LUCA
Seattle, Washington.
July.

It's a Thursday.

His dad works early.

Which means the house is quiet by six, and Luca has the place to himself — coffee, the window, the grey Seattle morning doing what it always does.

This is the part of home he actually likes.

The stillness before anyone needs anything from him.

After coffee, Luca swims every morning. No exceptions.

He has a pool at home, but that's only for fun.

Luca heads to the local aquatic center where he normally swims around 7AM.

The same pool he's swum at since he was twelve.

The same lane. The same black line on the bottom.

His times are better than they were in June, which
is the only thing that matters.

He doesn't think about SCU.

He doesn't let himself.

Not yet.

After the swim Luca heads over to the big park with the pond just up the street from his house. He's spend a lot of time in this park over the years. Long walks always clear his head. He likes the quiet and the time to think.

Luca looks at the clock.

it's only 10AM.

Luca sits in the park scrolling through social media for a bit, checking out some of the other swimmers' Instagrams of those he met at the SCU recruiting weekend.

Jack

Nathan

Thomas

Then Cole, he's the team captain at SCU.

Luca stops for a second.

"Nice body." 

Then he searches for Eli Becker.

He stalks Eli's profile for a minute, looking through his swim photos. He always does.

He mumbles to himself
"Fuck, that boy is so hot."

He can feel himself getting aroused.

Looking at all these profiles only makes him hornier than he already was.

University of Washington.

Derek.

His online profile name is UWAthletics21.

He's a horny 21-year-old UW Soccer Player.

Profile stats are 5'9", 165#, brown hair and blue eyes. 

Three miles from Luca.

He's been surfing profiles for the past hour with no luck. 

He notices Luca when he comes online

"Fuck this kid's hot, must be a swimmer," he says out loud without realizing it.

Derek decides to message him.

Luca immediately gets a message.

UWAthletics21: "Hey what's up?"

Luca's seen his profile before, but never messaged him.

Dark hair.

Blue eyes.

Easy smile.

Twenty-one.

Nice fit body.

A soccer player.

A shirtless underwear photo and a few school photos from the University of Washington (UW).

Only a few miles away.

Derek looks at Luca's profile with a swim photo and some candid shots. 

Luca goes by FitSwimmer.

UWAthletics21: You go Lincoln?

It takes Derek about 30 minutes to get to Luca's house.

He shows up with the specific confidence of someone who's done this before and isn't weird about it.

Luca answers the door shirtless in athletic shorts.

Derek smiles. "Fuck you're even hotter in person."

Luca laughs. "Thanks. You too, come in."

Derek unzips his jacket and follows Luca over to the couch.

They sit on the couch for maybe five minutes.

Surface stuff. Music, swimming, the city. Derek's good-looking in a straightforward way that asks nothing complicated of Luca.

That's what he wanted.

That's exactly what he wanted.

Derek leans over and starts kissing Luca.

Luca leans into it.

"Wanna come back to my room?"

Derek smiles. "I thought you'd never ask."

Luca gets up and leads the way upstairs to his room, and Derek follows.

Luca shuts the door behind them and locks it.

The house is quiet again.

They both emerge together from the room a little sweaty, breathless, and a bit disheveled.

It was a fun few hours but the time has come for Derek to get back to campus. He has a late afternoon class.

Derek's at the front door, easy about leaving, jacket already on. No drama. No implication. Just two people who knew what this was from the first message.

"Thanks, bro, that was so hot."

He turns back to Luca as he starts to walk out.

"Let's do this again sometime."

Luca nods. "For sure. Heading to college in a few weeks, so catch me before then."

"Will do. Same time tomorrow then?"

Luca laughs, "Sure, if you can handle it."

"I'll text you. Later bro."

"Later."

The door closes.

Luca stays where he is for a minute.

He's not sad.

It's just — there's always a beat after. The room
going back to itself.

The absence of something settling into place.

He looks at his phone.

No new messages.

He thinks about Eli.

Three weeks earlier. The last night of camp.

He doesn't mean to let himself go there.

He just does sometimes, when it's quiet enough and his guard is down and there's nothing left to redirect toward.

Eli laughing at something stupid.

Then he remembers what happened and the way Eli had looked at him afterward, like he was figuring something out and didn't have the language for it yet.

