Ninth inning, p.1
Ninth Inning, page 1
© Copyright 2017 by Van Cole All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Ninth Inning
Gay First Time Romance
By: Van Cole
Table of Contents
Foreword
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Foreword
Will McVitch is one of the star players on his baseball team – but he’d never consider himself a celebrity. He’s just an athlete. Why people are even interested in his personal life, he has never really understood – so when it turns out that a new member of the team, Canadian import Gabriel Marten, has a crush on him already, he can barely comprehend that Gabe even knows who he is.
The fact that he’s straight and Gabe is gay barely occurs to him, at least for a little while.
As for Gabe’s part, he’s frustrated that this is even an issue. When he got the offer to play for this team, he was thrilled to be getting a spot on a professional US team. His career means the world to him. It was just the cherry on the cake that he’d be playing alongside long-time crush Will – and in the warm California sun to boot. But as it turns out, Will is even more appealing in person, whether he’s straight or not.
Tensions in the team are running high, and media interest is spiralling. But most important of all is how Will and Gabe feel in themselves. If they can’t work that out, then everything else crumbles – and they’re out at the first base, never mind the last.
Ninth Inning
Chapter One
Will
Every practice was hard work – but out here in the blistering August heat, Will could feel the sweat dripping down the side of his face and the sun pounding into the back of his neck even stronger than he could feel the searing ache in his muscles. It was almost impossible to comprehend staying out here for any longer to train more, but he just didn’t have a choice.
“Fuck,” he said, a bitter outburst shot out at nobody in particular. “I can’t do this much longer.”
“Ah, grow up.”
He grinned across at his teammate Oliver. Will hadn’t known that he was standing there – but then, Oliver was quick enough on the field. Why shouldn’t he be quick at practice too, even in weather like this? “Like you’re enjoying it. You’re sweating like a vicar next to a whore.”
Oliver gave a raucous laugh, shoving him in the shoulder. Even just having him close felt hotter; Will grimaced and took a few steps over for his water. It was too warm to cool him down by drinking it now – but he could still tip it over his head.
“What are you?” Oliver shot at him. “A fuckin’ dog? You know coach is going to have your ass for looking like that in front of the new teammate.”
“Ah, shit.” Will had forgotten they were meeting the new guy today. None of them had recognized him by name. Supposedly, he was a big-shot in the Canadian academic leagues, and now he was moving to the US to join their big-league baseball team. Will wasn’t convinced that the kid would be able to keep up, and he wasn’t the only one – but still, Oliver was right. Coach would want them making a good impression on him, and looking like a drowned rat probably wouldn’t do that.
That being said, sweating like a bitch from doing drills in the California sun probably wasn’t the best look either. This new kid was just going to have to deal with what he saw.
“You know, Tony looked him up. Apparently he made waves in Canada doing an interview with some gay magazine.”
“Huh.”
Will didn’t have a problem with gay people in general – or gay athletes, specifically. As far as he knew, nor did Ollie. As for the rest of the team, he couldn’t say. He certainly wouldn’t want to be an out gay player when the media came knocking, or in front of the traditionally-minded fans.
People could be pretty closed-minded in sports. Frankly, they’d probably see some of that themselves; conservative pundits were going to want to know exactly how they felt having a gay guy on their team.
If he even was gay, that is. It wasn’t unheard of for a good-looking straight man to do gay magazines these days. It made sense to broaden your appeal however you could, right? Even if that meant being a pinup for men as well as women.
He screwed up his face, glancing over the other end of the field. Sometimes, media approached to try and shoot pictures of their practices. If that was the case today, then they could fuck off; Will didn’t want to be photographed looking like this. He was pretty sure he looked like he was about to die of heatstroke and drown at the same time – if that was even possible.
However, as the figure continued to approach, Will quickly realized it wasn’t a paparazzo. There was no camera in his hands, for one thing. For another, he had the recognizable build of an athlete, and workout clothes. Clean ones, too – not stained with sweat like the rest of them. What Will wouldn’t give for a change of clothes himself right now. After an ice-cold shower? Shit.
Of course, there were more immediate things to think about right now. This had to be their new teammate – and like the rest of his team, Will found his curiosity a perfectly good excuse to stop working out and watch his approach.
If Tony was right and he had done a gay magazine, then Will figured he understood why the gay magazine wanted him. The new guy was slender but well-toned; his skin was bronzed off, even without a slick of sweat from the sun. His hair was a cool blond, light enough to lift away from his eyes as he walked. He could do with a haircut, but it kind of suited him to be windswept. Quite noticeably in the sunlight that made it shine a little, a thin pale scar stretched vertical from the tip of his left eyebrow all the way down to his jawline.
