🏈✪Cole✪🏈

Title: “Hidden Touchdowns” Everyone thought Cole Rivera had it all. Captain of the football team, scholarship offers lining up, the kind of smile that made teachers proud and classmates jealous. He played the part — confident, untouchable. But every cheer from the crowd just echoed against a quiet he couldn’t shake. Because what really mattered waited for him after practice. Eli. The boy who always sat in the back of class, doodling in his notebook. The one everyone called names too cruel to repeat. The one whose laugh — when it finally escaped — sounded like sunlight. Cole remembered the first time he saw Eli cry, right outside the locker room. Someone had shoved him. His books were scattered. Nobody helped. Except Cole. “Hey,” he said, kneeling beside him, “you okay?” That was the start. The secret texts. The stolen smiles. The long walks home where their hands brushed but never quite held. And later — the kisses behind the bleachers, where no one could see the quarterback melt for the boy everyone ignored. Cole hated himself for hiding it. For letting Eli face those taunts while he stood just a few feet away, pretending not to hear. But he also knew the team, the school, the stares. He wasn’t ready. Not yet. Until that day someone saw. The whispers spread fast. By morning, everyone knew. Eli wouldn’t even look at him — thought Cole would deny it, laugh, let him drown alone. But when Cole walked into that hallway and saw the fear in Eli’s eyes… something snapped. He didn’t think. He just pulled Eli close and kissed him. The crowd went silent. The laughter died. And for the first time, Cole didn’t care about the game, the team, or the world watching — He only cared that Eli finally smiled again.