Back in my room, I sat down on my bed and tried my best to keep from hyperventilating. Nobody else—outside of my family—had ever said those words to me. They felt frightening and powerful and true. I no longer had the luxury of writing this off as an indulgent fantasy on my part. Someone was in love with me. Mark Olsen was in love with me.

Was I in love with him back?

Yes, of course I was. I’d known that from the start, but what was I supposed to do about it? Should I tell him? We’d only been dating about a month, but we’d also had all that personal and intimate alone time in the weeks prior…

No, I decided. I needed to work my way up to that. I didn’t want the words to be forced or even slightly tinged with obligation. I’d tell him when the time was right. But in the meantime, I had to tell somebody.

I took a deep breath and pulled out my phone. I X’ed out of our earlier conversation as quickly as I could and scrolled through my contacts. My eyes caught briefly on Sal. His number was saved under the word “Captain” with an emoji that was smiling so widely that it looked painful; that was Sal in a nutshell. Anyway, he had hinted that he already knew something was up with me, and he was always ridiculously nice. He was diplomatic and progressive and always kept the peace between all of the guys on the team. Plus, his girlfriend was an absolute angel. She was always picking me up healthy high-protein snacks from the vegan grocery store she shopped at. Maybe telling them wouldn’t be such a big deal.

I have a boyfriend, I typed. It’s serious.

My finger hovered over the send key, but I couldn’t even get close to pressing down without my hands shaking. I deleted the draft and went back to my contacts.

Okay, so I obviously wasn’t ready to take a leap of faith and come out to somebody new. That narrowed my options back down to my mom and Peter. It only took me half a second to decide between the two. Considering our history, Peter deserved to know about this anyway.

However, that brought up a different question entirely. What on Earth was I supposed to say? Peter and I had never technically dated, so there wasn’t any real need to break up with him, but we’d also been hung up on each other for so many years. We had history. A lot of it, and it was all really complicated and weird. I still wanted Peter and I to be cool and for us to take a crack at just regular old friendship, but that sentiment probably wouldn’t be conveyed very well through text.

You got a minute? I asked, figuring this was probably the best place to start.

I waited a few minutes and when he didn’t get back to me right away, I stood up, went over to my desk and dug out my biology textbook. Emotional crisis or not, I still needed to finish taking notes on chapter nineteen. I set my phone down beside me and got to work.

Twenty minutes went by. I was so busy learning about buoyancy of different types of matter that I was startled into dropping my pen when my phone finally buzzed. After taking a moment to collect myself, I snatched it up and looked at Peter’s response.

Yeah. What’s up?

I took a deep breath. It was now or never. I pressed the little green call button next to his name and waited.

“Hello?” Peter answered on the first ring. His voice sounded muffled and unsure. He was also a little out of breath. I didn’t have his team’s schedule memorized or anything, but if I had to guess, I’d say there was a good chance that he was somewhere on the east coast right now where it was later, and thus was getting ready for a game.

“Hey,” I said. “I, uh, wanted to tell you something, but I thought it might be weird over text.”

Peter was silent for a moment. All I could hear was his breathing and the sounds of people talking in the background.

“Hold on,” he said finally. There was the whooshing sound of motion on the line and then the background noise slowly started to fade as Peter moved someplace more private.

“Okay,” he said. “What did you want to tell me?”

I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling. There was no going back now.

“I’m dating someone,” I said finally.

“A guy?” he asked. He didn’t sound mad, only curious.

“Yeah,” I breathed.

There was a slight pause and then,

“Okay. Good to know.”

I sat back up slowly.

“That’s it?”

“What do you want me to say?” he hissed. “Gonna miss fucking you every once in a while? Doesn’t seem very appropriate, does it?”

I sighed.

“No. It doesn't. I’m sorry. I just thought it was something you should know...and I don’t exactly have anyone else to tell.”

Peter took a moment to digest this.

“It’s all good, C. Thank you for telling me, and for what it’s worth, I really am happy for you. Is he a good guy?”

I couldn’t help but smile.

“Thank you. He really is.”

“Good. You deserve one of those.” Peter sucked in a loud breath. “Just...be careful, okay? I still want to play against you in the league one day.”

“I will,” I promised. “Have a good game.”

We hung up. I set my phone aside and replayed the conversation in my head. It had gone so much better than I’d imagined. No matter how small, Peter’s easy acceptance felt like a victory.

I went back to doing my homework in peace.