The first friend Ray finds outside of the swim team doesn’t start well. It happens because Gerald—ravenous after swimming, forgets his shoes in the locker room. Ray still waits for the guys to leave before he takes his shower, so the locker room is empty. Just him, and on that very Tuesday, Gerald’s sneakers. 

Today’s swim meet was brutal. Ray feels the ache of every push and pull in his muscles now that he’s had time to cool down. His skin feels too tight even under the sting of hot water from the showerhead. He exhales, face tipped upwards to feel the water on his face. 

Ray washes quickly and thinks about skipping team dinner. He’s tired. Though there’s no one in the locker room anymore, it’s habit to keep the towel wrapped around his body. 

Footsteps outside the room makes Ray jump and reach for his hoodie. His hair is still dripping slightly, but they don’t matter more than his need to be clothed. Ray just about slips into his hoodie when the stranger comes in.

He grabs his bag and turns to leave. There’s a brush of eye contact, enough to see that the stranger is tall with striking green eyes. Ray leaves in a hurry, heart pounding like he’s just swum laps. He just doesn’t appreciate that kind of surprise is all.

~

“Where are your shoes, dude?” 

Toes wiggling in flip-flops, Gerald suddenly recalls that he has a lab session for his chemistry major and his forgotten sneakers were currently his only pair of covered-toe shoes. “Fuck,” he says and calls his friend, Evans. 

Evans, a physio major whose classes run in the same building and is currently closer to the locker rooms than he is, agrees to fetch the shoes for a free meal. He pushes past the door to the locker room, humming to himself. It’s where Evans sees him. A man, hair wet from his shower and pulling on a blue hoodie. He startles when he sees Evans and leaves hurriedly, but not before Evans catches a glimpse of dark eyes, fraught with emotion. He thinks he might be able to name that emotion if he could stare into those eyes a little longer.

The shoes are dumped in a corner, which Evans grabs quickly. And there’s a phone on the bench where the cute guy’s stuff had been. He grins and grabs the device.

~

“Hey!”

Ray walks faster.

Evans grabs his arm. The sudden contact shocks Ray into pulling away abruptly. He stares wide-eyed at the stranger from the locker room. 

“Sorry, sorry.” The guy’s hands are raised in surrender. “I didn’t mean to scare you. You forgot your phone.” Ray’s phone is held in one hand. 

It’s returned to him by a cautiously outstretched arm. Ray takes it. “Thank you,” he mutters uncomfortably and leaves in haste. He feels dumb for not knowing how to talk to people, especially objectively good-looking ones. He’s definitely a no-show for dinner tonight.

~

Evans finds Gerald shoving pizza in his face. The rest of the swim team is equally hungry if the amount of chomping is anything to go by. He returns the shoes and helps himself to a slice. 

“Who’s that dude in the locker room?” he nudges Gerald curiously.

“What dude?” Gerald stares blankly.

Evans huffs a laugh. “You know, the short one with pretty, dark eyes.” 

Gerald blinks. “Ray?” His eyes widen. “Ray!” He jumps to his feet. 

Evans sits back in surprise. “His name is Ray?”

“Did he see you?”

Evans nods. “He forgot his phone. I went after him. Why?”

“Shit, okay.” Gerald grabs his bag and shoes. “I gotta go.”

“What? What happened?” Evans looks around bewildered. Zane pats his back sympathetically. 

~

The knock is not particularly welcome when he hears it, but Ray is not one to ignore these things, so he answers the door. Gerald and a bag of food come in. 

“You skipped dinner, so I brought food over.” He starts unpacking the takeout containers onto the dining table. “Don’t skip meals, especially after intensive exercise,” he mother hens. 

Truthfully, after he’d had time to calm down, Ray was feeling a little hungry and debating whether to order delivery. They eat and Gerald fidgets guiltily as Ray finishes the last of his braised chicken. “What?”

“You’re fine, right?” Gerald asks with a frown.

Why wouldn’t he be? “Yes?” 

“Great. Good, okay.”

“I just wanted you to know that I’m really sorry.”

“About what?” Ray asks in confusion. Where is this coming from?

“The locker room,” Gerald grimaces. “It’s just that I forgot my sneakers, and I had a lab practice tomorrow, but I was too hungry, and Evans was closer to the locker room. I forgot you were—you know,” he finishes lamely. 

Ray blinks. So, the stranger in the locker room was called Evans. “It’s fine,” he says—though he’s not sure why his heart skips a beat at the thought of Evans. “I was just surprised.” The frown doesn’t leave Gerald’s face. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine, I swear.”

Gerald stays for a little longer but leaves when Ray reminds him of his lab session the next day. With a name to put to the face, Ray replays the moments he made eye contact with Evans again and again. He exhales, palms pressed to warm cheeks. Having spent a significant chunk of his teenage years at home, he hardly knows how to deal with feelings of romantic notions. Celebrity crushes are very much different from the people one saw in real life after all. Was this even a crush? He’d met Evans exactly once and managed to act like a crazy person when Evans grabbed his arm with long fingers. What if he thought Ray was weird? It would be tragic if he’d already embarrassed himself before they’d had a proper conversation. Ray flops over in bed, face pressed into the pillow, and yells. 

He falls asleep to thoughts of bright, green eyes and big, warm hands holding his arm. And when Gerald tells him about the party, asking if he wants to come, Ray says yes.