nothing but positive: reports that Wes Van de Hoek was back on the team, that the team was back in sync, that they were united again.
There was nothing about Wes’s attack, though. Wes had asked to keep that out of the papers, and the hospital and the team administration agreed to respect his wish for privacy. The police were still searching for the guys who’d attacked him, combing hospital admissions across the state for anyone coming in with fight-related injuries after that night. “It will be enough to win,” Wes had told Justin, late at night, holding each other in bed. “To shove their faces in it. To prove that they tried to put me down, but they couldn’t. That we came back as a team, and we won together.”
“They need to go to prison,” Justin had said, tracing his thumb over the bruise beneath Wes’s jaw.
Wes had kissed him, and that was the last they said about it that night.
Now the whole state seemed to be waiting to see what would happen. Was this going to be a win, or another collapse? Could a team shatter and reform, return to the heights of glory that they had touched together? Justin could feel the expectancy inside the stadium.
“What are they wearing?” Nick asked as they watched the team flood the center of the field. “What’s on everyone’s wrists?”
Justin’s heart stopped, and he grabbed his dad’s arm. “Dad, they’re wearing rainbow sweatbands.” Every one of Wes’s teammates had a rainbow sweatband on his wrist, big and bold and bright against the white of their uniforms.
Wes broke off from the team and headed for the stands. He ran right to Justin and Nick and held up his hand, reaching for Justin. Justin reached back. Wes brought Justin’s hands to his lips and kissed his fingers. “I love you, mon coeur,” Wes shouted over the roar of the stadium. He pounded his chest and pointed right at Justin as he backed away, running to his team as they huddled up.
The entire thing had been captured by fifteen television cameras and played over and over on the jumbotron. Wes kissing Justin’s fingers, Justin gazing at him, his love for Wes obvious from a single glance. How had they ever hid anything, if that’s how he looked at Wes? Heart emojis surrounded the image on the big screen, and the kiss cam logo appeared in the corner.
Wes and the team were jumping up and down on the sideline and psyching themselves up. Wes got in the center of the huddle, facing his teammates, his friends, and shouted, “Are we gonna do this? Are we gonna win? Are we gonna show the world who we are?” Each time, the team roared back, “Yes!”
He and Colton walked out for the coin toss. Vanderbilt’s head captain shook Wes’s hand, then Colton’s, and smiled at them both. Texas won the coin toss and chose to start with the ball, and after the kickoff, Wes, Colton, and the rest of the guys took the field.
On the opening play, Colton fired a missile to Wes running a crossing route, and Wes one-two stepped, spun, and broke away from the linebacker and the safety. He had nothing in front of him but open field, and he sprinted down the sideline as the Vanderbilt defense tried to catch him. He ran the ball all the way into the end zone as the stadium went wild. Horns blared, and the marching band roared out the school’s fight song. The student section bellowed, chanting Wes’s name as bucket drums and cymbals clashed with the stadium’s touchdown music. In the end zone, Wes spread his arms wide and stared at the sky, then turned and pointed down the field to Colton and the rest of his team, cheering for him at the line of scrimmage.
On the sideline, the team all clapped Wes on the back—except for Colton, who body-slammed him in a ferocious bear hug. A television camera got up in their faces, trying to capture the moment for ESPN, and Colton turned right into the lens, shouting, “Texas is back, baby!”
By late in the second quarter, it was over. Texas had put thirty-one points on the board, and Vanderbilt had three. Wes was pulled from the game just before the half. He was given a headset and a clipboard and he glued himself to Coach Young’s side. When the teams came back after halftime, Colton was next to Wes, both of them watching the game