*There is use of homophobic slurs and crude language in this chapter*

They got home on Friday night and they were back to school next Monday. 

Their pre-spring break normality didn't see much of a change in the days that followed, except for the occasional whispered 'I love you' when they said goodbye, or a giddy text with the same words before they went to bed. Carter even stopped caring when his friends called him out for smiling down at his phone or daydreaming in class. He was happy.

"Hey, Parrish," Bobby Gonzalez, the inopportune lineman, called out from his locker, before slipping a clean shirt on. His head emerged from the collar with a nasty grin. "Heard your family spent the break with Coach's family."

Carter glanced at Joey, who had probably been the one to share that. The sandy-haired boy didn't even raise his head, oblivious to any unintentional wrong-doing from his part.

"I bet Nancy Mason loved that," Scott Meyers snickered. "Kid's got a major boner for you."

Carter's heart felt like it dropped to his stomach and ascended to his mouth, simultaneously. He felt a tingle of hot, white anger tickle down his spine.

"What?" Bobby guffawed. "You still got your panties in a twist?"

Scott, who was still shirtless, propped his elbow on Bobby's shoulder with a grin. "I'm starting to think he actually likes the little faggot."

Carter wished he could say he reacted to that, that he didn't freeze. But it was Seth who acted. He shut his locker with a thunderous bang, turning heads and quieting shallow chatter around the locker room. Joey's eyebrows drew in, confused and uneasy.

"What did you just say?" Seth asked, under his breath, taking a single step toward his teammates.

Chaz Wheeler came in from behind a row of lockers and stood close to the other two without lingering his hesitant gaze on Carter and Seth for too long.

"Guys, I think—"

"Easy there, Queens," Bobby warned loudly, cutting Wheeler off.

Seth didn't look the slightest bit intimidated. Carter could feel the tense energy oozing from his body. Like a Rottweiler ready to pounce.

"Say that word again and you'll find my fist going down your throat," Seth said, in a strangely calm voice.

Scott screeched with boisterous laughter. "What? Did he suck your dick too?" He tapped Bobby's chest with his hand. "Little weirdo is building his own personal army of defenders."

"Shut up," Carter spat. He nearly cringed at the weakness in his own tone.

Scott stepped forward. "Or what?" He practically whispered. A slow sneer curled around his lips and he opened his mouth to spit the word, "Faggot."

Seth pounced.

Carter's eyes nearly bulged out of his face as he watched Scott hit the lockers behind him, Seth's weight pinning him in place. Bobby moved to pull him off, but Seth's elbow collided with his mouth and he staggered back.

A desperate voice in Carter's head yelled he should do something. Those were his teammates, his best friend. He was supposed to be the captain, the example, the role model. But his feet were glued to the floor.

Joey and Chaz jumped to action instead. Carter gulped as he watched Wheeler hold Scott back, while Joey dragged Seth away from him.

"Cut it out," Joey yelled, hands on Seth's shoulders. "Are you fucking serious? Picking up fights in the locker room?"

Joey's light eyes swung from Seth, to Carter, to the other three, and back to Carter. There was a hint of outrage in that look. Maybe at Carter's incapability to do something, maybe at the fact he had no real idea of what was going on.

"Let's go outside," Chaz mumbled, pulling Scott's arm.

Scott jerked his hand away, keeping his scowl burning into Seth's face. Bobby put one hand on Scott's shoulder, the other rubbing his own jaw, while he pulled his friend along behind him. Chaz looked after them with an edge of disbelief. His eyes found Carter, shining with apprehension, before he followed the other two outside.

"What the hell was that?" Joey demanded, looking at Seth. When he didn't get an answer, he turned his stare on Carter. 

Carter tried to swallow the lump in his throat. He was ashamed for not taking action—not when they started insulting Johnny, not when Seth had to jump in his defense. He felt diminished by his passiveness. Scott's voice rang inside his head, viciously. 

Faggot.

Joey let out a loud, impatient huff. "Nobody cares to explain?"

Carter saw Seth seething, through the corner of his eye. He was always like that after a fight. Even if this one hadn't truly blown out.

"Joey, please, just leave it," Carter murmured.

The eyes of their other teammates had just started to turn back to their own business. Carter didn't want to tempt their ears by explaining anything. He was, however, surprised to see something akin to hurt flash in Joey's face.

"Fine," he said, shaking his head.

Carter didn't try to mend the situation as Joey grabbed his stuff and left. Instead, he sat on the bench next to Seth, waiting for the locker room to clear. Once they were alone, they got up and left. They expected to find an open way. Instead, Bobby, Scott and Chaz were waiting for them.

Chaz stayed put, leaning against the wall with a sort of reluctant look on his face, when he saw them come out. Carter saw his eyes fall to the floor as he tightened his arms over his chest, while his friends stepped forward.

"What are you trying to prove?" Seth asked impatiently at the two of them.

Bobby sneered. "Funny. I could ask you the same thing."

"Go home, Bobby. Ice that jaw."

Scott pushed Seth back with two hands on his chest before he could step past them. Carter tightened his hold on the strap of his duffel bag, watching Seth drop his to the floor.

"Are you asking me to finish what I started in there?" Seth hissed, stepping into Scott's personal space.

"Always such a talker," Scott taunted.

Seth shoved him back, much more harshly than Scott had. Before Scott could recover from his stumble, Bobby was already launching his weight down on Seth. They seemed to move in a blur next. Carter could only make out Seth's fist connecting with Bobby's nose with a disturbing crunch, Scott's elbow digging into Seth's ribs, and Seth's arm smacking the side of his head.

Like Carter, Chaz had finally stood to attention and appeared to be looking for an angle to intervene and separate them. And, like Carter, he didn't find it in time. 

Carter saw Chaz's eyes widen before he heard the man's voice.

"Stop," Coach Mason boomed.

Seth ceased what he was doing the second he heard it, which meant he couldn't block the punch Bobby had coming his way. Coach grabbed Bobby by his arms, shoving him away. Scott staggered back of his own accord.

Pale blue eyes burned with ice-cold fire. Carter assessed the scene he was in. Seth's tousled hair, ragged breath and red cheekbone, as he rubbed his own knuckles; Bobby's swollen jaw, bloody nose and feverish glare, making him look like an angry bull; Scott's disheveled shaggy hair, crooked stretched-out t-shirt and flushed face, like a lunatic straight off an asylum break out.

Coach seemed to take it all in too, landing his hard gaze on Carter's guilt-ridden figure for a couple of seconds just before he looked between the three highest offenders. He appeared to weight options and compare injuries for the fraction of a moment, before he gave out his orders.

"Wheeler, take Meyers and Gonzalez to the nurse's office. Parrish, Queens, I want you to follow me."