Friday, November 9th

     After a week of walking with crutches, Jesse's ankle had healed enough for him to walk short distances without them. He had successfully managed to fulfil the first hours of community service, cleaning walls that were covered with graffiti.

It stung when he noticed one of the two pieces of art had been tagged with Loek's tag, and Jesse couldn't stop himself from thinking that Loek had been in that spot, making the beautiful piece of art that he now had the remove from the wall.

He had successfully managed to hide from both his family, and Loek. And then Calix had persuaded him to come over to their soccer match to watch and cheer for them. Jesse hadn't instantly agreed.

Not without Calix telling him about a hundredth times that nobody in their soccer team had a problem with his sexuality, and Loek was benched after a couple of arguments with some of Jesse's closest friends.

Apparently, not just Axel and Calix were angry when they found out about Jesse's arrest, and what happened.

Still, even with all the support, Jesse regretted going to the soccer club to cheer for his team the moment he got out of the car and made his way over to the locker room. He was right in time for the coach's pep talk, but it also meant he'd come face to face with Loek. And for that, he wasn't ready.

He silently entered the locker room while some of his teammates were getting ready to play, and others were silently waiting for coach Leo to start talking. Calix and Axel waved him over, and Jesse felt relieved he was able to sit in between the two. Loek was in the far right corner, seated next to Roy, who was already wearing his jacket, telling Jesse he was also benched for some reason.

Both sported a fading black eye.

Which was probably why they both were benched.

"Did they fight?" Jesse asked in a whisper, turning to Axel for an answer.

"Yeah, it was epic," Axel whispered back with a smirk on his face. "Roy called him a traitor, which didn't sit well with Loek, they had a fight in words, and then Roy continued to tackle Loek throughout practice and eventually, they fought."

"Oh, wow..." Jesse cleared his throat, while he caught Roy staring at him. He offered a weak smile, and Roy smirked and shrugged a shoulder. "Well, at least people have my back..."

"Yeah, well, what Loek did, or actually, didn't do..." Axel shook his head, but didn't finish his sentence, and coach Leo spoke up, asking for silence.

Jesse absentmindedly waited for him to finish his pep talk, and then waited for Loek to leave the dressing room before he stood up, and joined who fell a bit behind, stills ending Loek angry looks.

"Thanks for standing up for me," he said while they slowly made their way to the dugout. Jesse noticed Calix' parents on the sideline, accompanied by a few other parents.

"No problem dude. Nobody messes with my friends."

"Just don't fight again. Our team needs you in the field, not on the bench."

"Yeah, especially since you won't be able to play for a while. How's your ankle?"

"Getting better, though long distances are still a no go without crutches." Jesse shortly looked down to his blue crutches. "But I can walk small distances." He stared at Loek, who just took a seat on the bench, doubting whether he wanted to sit so close to him.

Roy looked back and forth between them, and then pulled out two plastic chairs that were stalled behind the dugout. Usually, they only used them when the weather was better, but Jesse didn't mind. He was just glad Roy instantly understood his hesitation and decided to sit with him.

For the next 45 minutes, Jesse felt a bit bored, watching the game. No goal was scored, and their opponents were clearly better that day. If they didn't start playing their usual tactic plays soon, they would lose.

Besides, Jesse still wasn't interested in soccer that much; he was here to watch Calix. But Calix was missing his usual flair, his genius ball-control, and—for as far Jesse could tell—his concentration. Calix lost practically all duels and hadn't had even a single shot at goal.

Something was off, but Jesse couldn't exactly walk over and ask what was going on in his head. Instead, he leaned over to Roy, who was frowning while his eyes followed the ball around the field.

"What's going on with Calix?"

"Don't know, he hasn't played a decent ball all week." Roy shrugged. "Last week he even missed the goal while it was wide open."

"Seriously? I thought you guys won?"

"Yeah, we managed to score some goals eventually, but not thanks to Calix. Maybe he really needs you out there with him. He's sucked ever since you stopped showing up."

"I don't think it's because I wasn't there," Jesse replied, though he had no explanation as to why Calix sucked so badly.

"Why did you stop showing up anyway?"

"Well, last week I thought my life ended when Axel found out about my sexuality and spread the word like wildfire. I was surprised none of you commented on it, while all of you had something to say about Yoni and Donna. And then the ankle thing happened..."

"Let me tell you why we never commented on it. First of all, because we don't care if you're gay, straight, have pink or green hair, or anything. Secondly, Calix told all of us to leave you alone about it. It was none of our business. And he's right, it is none of our business."

"Considerate..." Jesse mumbled, his eyes still following Calix. He failed to see that Axel wanted to pass towards him and ran in the wrong direction. Not only did he not manage to get rid of a defender who was shadowing him, but he also made it impossible for Axel to move further forwards. He was forced to pass back towards their own defence.

