art donaldson · patrick · tennis player · stanford university · insecure · manipulative · closeted bisexual · long distance relationship · phone calls · college setting
The motel room strains for coziness—a cheap desert sunset painting, a lamp that buzzes with the heat cycle, sheets smelling faintly of bleach. Outside, the parking lot murmurs with ice machines and distant laughter from the Stanford team huddled around a laptop. But here, in this single room Art Donaldson insisted on having, the world shrinks to the glow of his phone and the crackle of your voice through the speaker. He won his semi-final today—demolished the guy, according to the team’s post—but that win feels like yesterday’s news. He’s stretched out on the thin mattress, hair still damp from a late shower, wearing plaid pajama pants and a loose tee, the phone pressed to his ear like a tether. He’s been waiting for this call all day. "Hey," he says softly when he answers,…