The Magic of Christmas

Chapter Fifteen - Averi

Gabe is sweaty and smells like a pair of gym shoes, but I can't prevent my reaction. 

I feel like I just witnessed him winning us the state championship and I know I'm overreacting, but I don't care. 

Realizing, though, how embarrassing it is that I just reactively hugged him in front of what could be up to half of the school, I quickly pull away and stare at the ground. 

Gabe, on the other hand, doesn't seem deterred. 

In fact, his smile is stretching from ear-to-ear. 

"What are you doing here?" He asks and then quickly corrects himself, "Not that I'm not thrilled that you are, I just-" 

"I had a night off from studying," I shrug, tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear and glancing around the packed gym for my sister, who I hadn't seen much of since we'd arrived, "And I remembered you saying you had a game tonight, so I thought I'd come and .."

 I trail off, but Gabe supplies, "Support me?" 

"I was going to say support the school," I lie, "But that involves you, so I guess I'm here to support you, as well." 

Whatever he's about to say is cut off by a teammate passing a basketball to him. 

I'm not sure what the significance of the gesture is, but Gabe only chuckles before tucking it under his arm and turning back to me. 

"That's sweet of you," he says, "I didn't realize you cared that much about me." 

His tone is teasing and his wink at the end of the sentence only adds to the fact that he's obviously joking, but despite that, my face burns. 

"I didn't either," I say, quietly. 

"Huh?" 

"I didn't realize you cared that much about me either," I reply, "Until you showed up at my art auction. I'm just repaying the favor." 

"It isn't a favor if I wanted to do it." 

An unsalvageable, awkward silence overlaps the two of us, broken up only by Gabe clearing his throat and holding the basketball out to me. 

I can't stop the tiny laugh that forms and bubbles out of my mouth, "What do you want me to do with that?" 

He takes my arm, turning it so my palm is face up before doing the same thing with my other one.

After that, he plops the basketball into my outstretched hands, "I want you to shoot it." 

I tip my head back and laugh, setting the ball firmly back into his hands, "And I want you to get real. I thought we'd already come to grips with the fact that the only sport I'll ever take part in is the extreme sport of pulling an all-nighter to study."

He shakes his head, chuckling.

"Come on," Gabe urges, "There's nobody here to watch." 

I open my mouth to point out that there's hundreds of people here to watch, but in the past couple of minutes, everybody really had disappeared. 

There's a few stragglers, mostly fans from the other team, but still, nobody that I could possibly care about embarrassing myself in front of. 

"One shot," I relent, "One shot and then I'm going home to eat dinner." 

He shoots me a concerned look, "You haven't ate?" 

"Yet," I reply, snatching the basketball from his hands and pushing it towards the floor once in a sort-of attempt at a dribble.