Luca had already known, by then.

He'd known since the beach.

He picks up his phone.

Still no messages.

"Fuck." Luca looks down. He's getting hard again.

Despite the afternoon he'd just had with Derek, he finds himself restless and once more heads back upstairs for some private time before his dad comes home.

Just another normal summer day in Seattle for Luca.

The house feels smaller when you're leaving it.

Luca loads the last bag into the car and stands in the driveway for a second.

Seattle doing what it always does.

Grey sky. Salt air. The specific quiet of a Saturday
morning with nowhere to be yet.

His dad comes out and hands him a coffee.

You sure you don't want me to drive down with you.
I can fly back?

I'm good.

Eighteen hours is a long drive.

I know.

His dad nods. Doesn't push it.

That's the thing about growing up between two
houses — you learn early how to leave.

"Bye Dad"

His Dad gives him a hug.

"Good luck, I'm really proud of you son, you're going to be great. I'll see you in a few weeks."

Luca gets in the car and waves.

Starts driving.

Eli 
San Francisco, California
July.

The summer for Eli sounds like his friends.

Kevan's backyard. Someone's speaker. The specific noise of people who've known each other since freshman year of high school, with nowhere to be and nothing urgent.

Eli's good at this.

At being easy.

At filling space.

At being the version of himself that everyone expects.

He stretches out in the grass and lets the afternoon happen around him.

This is normal life for Eli.

Ryan, Eli's best friend for nearly twelve years, is next to him — talking mostly, the way he always does, occasionally saying something out loud that nobody asked for.

"I haven't been weird."

"Dude, you reacted to some guy's message with a heart."

Eli doesn't say anything.

"I saw it," Ryan says. "On your phone."

"Don't read into it. I was just being friendly."

"I don't think you've ever done that in your life."

Eli picks at the grass.

"His name's Luca, he says finally. He swims distance. He's from Seattle."

Ryan waits.

"We just got along, Eli says. It was easy to talk to him. That's it."

"Is he gay?"

A second too long before Eli answers.

"Yeah."

"Is he hot?"

"He's a swimmer. You'd like him."

"Damn Eli, you're turning into a gay friend magnet, aren't you?"

Eli laughs.

"I guess so. What can I say, I'm hot, so the gays just find me."

Ryan laughs.

"Ok, now. First, I've been here before you were hot. So there's that. "

Eli nods. 

"True."

Then Ryan adds, "Second, you sure aren't lacking in self-confidence anymore since you grew into that hot body are you?"

Eli shrugs. "Nope, I perfectly self aware," and smiles back at Ryan.

"But damn, already trying to replace me with a new gay friend. So not cool. Just not cool at all."

Eli leans over and bumps his shoulder into Ryan's.

"You're my best friend, Ry. You know you can never be replaced."

Ryan laughs. 

"That's right, you'd better remember that before you start going around picking up new gay friends."

Ryan grins.

"You're gonna have to hook me up with him when I come visit. You know I love a hot swimmer."

He bumps his shoulder against Eli's and smiles.

"Oh, I know," Eli rolls his eyes. "How could I forget?"

"You never stopped telling me all year long how much you loved everyone on the Men's swim team."

Ryan shrugs.

"Well, not everyone, but yeah, and puts his hand on Eli's leg."

Eli laughs and swats his hand away.

"Will you stop being a fool today?"

Conversation with Ryan has always just been like this. Fun and easy.

They've never hidden any secrets from each other. Until today. 

The rest of July passes the way summers do when you're not paying attention.

Swim practice.

Kevan's backyard.

The same coffee shop on Fillmore.

Rooftop talks with Ryan.

Maya asking him every other day if he's nervous about college and him telling her no every time.

He's not nervous.

He's going to SCU.

That part is decided.

He doesn't think too hard about why.

August. 

Eli's parents will drive him down to SCU tomorrow.

His mom wants to help him pack.

He lets her because it's easier than explaining that he doesn't have that much to bring.

Maya sits on his bed watching him fold things and offering opinions nobody asked for.

"You should bring the blue one."

"I'm bringing the blue one."

"What about that hoodie?"

"Yes."

"What about—"

"Maya."

She grins. Doesn't stop.

His mom appears in the doorway with a look on her face he doesn't want to deal with.

