hi I was inspired :) it’s a drabble, but I really loved this this made me laugh
His agent calls the second the reporter signs off.
He sort of can’t believe it himself. “Hi Elaine,” Jack says.
Elaine takes a deep breath, saying, “Jack, are you sure this is how you wanted this to go? We were talking about a press release or even just a tweet—”
“I just thought it’d be funny,” Jack says, shrugging even though she can’t see him. “Thought it was a good joke.”
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t,” she says. “Figures you’d pick now to have a sense of humor, eh?”
He smiles. “It comes out sometimes.”
“God. Fuck you, Jack Zimmermann,” she says. It sounds like a smile too.
There’s a pause, and then Elaine says, “Any reason you picked now?”
Jack thinks about sunrise making ice shimmer, how much sweeter it is to see when you’ve been up since 4 AM, how much sweeter it is to skate in when you’re with someone, how much sweeter it is when you’re in love.
He says, “Yeah. About that.”
Onscreen, Jack rubs his beard and, for the hundredth time, says, “I try to have only one beard at a time.” Bitty replays it like he hasn’t memorized everything about it, the way Jack smiles a little before saying it, the way the reporter’s eyes widen before talking about the upcoming game against the Schooners, how relieved Jack seems when the reporter takes it in stride. The tasteful way he’s left the top two buttons of his shirt open. How Bitty knows exactly what he looks like under that shirt.
“So he definitely just came out, right?” Holster asks. He chokes on the popcorn he’s eating until Ransom pounds him on the back. “Like. That wasn’t in my head?”
“This is the gayest shit I’ve ever heard,” Bitty says, heart pounding, “and I’ve lived with myself for twenty years.”
Ransom says, “Looks like you might have a shot then, Bitty-boo,” and Bitty goes bright red.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Mr. Oluransi,” he says.
“Sure you don’t.” Holster rolls his eyes and wipes his fingers on the couch. Bitty glares at him, but he doesn’t notice.
“Are we back to pretending you don’t have his Falconers Faceoff videos saved in a YouTube playlist called ‘for cheering up’?” Ransom asks. “Didn’t get the memo on that.”
Bitty pulls out his phone and types out a quick message. “Shut up, losers.”
His phone dings immediately. Yes. I’ll be there in an hour. He exhales.
“I meant, I don’t need a shot,” Bitty says, smiling at the I love you popping up on his screen. “I don’t need one, because we’re already dating.”
snowghoul
theartofmadeline
