’s part of his stupid charm too in a way, he can just act however he wants and know that no one’s going to call him on his shit.

Starting a fight with Sean was pretty low on my list of priorities, so I just ignored him like I always do when he’s trying to piss me off and waited for him to go bother someone else, or better yet that he’d just leave the field entirely. That’s what he normally does, he gets under someone’s skin and then he leaves to go bother his next victim. Except this time he was staying here, just watching me. Staring at me, like he was trying to drill a hole through me or strip me with his eyes.

Looking back at home plate where he was crouching, I really wished I had something to say to him that could make him get off my case for a little while or to stop staring at me like he was going to devour me whole. Baseball was hard enough without my mind wandering and getting certain other things hard on the field, and that’d just give him something else to give me shit for anyway.

Thankfully, the practice was almost over and there were only a couple people left who had to do batting practice. Our school had shower facilities, but I wasn’t all that dirty from practice so I figured I’d just go home and shower there instead of torturing myself with another round of sweaty, naked high school athletes, including one that I knew would be there and would have something to say to me.

I grabbed my stuff and started making my way to my car when I heard him call my name again. Wow, twice in a day Sean goes out of his way to speak to me; that has to be a record. I wonder why he’s doing that, when normally he’s either ignoring me or talking shit about me like he was earlier.

“What do you want Sean?” I asked, not really caring that I sounded really hostile towards him at the moment.

“Hey now, no need to be so angry,” he responded. “Just wondering where you’re sneaking off to instead of joining us real men in the showers. You afraid you’re gonna like what you see in there too much?”

I must have blushed a bit or something, because his stupid shit-eating grin on his face got even wider and he got this excited look in his eyes. He started taunting me, which I knew was going to happen as soon as he started talking to me.

“Oh, so that’s how it is! You really do like munching wood, don’t you Williams?”

I was about to stammer out a reply when he cut me off with a look and a sharp hand gesture.

“Look Williams, I don’t really want to hear it because I’m not going to believe anything you have to say. You are, you aren’t. I got better things to do with my time than to get involved with your drama about whether you wanna be what you are or not. Don’t let it screw up the team and don’t get all in my face about it, and maybe we won’t have a problem, got it?”

I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. He was always the last person I believed would be alright with someone being gay. Not that I’m gay, I mean, chicks are great, really! Doesn’t explain why I bone up at the thought of Sean naked, but I can’t really be gay, I’m a student athlete after all.

Sean was staring at me again, and he was looking thoughtful for a second, like he was thinking up some deep thought that’s normally beyond his ability to understand. Then that damn grin crept back on his face, and I could already sense that I was in for some punishment of some kind.

He seemed to enjoy what he was doing by keeping me in suspense as to what he was thinking, and when he did say what he was thinking, I was really hoping that he was kidding or that he hadn’t said it at all.

“On the other hand, I could always use another pair of lips. Annabelle tries, but she just can’t do it. You, on the other hand, I bet you’d be a natural at it.” He sounded nonchalant about it, but I could hear the challenge in his voice, and maybe just a bit of lust.

“Yeah, I think that would work out really well. You can start sucking my cock, and in exchange I’ll keep this little secret of yours safe, make sure the rest of the team doesn’t know you’re perving out on them every time we’ve got a road trip or a tough practice. I can’t imagine that the rest of the guys would want a queer on the team, but I’m better than that, as long as you keep up your end of the bargain.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Here was Sean Cobb, basically blackmailing me into doing what I’d only dreamed of doing before. To say I was shocked was an understatement. I just stared at him, not really sure how to react or what to say. Instinct took over, and I realized that I had to defend my heterosexuality to him, even though I really did want to just accept his little offer.

“What makes you think I’m going to accept this kind of shit man?” I challenged. “You don’t have a damn bit of proof about any of this, just your word, and everyone on the team knows you start shit just to be an asshole. Who’s going to believe you about this, especially since you’re clearly saying it just to get something for yourself”.

I was getting bolder now that I started talking, so I kept going and pressed what I thought was my advantage over him, calling his bluff that he’d want to do anything with a guy or that he was serious about telling the rest of the team.

“Maybe you’re the one that’s the queer around here Sean, sitting there pretending to bang Annabelle so that no one would suspect you, and now here you are trying to get into my pants. I wonder what the guys would think about that.”

Now he was the one to look shocked and angry, and I realized that I had gone too far there. He ran right up to me and got right in my face, grabbing my shirt and lifting me off the ground a bit.

“Listen up fag” he snarled at me. “I’m not some dick licking queer like you, so I’m gonna tell you this one more time, and you better make sure you choose right. You can either suck my cock, or I can turn around and tell every single guy on the team that you’re spending the days thinking of how to be their little bitch. I promise you man, your life will be hell, but I’m giving you a chance to give you exactly what you want for free. All you gotta do is admit it.”

He let me go, but not before saying one last thing.

“So what’s it gonna be Devin? You gonna be my little cocksucker from here on, or are you going to explain to the rest of the guys why you’re checking them out all the damn time.”

Without waiting for a response, Sean started heading towards the locker, and at that moment I realized that the only person who had been bluffing here was me, and that he was dead serious about telling everyone and outing me as a queer. This was a nightmare, and yet I couldn’t stop thinking about how hot it could be, or how hard I was right then and there in the parking lot.

I acted. I should have thought about this, but I panicked and didn’t give myself a chance to think about the situation. Not that thinking about it would have helped, but at least I could pretend that I didn’t just give in to what he was saying and what I was already wanting to have happen.

I didn’t have long to decide anyway, he was getting close enough to the locker that if I called for him it could be suspicious, and then there’d be hell to pay if I had to explain why I was talking to Sean when everyone already knows that he and I don’t normally associate.

I took a deep breath and yelled out to him;

“Sean! Wait up man, let’s talk.”

“Ain’t nothing to talk about Williams. What’s it gonna be?”

”Alright.”

“Alright what, queer?”

“Alright, I’ll do it. But I swear to god if you tell a ~”

He held up his hand again.

“Relax bitch. You’re coming with me right now.”

“Where are we going?” I asked, sort of knowing what he was going to say, but waiting to hear him say it anyway.

“We’re going back to my place. You have some work to do before I decide whether it’s worth keeping your secret. You better hurry up, if I leave you behind I guess that means you weren’t serious after all.”

With that, he started marching towards his car. I did the same. No one noticed that I was running to my car, or that I was following him as he drove out of the lot.

I didn’t notice either. All I knew was that this was not how I planned my day.