"You could have gone to UCSB.  Or Berkley with Ryan."

"I know."

"SCU is a great school. I just want to make sure you're going for the right reasons."

Eli folds a shirt.

"I am." 

She tilts her head.

"They have a great swim program, I told you that already." 

"I still don't understand why you changed your mind at the last minute. You've wanted to go to UCSB ever since we went to that swim camp there that one year."

"Are you sure you didn't meet a girl? At that recruiting weekend? Online?"

Eli doesn't look up.

"No."

His mom smiles like she doesn't believe him.

Maya points at him from the bed. "He's lying."

"I'm not lying."

"You got weird after that trip," Maya says. "Like,
noticeably weird."

"I'm not weird."

His mom is still smiling.

"It's okay if you did. I just want to know you're not choosing a school over a girl who doesn't even know you exist."

Eli looks up at that.

"It's not like that."

"If you say so. Just remember to use..."

"MOM." Eli interrupts her.

She holds her hands up. "Okay. Okay."

She lets it go.

Later that evening, Ryan and Eli meet up to say an emotional goodbye to each other.

They sit on the ledge for a while without saying much.

The city doing what it always does below them.

"You good?" Ryan asks.

"Yeah." Eli looks out at the skyline. "I think so."

You're going to kill it down there. You know that right?"

Eli smiles.

"SCU's program is legit. They're going to push you harder than you've ever been pushed. And you're going to be better for it."

"Yeah. I know." 

"I mean it." Ryan looks at him. "You're one of the best butterfly swimmers I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of swimmers."

"You've seen like twelve swimmers."

"Twelve very average swimmers. You're not average."

Eli laughs.

"I'm coming to visit, Ryan says. First chance I get. Berkeley's not that far."

"You better. I don't know how I'm going to manage without you around, nagging me all day long after 12 years."

"Yeah, well, you know we should basically be common law married by now, but you kept refusing to fall for my subtle seduction plan all these years." 

Eli laughs again. "I don't think there was ever anything subtle about your plan." 

"Give a guy credit for trying."

"Trying to get into my pants more like it." 

"Yeah, and you liked it. You never cared that I was gay. Those couple of times, you could have just stopped me." 

"Of course I didn't care that you were gay, why would I. We live in SF for gods sake, being gay is just a normal thing here, right?'

Ryan grins. "Right."

"So you and Luca are actually rooming together?"

"Yeah."

"Interesting."

"It's not interesting."

"No it's very interesting." Ryan nods slowly. "Very, very interesting."

"Ryan."

"I'm just saying." He holds his hands up. "All I'm saying is — watch yourself."

Eli shakes his head.

"And obviously," Ryan adds, completely straight-faced, "you're going to need to send me some photos."

What kind of photos.

"The kind where he's not wearing anything."

"I'm so not doing that."

"Come on E. Best friend. Twelve years. This is all I'm asking."

"Absolutely not."

"Not even one?"

"No."

Ryan sighs dramatically.

"Fine." He bumps his shoulder against Eli's. "But think about it. And in the meantime, just send me pics of you. Clothes on, clothes off, I accept all photos of Eli Becker."

Eli laughs and shoves him.

They go quiet again.

The city spread out below them, golden and familiar.

They hug and say goodbye. 

Ryan hugs Eli tightly. 

"I'm really going to miss you E."

"I'm going to miss you too Ry. We'll see each other soon. Be safe at school ok?"

Ryan nods. 

The last good night of summer before they both move on to the next chapter of their lives tomorrow.

His room is dark.

It's Late.

He's got his phone propped on his chest, a video's playing on loop that he stopped actually watching almost an hour ago.

He's not thinking about anything specific.

That's mostly true.

He opens his messages without deciding to.

Scrolls back to the text from Luca.

The one he reacted to with a heart before he could
stop himself.

"Hey. I'm really glad we hung out this weekend, you made it way more bearable. Let me know where you end up. Hope we get to hang again sometime."

He looks at it for a second.

Just looks at it.

Lies there for a while.

Doesn't turn the video back on.

He puts the phone down on his chest and
stares at the ceiling again.

This is his last night here.

Tomorrow he drives to SCU.

Tomorrow he'll be roommates with Luca.

He closes his eyes and thinks about SCU

and Luca.