Trust

Prologue-2

The game seemed to have ended long ago with the last-minute victory and Justin thought Brad would have should have come outside to the parking lot by now. Rick had left at least a half an hour ago, saying he was fed up waiting and was hungry. The lot was nearly empty save for a handful of cars.

Justin supposed with the victory some of the team might be having an extra celebration. This would put them in an excellent position to be in the playoffs.

He straightened from his position leaning on Brad’s car and walked back to the locker room. The door handle turned easily.

“Brad, are you…”

By his locker, his jeans lowered down to his knees, stood Brad. Kneeling in front of his six-foot-three frame was one of the running backs, Justin forgot his name, working Brad’s hard c**k in and out of his mouth.

Brad glanced Justin’s way at that moment.

“Holy f**k!”

Justin’s stomach lurched and he stumbled, dropping down on one knee. His heart squeezed. Bile rose in his throat.

Somehow he was aware of the running back scrambling to his feet, throwing a worried look at Brad and then running out of the locker room. Puffing out heavy breaths, Brad quickly refastened his jeans.

“Justin…I…What are you doing here?” Brad’s dark hair was tousled and his blue eyes were wide with shock and guilt.

“I came looking for you. To-to find out how much longer you were going to be.” Justin shook his head and grabbed for the nearest locker to hoist himself up. “I can’t do this.”

“Wait,” Brad said. He spoke quickly and his words were slightly slurred. Justin could smell the beer on his breath from where he stood. “That wasn’t what you think you saw.”

Justin couldn’t look Brad in the face. Couldn’t see the shame, the flushed cheeks. He turned away. “I have to get out of here.”

“No.” Brad grabbed his arm. “Justin, please I’m telling you that was nothing.”

Justin shrugged Brad’s hand off. “He had your c**k in his mouth, Brad.”

Brad made a little noise that was half whimper, half sigh. “I’m sorry. It just happened. We didn’t even get that far.”

If he’d kicked Justin in the stomach it wouldn’t have hurt more. Justin clenched his fists and headed for the door that would allow him to escape the suffocating locker room. If only he could so easily escape the sight of Brad getting a blowjob from his teammate.

Brad chased him to the door and threw himself in front of Justin, blocking his exit. “Look, I know how this looks, but I’m telling you it was nothing. It meant nothing. I just had a little to drink. We were celebrating the win. Justin, you and I…we’re together.”

Justin swallowed heavily, shook his head. “Not anymore.”

“You don’t mean that,” Brad said, his expression vaguely panicked.

“Get out of the way, Brad.”

Brad searched his face, his blue eyes drifting over and over again, looking for something, Justin wasn’t sure what.

“You-you weren’t supposed to…”

“Weren’t supposed to come in? Find out? Ever know? Which is it, Brad?”

“I don’t know,” he said, his voice cracking.

“You always do this, don’t you?” Justin whispered, unable to stop the words from coming out.

“Do what?” Brad asked, his voice pained.

“I don’t know what it is about you, Brad, but you have to sabotage everything good in your life. You’ve done that your whole life. You sabotaged that movie deal they wanted to give you because you were such a cute kid. Sabotaged art school. Your football scholarship to Stanford. Sabotaged friendships. Even relationships with your family. The only person who’s been around for a long time is Rick and that’s because he takes your shit.”

“Justin…”

Tears stung Justin’s eyes. “I shouldn’t be surprised, really. But I guess I thought maybe I might be different. I thought you might care about me. But you found a way to sabotage us.”

Brad shook his head. “No.”

“Get out of my way.” Though Brad was larger by quite a bit, Justin must have caught him unprepared, for when Justin shoved Brad, he moved out of the way from the door easily. Justin wrenched it open.

“What about second chances, Justin? Aren’t you the one who told me you believe in second chances?” Brad’s voice was low.

Blinking away tears, Justin nodded. “I thought I did. Goodbye, Brad.”