"Maybe you should talk to Calix. See what's going on with him. He seems very distracted."

"Yeah... maybe I should."

     Jesse was lying on Calix' bed, waiting for the other boy to finish dressing up to go out. In the meantime, Jesse was trying to find the right words to ask what was bothering Calix.

Calix obviously tried to pretend everything was fine, but after the match that day, Jesse knew it was all play-pretend. Something was bothering him, and Jesse wanted to help him—whatever it was.

But he also knew Calix wouldn't just admit something was wrong, and after a few attempts of casually bringing up the match—and Calix' lack of goals—Jesse was desperately trying to come up with the words to ask what had caused Calix to play as bad as he had done. He couldn't just drop a bomb and ask why Calix sucked so badly.

That, Jesse knew for sure, would lead to Calix scowling at him, and probably come up with a lie. Like how he had repeatedly said that Cedric—who had taken over Jesse's position—was nowhere near as good as Jesse.

Jesse knew Cedric was a decent player, and that day, he had showed plenty of good actions. Calix was just not in the right places. Calix was a mess, Calix was running slower than usual, Calix was distracted...

...Calix was currently staring at Jesse with a frown.

"Jesse!"

"Wh-what?" Jesse snapped out of his stupor and turned to face Calix, who was standing next to the bed with his arms crossed.

"What are you dreaming about?"

"Wondering about today's match," Jesse answered with a shrug, "everyone sucked, including you." One final attempt, and if Calix wouldn't talk, he would give up for now.

"Yeah, well, with you not there, and Loek and Roy benched because of their fight, things were a bit messed up compared to what we're used to."

"That's bullshit. Neither Roy nor Loek has a guaranteed starting position."

"But you do."

"But that's just one player. And Cedric..."

"Sucked," Calix cut him short, looking annoyed. "Can we drop the subject? Can we just go out and forget about today's dramatic match and everything that's going on right now?"

And everything that's going on right now?

That made Jesse frown. He pushed himself up from the bed, slowly putting weight on his bad ankle, walking up to Calix.

"Everything that I know is going on right now involves me and my family. Why would that be a reason for you to play as if this was your first encounter with soccer?"

Calix' cheeks flushed and he cast his eyes downward. It was only a few seconds before Calix recovered and huffed in annoyance.

"Everything that is bothering you is bothering me, because you're my best friend and I care about you, okay?"

Jesse sighed, knowing he wouldn't get anything other out of Calix that day. Plus, their friends were waiting for them.

"Let's go," Calix smiled, though Jesse saw it was forced. He choose to ignore it, and nodded in response.

"I'll take my own bike, I'm sure I'll be fine with the ankle once I've had a few drinks to numb the pain a bit," Jesse said, trying to walk at a normal pace without limping. He sure as hell wasn't going to take his crutches to a club. That would only be annoying, and he didn't want to sit on the side the whole evening.

No, on the contrary, Jesse had told himself to forget about Loek and have fun without the guy. Either with his friends, or with someone else. Jesse didn't care who, what, where or when, he just wanted to have fun.

They rode their bikes in silence, and even when they walked towards Gringo's not a word was spoken. Jesse had a feeling Calix was deep in thought about whatever was bothering him, and he didn't want to pry too much. Which meant they were walking in an awkward silence.

And it meant Jesse felt relieved as soon as they found their group of friends and he was soon dragged away by a few of them to grab a couple of shots. With one last look over his shoulder towards Calix, he pushed all thoughts about him aside and focused on having fun with Simon, Axel and Roy, who were his usual drinking buddies.

Jesse was dying to go back to Unity and hang out with Yoni, but he had promised to stay with his friends for a while, as he hadn't hung out with them in a while.

It was weird to be out with them, knowing they all knew about his sexuality by now, while nobody said a word about it. Nobody was asking him about Yoni—who was absent—or anything about dating for that matter.

They were just having fun like they always used to have fun, and for a little while, Jesse felt as if nothing was wrong. As if the past few weeks hadn't taken place and everything was still the way they were supposed to.

That was until Jesse was drunk enough to head over to Unity, start dancing with a complete stranger, and try to ignore Loek's eyes on him the entire night. Jesse purposefully ordered drinks from his co-worker, at another bar, staying away from Loek as much as possible.

And everything was still fine, until Jesse started dancing with a stranger—while he usually didn't dance at all—and allowed the guy to kiss him.

Right in front of Loek.

But Jesse didn't owe Loek anything. They weren't even friends anymore, let alone in a relationship, or whatever it was they had going on before.

Still, when Jesse followed the stranger out of the club, his eyes landed on Loek and the hurt in his eyes made Jesse's stomach twist. No matter how much Jesse hated Loek for abandoning him, no matter how angry he was, it wasn't pleasant to know Loek saw him leaving with another guy.

It just wasn't enough for him to stop himself from going home with a complete stranger.