​​Despite Nick giving Blake the unintentional brush-off, things weren't strange between them in the morning. Blake had gone back to his usual routine of preparing bacon and eggs while singing his heart out, and they had breakfast together. Before departing, Blake had even kissed Nick in the bicycle shed and they'd made plans to meet up for lunch on campus along with Mia, Lara, and Carson.

Nick found himself looking forward to seeing them all again. The gaming nights at the Ace of Spades had been a lot of fun so far, apart from some minor mishaps. And Lara, Carson, and Mia were genuinely nice to hang out with.

The feeling seemed to be mutual. When Mia and Lara saw Nick approaching their picnic table in the grass, they both started waving enthusiastically. That made Carson and Blake also turn around to look and join them with waving.

The sight of four people sitting at a bright yellow picnic table, all greeting him exuberantly made Nick laugh. Suddenly, he couldn't imagine wanting to spend his entire exchange alone anymore. What if he hadn't agreed to go with Lara to that gay bar? He would've never had tension with Alex later, and he likely wouldn't have kissed Blake after that. He'd be alone and miserable without any distractions. That was exactly what he'd wanted when taking the plane to the Netherlands, but Nick was grateful now that he didn't get what he wanted.

The only thing Nick wasn't grateful for, was the group deciding to claim a picnic table right next to the campus football fields. A bunch of guys were currently playing a game, probably also in their break. Nick's heart sank to the floor when he looked at the fields, but he forced himself to look away, keep going, and walk to the picnic table.

"You took your time getting here," Lara said the moment Nick was in earshot. "Sit down. We're signing up for something you're definitely interested in."

"Really? What's that?" Nick asked, climbing into the seat next to Blake.

"Ace of Spades contest, remember?" Carson replied, pointing at his phone on the picnic table. "You'll play several card games in a tournament. If you win, you'll get a night of free drinking with friends."

"If we all join, that's five chances to win the free drinking," Mia added. "Are you in too, Nick?"

"Yeah, sure put me on the list," Nick said. He looked at Mia, but his eyes kept getting pulled to the football game behind Mia. He'd wanted to sit next to Blake, but this was definitely the wrong side of the table for him.

"Well, if Nick is joining, we might as well quit and just watch him crush everyone," Lara said.

"Hey, don't count me out yet, babe."

Blake scoffed, and Lara held up her hands in defeat with a wide smile. "Okay, okay. You have a chance, too. Maybe."

"Maybe?" Blake narrowed his eyes. "Need I remind you that I won every practice round just now?" He pointed at a red deck of cards at the corner of the table.

"Nothing but luck!" Lara replied. "I'll happily take you on again."

"You're on."

Lara reached for the cards and then several things happened at once. In her enthusiasm, Lara accidentally knocked a few cards off of the stack. They got caught by the breeze and flew past Nick. In response, Nick jumped out of his seat and dove after the cards before they could get away. Just as Nick had caught the escaped cards and stood up straight, a football came flying his way.

It had been months since Nick had last played, but his body remembered what to do and moved automatically.

Nick stopped the ball on his chest and then caught it with his foot. In one smooth movement, he kicked the ball back to the guy standing at the edge of the field. A few of the players stuck up their hand as a thank you, and continued their game.

Breathing out deeply, Nick sat back down on the bench and handed the cards to Lara, who looked at him with admiration. And so did Carson.

"Do you play?" Carson asked. "You're pretty good at kicking a ball."

"...I, uh, used to play," Nick reluctantly admitted.

"Yeah, there probably isn't any game Nick isn't good at," Blake cut in. "Most of all: card games. So, Nick, you have to join us now and give me some actual competition."

Lara gasped indignantly. "How dare you!"

"He's probably right you know," Carson teased Lara, to which she jokingly slapped his arm.

Blake reached for Nick's hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. Nick squeezed back and mouthed a thank you to Blake while the others discussed what card game they wanted to play.

The rest of the break went by uneventfully. Nick won rummy, which nobody was surprised by. Then Mia left for class, and Carson and Lara followed soon after, leaving Blake and Nick as the last two sitting at the picnic table. Not for long, however. The moment Lara and Carson left, a brawny guy with black hair and sweat glistening on his forehead came jogging up to Nick and Blake.

