Free Fearless by Chris O'Guinn

down.
    “Excuse me?”
    As I’ve said, sometimes I don’t know when to back down. “I said, if you weren’t so busy checking out Chad’s ass then you would have heard the instructions.”
    Jimmy stared coldly at me for a long moment, giving me plenty of time to apologize to my bones for the breaks they were about to receive. Then he suddenly broke out in a (pretty cute) grin and elbowed his friends.
    “Funny guy.” He walked past me, shoving me into the lockers. “Maybe you’re not so bad after all.”
    I stared after him as he and his friends walked away, completely shocked. Had I actually survived the encounter without a scratch? It didn’t seem possible. But somehow, I’d given Jimmy the idea that I wasn’t a total loser. Now I just had to somehow keep that going.
    “So,” Liam said as we walked to his house. “How does it feel to be one of the jocks?”
    I shook my head. “No one would ever mistake me for a jock. My arms are like noodles.”
    “But you’re in , man,” Liam said. “That’s got to feel awesome.”
    “It’s not awesome.”
    “What went wrong?”
    “Oh, no, nothing. It’s just…. Okay, this is stupid, but I’ve been trying to not use the word awesome unless it really is.”
    “Oh, sorry, professor.”
    I shrugged, smiling in a way that felt like it was radiating up from my toes. “It was pretty cool, that’s for sure.”
    “Okay, but now for the really important question. Who’s the hottest guy on the team?”
    “Jimmy,” I said without hesitation.
    “Really? With that nose?”
    “What’s wrong with his nose?”
    “It looks like a hawk’s beak.”
    “If you say so.”
    “I would think Marcus would be the better choice—you know, if you were into dudes.”
    I blushed, thinking of Marcus in the shower. “He’s pretty cute. Jimmy has a cuter butt though.”
    “Oh, an ass man, I see.”
    I really couldn’t believe I was talking to Liam about guys I thought were hot. It was completely surreal.
    “How about mine? Do I have a cute butt?”
    “Oh Jesus,” I sighed. I was in such a good mood, though, that I found myself daringly craning back around to check out his ass. “Very nice.”
    Liam laughed happily. “That’ll go great on my dating profile—cute butt certified by genuine gay guy.”
    “Maybe even with a stamp of approval, like the USDA beef thing.”
    That made Liam laugh even harder. “So, are you going to ask Jimmy out?”
    I gaped at him. “Are you insane?”
    “Sometimes. Why? Don’t you want to go out with him?”
    “Kinda, sorta, but that’s not all there is to it. He’s probably straight.”
    “So, he might say no? Dude, that’s not a good reason to not ask someone out.”
    “It’s not about him saying no.” Though, of course, even that idea was crushing. “It’s about him beating the crap out of me for thinking he could be gay.”
    Liam looked troubled by that. “Anyone who would do that is a moron. I’d be totally flattered if some gay guy asked me out.”
    “Well, most guys aren’t like that.”
    “Are you sure?”
    Where did he keep getting these confounding questions? “Pretty sure, and I’m too much of a coward to find out otherwise.”
    “Look, dude, I know this sounds morbid coming from me, but you can’t live your life being afraid. Live every day, you know? Tomorrow you could get hit by a bus or whatever.”
    That brought us back around to the subject we’d been avoiding. I decided to avoid it a little bit longer.
    “If I was just going to ask some dude out, like, just out of the blue—which I totally am not—it wouldn’t be Jimmy.”
    “Ah ha!” he crowed. “So, who’s the lucky dude who has your eye?”
    I wasn’t sure he could be trusted with my crush, but I supposed I had to stop thinking that way about everything. “This guy in my science class, Zach.”
    “Zach Snyder?”
    “Ew, gross.” Snyder was a mouth-breathing Neanderthal who was always picking his nose in class—when he wasn’t