Chapter Text
Ray squints in the May sun, turning the baseball over and over in his hand, feeling like Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. A regular western standoff, staring down the batter across the dusty diamond.
One of the greats, his dad’s voice says, frozen in time. You got this, buddy.
He takes a deep breath and draws his arm back, hurling the ball at a violent speed over the plate. The batter swings & misses, and the umpire calls it.
“STRIKE!”
It’s the fifth player Ray has struck out this game. The best ball he’s ever played. He feels strong and powerful and proud, but more than anything, he’s fighting his way to the end of the day. Pete’s flight lands in six hours, and even though he’s disappointed he wasn’t able to be here for the game, it’s seeing his face that drives Ray forward.
“Let’s fucking GO, Garraty!” he hears Barkovitch scream from the stands, pulling his attention. He’s standing to startled looks by Collie, Harkness, and Stebbins who, like Ray, didn’t seem to know the depth of Barkovitch’s passion for baseball. Olson gives Ray an enthusiastic thumbs up, flocked by Clementine on one side and Art on the other. Jan sits at Art’s other side, throwing Ray heart hands.
Ray’s team goes on to wipe the floor with their competitor, and the celebration in the stands that follows is a high that he wasn’t prepared for. He can’t help but think of where he was a year ago – the slow and fearful march towards college with nothing and no one, feeling the unstoppable disconnect from the people he’d known all his life. He’d never have imagined the ones that would be here now. Showing up for him. Showing up for each other.
Trailing behind his team on their way back to the locker room, Ray is silently mourning the one thing that’s missing when a voice instantly draws his heart out of his chest.
“Not too bad, Garraty.”
His head whips around to where Pete is standing just on the other side of the chain link fence, smiling. Self-assured.
“You asshole,” Ray exclaims, racing towards the fence’s gate with a start.
“You didn’t think I’d miss your game, did you?” Pete says, his eyes following Ray and traveling over him from head to toe. “I knew you’d look too damn good in that outfit–”
Ray cuts him off, pulling him close and nestling his face into his shoulder. As Pete’s return got closer, Ray had been having thoughts about what the people on his team would think when they saw them together. Sports culture isn’t always kind to guys who like guys – Ray knew and saw that long before Pete – but in the moment, he’s not thinking about anyone else. Pete’s back for good, and all Ray can do is hold him tightly and hope that he’s never away for that long again.
“Fuck, I missed you,” Ray sighs, kissing him before pulling back enough to get a good look at him. “Come see everyone. They’ll be so glad you’re back.”
“Oh, they know I’m here. Saw ‘em all beforehand.”
“Why didn’t you sit with them?”
“And distract you? Ruin your shiny new reputation? What kinda man would that make me?” He backs Ray closer to the fence, planting a line of soft kisses down the side of his neck. Between it and the leftover adrenaline from the game, Ray has started seeing stars by the time Pete pulls away.
“Olson already got my keys off your desk, I’m goin’ to meet ‘em at my car. We’re goin’ to eat, go get dressed.” He squeezes his hand, which Ray reluctantly lets go of.
“Pete,” Ray calls out.
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
The words still light up Pete’s face in a way that makes Ray’s entire being vibrate. “I love you, Garraty,” he says. “Now get the fuck outta here, everyone’s waitin’ for you.”
—
“You’re a little bit of a beast, huh, Garraty? You could fuckin’ kill someone with that arm,” Collie says, taking a sip of his drink. Their ten-person table takes up an entire corner of the restaurant, which is busy even for a Friday night.
“Collie’s right, Ray. That was kinda hot,” Clementine chimes in, to an eyeroll from Olson.
“Alright, alright. Yes, good job, dreamboat,” Olson huffs. “Listen, now that we’re all here, I got a proposal.” He pulls out a piece of paper and unfolds it. It’s a rental listing.
“House for rent. Right up the street from campus,” Olson says, pointing to the rental cost at the top of the page. “Lease starts like a week before school does. It’s pretty big, and if we all split it, it’s way less expensive than livin’ on campus.”