"Hi," he greeted them. "Sorry to bother you, but I noticed you must've definitely played some football before, am I right?"

Nick knew he could've lied to the guy. But that would probably only raise more questions ('oh wow how are you so good at ball control then?') and more discussions. So, he nodded. "Yeah, I have," he admitted again through gritted teeth.

"Well, if you happen not to have a club right now and you want to join us sometime, our club is called Hades and we're always welcoming new members." The black-haired guy nodded at Blake. "You too, if you'd like."

Blake started laughing. "Thank you for the invite, Hades guy. But no way in hell."

"I'll think about it," Nick said politely, mostly to get the guy off his back and leaving as soon as possible. Thankfully, the 'Hades guy' didn't insist more and with a wave and a "sure, have a nice day" he returned to the football field.

Nick sighed deeply. Blake patted his back.

"Are you okay?"

Nick suppressed the urge to sigh again. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

Blake looked up at the sky, pretending to think. "I don't know, maybe because you like, hate it when people talk or ask about football and you've just been forced to talk about football a few times in a row, and you even got asked to join a team?"

"It's fine," Nick said, but he couldn't look Blake in the eye while he said it. It wasn't just sadness, but mostly guilt. How could he tell the guy he treated like shit for the sake of football in high school that it wasn't fine? That he was sad about losing the team that had bullied him? He had no right whatsoever to complain to Blake.

Blake rubbed Nick's back. "Hey, don't clamp on me again," he said softly. "Talk to me."

Nick pressed his lips together. He made himself turn to Blake. "It's still hard to talk to you about this. I know I apologised. And I know you accepted that apology. But the facts remain that I ignored my teammates treating you like shit because I thought I was going somewhere with football. How can I complain to you that I'm sad about losing that and those friends?"

"Maybe I don't understand exactly why you're sad." Blake shrugged. "But I don't have to understand to know it sucks to lose something you cared about. And besides, I said it before: I've moved past high school, Nick. And so have you."

Nick snorted. "I'd hope so."

They were both quiet for a moment. Blake hand stopped moving on Nick's back.

"Okay, fair enough," Blake eventually spoke up. "If I ask you to not clamp up, I won't either. I was upset about high school, and of course it had an effect on me. But you're definitely not the same person as you were then, and you're not lying about liking me. In fact: you can't even lie to me because your face can be read like a book. Everyone knew when you liked Emma, and I know you like me now."

Embarrassment flooded Nick at Blake's bluntness, but he didn't deny it was true. Like Blake said: he couldn't, even if he wanted to. "I do, uh, like you."

Blake cracked a smile. "And I like that you like me. So put those thoughts that you can't talk to me, or that I'm secretly still mad at you for having been friends with assholes out of your head."

Blake's hand moved up to Nick's shoulder. They looked at each other, and for a moment, Nick forgot where they were. He wanted to kiss Blake, and it seemed Blake felt the same way. He started leaning in. At first he moved slowly, like he was asking whether it was okay with Nick to do this here. But when Nick tilted his head to the side slightly and allowed Blake to scoot closer without protest, Blake went for it. Nick let his eyes flutter shut as he enjoyed the sensation of their lips gently brushing together.

"Over here!" a male voice rang out from the football fields, followed by the sound of a football being punted.

A shudder went through Nick's body at the familiar noises. He pulled away from Blake in a reflex as Matthew and Ethan's faces flashed through his mind. And for a split second, Nick was back on the football field himself. If Matthew and Ethan saw this... If they'd been the players on that field, they would be beating Nick up now, like they'd tried with Sem when he came out.

Nick blinked, and the image was gone. These football players weren't Ethan and Matthew. These football players didn't give a shit. In fact, most of them didn't even look at him and Blake or what they were doing. Nick only noticed that the black-haired guy who'd approached them earlier shot them a curious glance, but there was no hostility in his expression nor body language. He turned his attention back to the game the next moment.

Blake followed Nick's gaze and looked over his shoulder at the football players. Then he smiled at Nick as he took his hand. "Seems like lots of different people move on from their childishness when they go to college, doesn't it?" he said. He tugged on Nick's hand. "Speaking of moving on: let's go. We have class and studying to do."