“Gentlemen,” said coach, hands on his hips. “I’d tell you to stop working, but I can see your lazy asses already have. This is your new teammate. I’d like to introduce Gabriel Marten.”
“Oh – Gabe’s just fine,” he insisted. His voice was softer than Will had been expecting. He knew you weren’t supposed to make assumptions like this, but he definitely sounded gay. There was an effeminate quality to his tone – an almost flirtatious twitch in the corner of his lips as he squinted against the sun and glanced around the crowd of his new teammates. “Nice to meet you all.”
Unfortunately, however, Tony’s story about the gay magazine seemed to have spread. A couple of Will’s teammates didn’t look particularly friendly towards him – and sure, it might be the sun making them moody, but Will doubted it. He knew the kind of narrow-minded jerks he worked with. Great players, but they weren’t his friends. Finally, he couldn’t take the awkward silence anymore, and stepped forward himself to offer his hand.
“Don’t mind the sweat,” he joked. “Won’t poison you. I’m Will. Good to have you with us.”
He still didn’t imagine the guy would bring much skill to the table. He was probably just a reasonably good addition for a cheap price – but in fairness, Will hadn’t seen him play yet. Maybe he was good. Even if he was awful, though, he deserved a better welcome than this. If it was upsetting to him, though, then Gabe didn’t show it. His smile was warm as he took Will’s hand in a surprisingly firm shake.
“Hi, Will. You’ll forgive me if I wipe my hand after, I hope.”
“Eh – fuck off. It’s hot out here.”
Will grinned at him, backing off as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. Apparently, he’d broken some barrier that everybody else had been waiting to cross. Though some of his grumpier-looking teammates continued to hold back, others went to offer their hands for him to shake.
It was a shame that they were all so wary that they needed somebody else to do it first, but… hey. At least they were being nice now. It wasn’t like they were going to win by treating each other like aliens.
“Still ready to fuckin’ die,” Will told Ollie, dragging his eyes away from the new guy. He didn’t need an audience as he met his new team. Anyway, what was Will looking at? He’d seen people shake hands before. “You think our insurance covers heatstroke from coach forcing us to do drills out here?”
“Don’t be such a pussy.”
As they continued their exercise, though, with Gabe Marten’s gaze light on them as he spoke to coach, Will found that he couldn’t resume focus. Whether it was the heat or the company, he didn’t know – but he did keep having the distinct sensation of being watched.
Shit. Maybe he had more in common with Tony and co. than he thought. Obviously he didn’t care whether Gabriel was gay or not, but the fact that he was imagining the new guy staring at him… well, wasn’t that a kind of homophobia in itself?
In any case, he felt relieved in more ways than one when the end of practice finally rolled in. He could do with a nice shower, and a fresh set of clothes – and with driving away from this godforsaken field so he could think straight.
Maybe literally.
Chapter Two
Gabriel
It would be naive to think that homophobia had completely disappeared from sport, after all. That would be a long process, even in progressive places like California. After all, these teammates came from all over the United States. They could all have been picked for the team straight out of the heart of the most traditional towns in Texas; there was no telling until they looked at him.
Some of them didn’t even want to shake his hand. Or was he being paranoid?
Most of them seemed okay, in any case. If there were a few that didn’t seem to like him, whether they had guessed his sexuality or read about it or simply didn’t like strangers – well, that didn’t describe the rest of the team. It was a minority. In fact, a couple of the guys seemed very nice indeed.
Namely Will McVitch, who had approached first. Gabe recognized him, of course. Any baseball fan would… and he wasn’t exactly rough on the eyes. It was even truer in person. His caramel-brown hair was slick with sweat, swept back out of his face to reveal those dark, dark eyes.
Even in such a state, he was impossibly handsome – and just Gabriel’s type, too. He had nice toned arms, but not too big; he’d still fit neatly into a suit, even if he could easily pick Gabe up and throw him around. Not that this was an appropriate time to think about that. In fact, no time was appropriate to think about that. They were teammates now. He couldn’t continue to have a celebrity crush on him.
Still. It was kind of intoxicating to be up close, and to feel the touch of his skin as they shook hands. What a rush. He just hoped he could get a handle on that before they had to start training together.
After all, Gabriel really did want to work hard for this team. His sport and his career meant a lot to him. He suspected it was this passion alone that had made him such an asset to his university team, and why he had seemed such an attractive prospect to be imported to the US league. Maintaining focus was essential in order to make the most of himself out here, and reach his full potential. Maybe he could make waves and prove to be a star player one day; maybe he couldn’t. Either way, he didn’t want to squander that talent and ambition on a stupid crush.