“Well, minus us,” Jan says, pointing to herself and Clementine. “We get to move into the Gamma Phi house in the fall, so you boys are on your own.”
Harkness adjusts his glasses and snatches the paper, holding it between himself and Stebbins to read before passing it across the table to Collie and Barkovitch. Ray and Pete lean in to look too.
“I barely got enough money from home for my first year,” Barkovitch mumbles, taking out his phone to calculate the rent divided by eight. “This could work, if you’re serious. If it’s… okay that I come.”
“The more the merrier,” Olson says. “We’ll all be on our best fuckin’ behavior, I’m sure. Who else is in?”
After nearly four years of long distance, Harkness and Stebbins had agreed to live apart their first year of college while they learned how to spend time together in person more regularly. But, now that that’s over, Harkness is chomping at the bit to move in with him. Collie’s in, too.
“How ‘bout it, Ray?” Pete asks. “Roommates?”
Ray thinks back to the day they met. Too bad we couldn’t have landed together, but someone’s gotta keep these two in check.
If only he knew.
—
A week later, with finals said and done and their rooms cleaned out into the car in a pile so high they can barely see out the back window, Ray and Pete make the drive back to the Garraty’s house once again. Pete rolls the window down when they get to the highway, filling the car with the soft breeze of early summer. Glancing every few seconds at Pete’s arms in his cutoff tank top with a humiliating hum in his chest, Ray has never been more grateful for the return of warm weather.
“You weren’t kiddin’ about her gardening, huh?” Pete says as they pull into the driveway, where the flowers at the top of the yard are in full bloom. When they get out of the car, Ray heads directly for the house.
“You gonna leave me to unload this car by my damn self or somethin’?” Pete asks, catching Ray’s hand and pulling him in.
“We’ve been driving for like, three hours. Let’s go in for a bit first, it’s hot,” Ray whines.
“I’ve been driving for three hours, princess. But something is hot, I can tell you that.” Pete snakes an arm around Ray’s waist and holds him gently against the car, pressing a kiss to his cheek, then his lips, then his neck.
They’re startled by the clearing of a throat a few yards away and look up to see Ginny on the porch, one arm crossed and the other giving a gentle wave. Pete cringes, quickly putting some distance between him and Ray. Ginny only laughs as she trots down the porch steps, pulling Pete into a hug.
“It’s good to see you, honey,” she chirps, holding him tightly. “Ray tells me you did exceptionally well at your program. I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
“Thank you, ma’am. Now that the semester’s just about over, I’m gonna get a job lined up so I can hopefully stay somewhere close by this summer. Thank you, though, for havin’ me in the meantime.”
“Well, Pete, I already talked to Ray, but I wanted to be the one to ask you,” Ginny says, glancing at Ray. “You were nothing but a lovely houseguest over the holidays, and I would love to have you stay for the summer. If you’d like.”
Pete laughs awkwardly, hesitating. “That is… so kind, Mrs. Garraty, but that’s over three months. I can’t ask that of you.” Ginny waves him off.
“Honey, we loved having you around. Ray especially,” she teases, bumping Ray with her shoulder. He blushes and rolls his eyes. “Please. Save yourself the rent. Stay with us.”
Pete looks from her to Ray, who shrugs expectantly. “If you’re absolutely sure, ma’am. That’d be real nice. Thank you.”
“Good,” Ginny says, hugging him again and then Ray. “Bring your stuff in. Basement’s still set up.”
When Ginny returns to the house, Pete shifts his attention back to Ray. “Are you really sure about that?”
Ray frowns, anxious. “Did you… not like staying? Over break?”
“Oh God, Ray, I did. I want to be here. I really, really want to be here with you. I just… I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on you. Or your mom,” Pete responds. “Especially if we’re gonna do the apartment in the fall, like Olson said. You should have a nice long break from me before then, so you don’t get sick of me.” As if Ray could possibly take any more space from him than he’s already had to. As if he could ever be anything less than addicted.
“Don’t… I wouldn’t be worried about that. Honest,” Ray says.
In a perfect world, I wake up next to you every day until the end of time.
But he’ll save that for another day.