BETWEEN YOU TWO AND I

CHAPTER 11

   'I'm dating someone,' Archer told me.

   'Really? who?' I asked. We were sitting at the last basketball game of the season.

   The scouts were seated on the front seat and all the players had their game faces on. This last game meant life or death to them. A decision as to whether they were going to college basketball depended on this evening game.

  Archer pointed at one of the players at the court. 'Him,' he said.

  'Jamal Connor?' I asked.

  'No, right in the centre. Chris Hunter,' Archer said.

   My jaw clenched. What did he say? Archer was now looking at me gauging my reaction to what he said.

    'Hunter? Chris Hunter?' I repeated as if I hadn't heard him clearly. I looked back at the court. It was half time. All the players were huddled at the benches going over the game play once more. A shaved head belonging to the one and only Chris Hunter lifted up and scanned the bleachers. He located Archer and gave him a smile. A geniune smile. One that he has never given me or any other girl. He then saw me sitting next to Archer and flashed his middle finger at me. I did the same and stuck out my tongue.

  Hunter knew that Archer and I were friends. But I wasn't sure whether Archer knew that Hunter and I were getting  hot and heavy and had just stopped having sex only a month ago.

   'How did you guys meet. I mean you two are in almost every class but how did you start dating.'

  ''Actually it is a very new relationship, just a week since we made it official.'

  'Oh, okay,' I said before taking in a deep breath. 'Listen,' I started. I wanted him to know the truth about what had went down between Hunter and I for the past half year. 'I had sex with Hunter. Multiple times,' I said taking a sip out of the soda we were sharing.

    'I know,' Archer said to me standing up. 'Hunter tells me everything.'

      I watched him take the stairs of the bleachers and leave. Was he mad at me? Did he not care? Was he just going to pee?

  I took out my phone and called his number. 'Hey why are you just bailing on me like that? Are you mad?'

  'No, I need to be somewhere. Talk to you later,' he said and hung up on me.

  The basketball game started up again and I couldn't see Hunter playing anymore. He wasn't sitting on the bench either.

                                      ***

  Prom night finally arrived. Oh, how I had waited for this night. Not that I was hoping to become prom queen or anything, but I liked that everyone got to show a new side of themselves on this particular night. And boy did people glow up. I couldn't recognise half of my graduating class since everyone brought their best game to make themselves look cool for prom.  

   I didn't have a prom date but all of my friends did.

   'I could hook you up with one of the guys. He thinks you are cute and it is only for the night,' Jay had said to me.

  'No, thanks, I'm good,' I replied politely turning my pillow over to the cooler side. Pillow? you might ask. Yeah, I had decided not to go in the end. My friends were face-timing me the entire prom so that I didn't miss anything.

   I was chilling in my room, eating a snicker bar and cuddling with bullet claws when I got a notification from the school website.

  Hoping they were not announcing amything academic (it's the weekend, I ain't about to get stressed for no reason), I opened the article. 

   A picture of Hunter and Archer kissing came to view. It was in the empty locker room. Now I know where Archer and Hunter went. They were locking lips in the locker room and a passing reporter snapped a picture of them.

  The school website had attatched a few articles with very different views from each other.

  One said: TIME TO GET OVER TOXIC MASCULINITY: GAY MEN CAN PLAY COLLEGE BASKETBALL AS WELL

Another from a 'conservative' newspaper read:  'CREAM PUFFS SHOULD STAY IN THE KITCHEN, NOT ON A COURT!'

I almost threw my phone against the wall. The nerve of some people! Imagine being homophobic in 2022.

And then I read the school report in depth. Hunter made college basketball even though he wasn't one of the first picks. I couldn't be more proud of him.

                                                      ***

At around midnight, I heard a beep from my phone. A whatsApp message.  Hunter had sent me a message. It was of him and Archer kissing on the dance floor, having the time of their lives.

'Between us two,' he had written underneath the photo.

 I smiled and sent him back a heart emoji. 'Between you two,' I wrote back. 

Between you two, and I on the side witnessing this amazing love story come to blossom. 

Between you two and I

                                  -THE END-