He also didn’t want to give homophobes any more reason to dislike the idea of having gay men in sport, but that was secondary. Bigotry was a losing battle these days; even if the fight was slower in these male-dominated, hyper-masculine environments, the prejudice was still dying out. Anybody who still clung to over-traditional ideas, even as they saw the world changing irreversibly around them, could suck his dick.
Just… not literally.
“Alright,” said the coach, bringing Gabe out of his train of thought. “This is where we train most of the time. Just wanted to bring them outside today – get a bit of Vitamin D in their systems while they worked. They complained like little girls the whole day; I’m not sure it was worth it.”
“Lots of little girls seem to like being out in the sun,” Gabe pointed out. “Don’t drag them into it.”
Coach Bellamy laughed, but it seemed polite more than genuine. The guy didn’t appear to be particularly social – but that was okay. His commitment to the team was unquestionable, and so was his talent. “Well… whatever they are, I’ll let ‘em inside tomorrow. That’s when you’ll start too, so be ready.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
He keyed in an entry code - “Remember that; technically I’m not supposed to give it to any of you, but you might need it,” - and led Gabriel inside. The facility was nice and modern, as he expected. Not quite ready to cede the floor yet, the sun streamed in through big bay windows and lit the entire room up so bright that the white walls hurt his eyes. When he wasn’t blinded, though, he figured he’d like the look of this place.
It sure beat the old gym he used to train in.
“You can come in any time. 24 hours a day – seven days a week. Just don’t go too hard… or slack off, I guess, but I can’t see you doing that. I’ll have access to the logs to see how much time you’ve been spending here, so we can address any issues I have with your attendance.”
“Keeping tabs, huh?”
“Last thing I need is you working off stress too much on the cross-trainer and tiring yourself out before a game. No, sir.”
They kept heading through the facility, catching a glimpse of some of the team trailing out across the hall. Gabe couldn’t fight the instinct to look for Will, but he didn’t seem to be among them. Maybe he was still in the shower?
“This way,” said Coach Bellamy. “We’ve got some administrative shit to do, I guess. Get you a key-card and all that.”
“Sure.”
Hopefully, by tomorrow he’d have gotten used to the idea of spending time with Will McVitch. Things were only going to get complicated if he couldn’t calm down.
Then again, if he wasn’t being paranoid about some of his teammates’ tension around him, then maybe things were going to get complicated regardless.
Chapter Three
Will
What Gabe Marten was up to shouldn’t be any of Will’s business. He could settle in by himself, and find his own feet. So long as none of the others gave him any trouble, he’d be okay without Will sticking a hand in.
But no matter how much Will told himself that, his eyes still kept going back to the new kid. He watched the blond as he stepped into his first team practice, looking a little less steady than he had the day before. Will kept an eye on him when he stood in the corner of the changing room, guarded and uncertain. He made a special attempt to greet him every day, and to say goodbye.
It felt intrusive, in a way. Will didn’t understand why he was so bothered. Perhaps there was some part of him that remembered being new here, even if he was never seen as quite as different as Gabriel was. He was lucky enough to be able to bond with the team over girls and beers and… whatever else. Gabe didn’t seem to have that ability. Sure, the girls were out – but he seemed to be keeping himself at a distance from the group.
On the day of Gabe’s first press event as a member of the team, Will started to get an idea of why that might be.
It should have been like any other event. Of course the press always paid special attention to new additions. They had when Will started – and when Ollie had started, and probably every other player before them. Sport didn’t have as much of a cult of celebrity as other industries; they weren’t treated like rock stars or Hollywood actors. Even so, people liked to get to know the players they were cheering on. There was some expectation that you would reveal something of yourself to your supporters.
As such, whoever got paired with Gabriel would probably have an easy time of it. They’d just have to sit there and nod and smile – answer a few basic questions about how training was going and how it was exciting to have such a talented new player, which was the kind of response you could memorize and keep on tap. Gabe would be the one doing most of the work. When Tony approached Will in the conference hall for this favor, then, Will knew there had to be something to it.
“Listen, man,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. “You’re okay with Gabriel Marten, right?”
“Sure,” said Will. It seemed like an odd question. Wasn’t everybody? Nobody had outright argued with him or anything. “Why?”
“Well, I’m paired with him for these interviews,” Tony said, shifting his weight. Was he nervous? Antsy? Will had never seen him look so uncomfortable – and Tony looked a little uncomfortable every time he wore a suit like this, so that was saying something. “I just… don’t know him. I don’t know. When they ask me how it’s going I feel like I got nothing’. It’s going to sound like we’ve got no unity. You wanna… you know. Switch out?”
