who would you think fell first and who fell harder?
- 🍎
My answer (if we’re trying to keep it somewhat realistic) is probably Mack, on a technicality.
That being: Mack would clock his feelings towards Will changing, while Will ‘the catholic symbolism on my chain weighs more than the average toddler’ Smith would not clock shit.
idk if you wanted me to just reply with a name but i'm gonna offer a thesis (i'm not joking, my apa 7 citations are at the bottom. i am a psychologist mastering in neuroscience, i cant be normal)
I find Will to be such a God-fearing devout that his logic wouldn’t even follow the usual “omg I’m attracted to a guy this can’t be happening I’m going to Hell” pipeline, but skip it altogether.
I think it wouldn’t even register until much, much later. The possibility of gayness would be so far removed from the realm of possibility that he’d have no problem cuddling and hugging and spending far more time with Mack than he ever did with girlfriends because, to him, acting ‘gay’, or being perceived as such, wouldn’t even be an option.
"Because of sport’s historical role in facilitating normative masculine ideals, men who played sport were not thought likely—or even possible—to be gay." (Magrath & Anderson, 2022)
It's not on the menu, so it simply would not cross his mind.
I don’t think he’d be the kind to dismiss and laugh it off like “nah I’m just hugging my homie dude no homo”. He wouldn’t make excuses because there’d be nothing TO excuse.
This mentality is common among male athletes. Locker room talk and culture is heavily guarded—a lot happens in there, stuff that any outsider would perceive as 'gay' while those directly involved do not. Because, according to them, if they're willing to partake (ie: comparing sizes, touching tips, holding each others' dicks), it's proof of how straight they are. It's a way of bonding; creating a transcendental connection that unites them as a team. *
So Will would keep smiling softly at Mack, staring for too long, inviting him over, booking dinner reservations for two, and tapping his goddamn ass after a goal, right there on the ice where thousands could see. Because why wouldn’t he? Why wouldn’t he.
"Physical contact alone, as in the history of sex between straight-identified white men documented, does not confirm the nature or intention of a man’s desire, let alone, his sexual identity, and the absence of physical contact confirms nothing. Professional wrestler John Cena says: a hard-on is just ‘what the body does’." (Chow, 2021)
They would’ve both gone through the same thing at a similar pace, I believe—developing feelings and whatnot—but Mack (despite the internalised homophobia and fear that’d inevitably come with being a closeted queer boy in the NHL in today’s political climate) would’ve at least read between the lines of his repression. He’d recognise what was happening. He's too self-aware not to—too in tune with his body and its limits not to notice his pulse quickening when Will sits too close.
Sure, he would’ve preferred if it never happened at all, but he could admit that it had. If only to himself.
Will, however, would NOT read between the lines; he can’t see the lines. He was never handed the book in the first place.
I think that, in this case, Mack would understand Will’s ignorance wouldn’t come from a place of stupidity/bigotry, nor an attempt to pretend he wasn’t equally as neck deep in shit.
"One might argue that misogynistic and homophobic male bonding in the locker room is an attempt to disavow the overt homoeroticism of the space." (Chow, 2021)
I think Mack would see through the all-American, church-going, God-fearing, rich conservative jock and understand he wouldn't be consciously sweeping the ‘sinful stuff’ under the rug, but actually not sweeping at all—because Will doesn’t consider himself capable of ‘sinning’ in the first place. Not in that way.
So, nothing to sweep; nothing to hide.
And then, when Will inevitably got with the program, he'd be capable of recognising those feelings hadn't just spawned overnight, but that he'd been carrying them around for months.
Publicly, I don't think anything would change—nothing like suddenly sitting farther apart and pointedly looking away—that would only make it seem as though they'd been doing it 'romantically' up until that point. Privately, there would be a new tension neither would acknowledge. They'd fight tooth and nail to keep things 'normal'.
A never-ending game of chicken—if you don't sit close to me on the couch, if you refuse to hang out one-on-one, if you suddenly room with someone else on roadies—then you're the first one making it weird. A Thing. An issue. Gay.
Hugs and touches and looks don’t have to be gay unless one of them suddenly starts acting like they are.
So. As of today, December 7th 2025, if they were attracted to each other in any capacity, they'd both be aware. The oxymoron of it all would reside in acting 'gay' to highlight their straightness: "We're so comfortable in our heterosexuality that we can kiss and spin and lovingly stare at each other on live TV as a sign of brotherhood."
I don't think anything else would make sense.
Neither of them would be willing to risk so much (in Mack’s case, his career; in Will’s, his faith and values)
So Will would keep smiling softly, staring, plopping down on Mack’s bed to scroll on TikTok, holding him too tight after a goal…
And Mack would take it like a champ; and to the goddamn grave.
To summarise: if they fell, they dragged each other down—Mack would simply notice sooner.
They would carry it in silence and pretend like nothing had changed. Because if they stopped all the touch and closeness, that’d be far more incriminating. They'd never say it out loud—they'd sit even closer together as a way to convince themselves that they were successfully being 'normal'.
Magrath, R., & Anderson, E. (2022). Sport, Masculinities, and Heteronormativity. En L. A. Wenner (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Society (1.a ed., pp. 889-906). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197519011.013.47
Chow, B. D. V. (2021). Epistemology of the locker room: A queer glance at the physical culture archive. Contemporary Theatre Review, 31(1–2), 74–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2021.1878505
(Highly recommend Chow's article)
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