My One With The Guys

Chapter 14: Game Start

Monday came around again, I woke up late so my father's girlfriend had to drive me to school. We had a full conversation again, but this time it was about Kuroko's Basketball (we both like Atusushi, and Teppei). School went by fast, I had all tests (what teachers give tests in Art class? When was that a thing?). I'm pretty sure I failed. I want to go home and go straight to bed. I start walking out with Genki, we're talking about our day and how relieved we are after finishing all the tests. We have to pass the gym before getting to the front of the school. I hear all the people yelling at each other on the court.
"I'm open!"
"Right side!"
"Left side!"
They would say things like that, I wouldn't mind playing with them (it sounds like they're playing basketball). I've become a little warrior ever since the doctor told me that I recovered from the concussion.
"Do you wanna play?" Genki asks me
"A little," I tell him, he then takes my hand and drags me to the doors
"Then let's play," he walked in and dropped his bag
I slowly follow his lead, I walk in and see twelve people playing five on five.
"Could  you guys use two more?" Genki asks, they stop the game and look at both of us
"Atsuko? Hey! Haven't seen you since the gym this morning," One of the players came up to me, I sort of recognized him as he kept jogging towards me. Oh! He was one of the players when I had to play with the guys on my first.
"Same here," I tell him (I can't tell him that I forgot his name), he looked back at the people who were playing and said
"I'll take these two on my team," he looked back at me and smiled, he's quite charming
"I'm in," I tell them, I put my bag down and grab a hair tie from the top zipper of my bag. Once I grab it I put my hair up as we get called into the game.
"You guys didn't waste any time," Kaori said, WHEN THE HELL WAS HE ON THE COURT?!
"KAORI?!" I yelled, Genki wasn't surprised (did he know it was an open court? And that Kaori would be here?)
"You finally made it, I'm already tired," YASUO TOO?!
"Why are you guys here?" I yell at them
"I'm here to show Genki that my team is the best," Kaori said to me, but it seemed like a declaration of war to me "what do you say, pretty boy? Do you wanna settle the score now?"
"Sure, and I get to choose my team first, all five," Genki says while he walks into the middle of the court "I pick, you, you, green shirt, and Autsko," Kaori looks surprised, thankfully Genki picked the guy that I recognize from gym class.
"You're gonna take Atsuko? Then I'll take Yasuo. For the rest of you," he looked at the rest of the people who were there, he glanced at me for a split second and focused on the players, "umm, black beany, tight black shirt and orange shorts" I pointed at all of them, all the people he chooses looked relieved that he picked them and terrified, how does he play?
"I'll guard Atsuko," Yasuo tells his team
"I got Genki," Kaori said, "the rest of you pick up anyone or go into a low zone, we just have to stop him from going to the middle," he knows we can hear them right?
"Let's do our best, I can open the pass route for people," I tell them "let's give them a show," I say with a smile, Genki froze he came to my ear and said
"That was cute," it made my heart beat faster, he looked back at the team, "this group likes to take charges and shoot from far away, Kaori, on the other hand, can cover the whole interior of the three-point line. As long as I get him off balance we should be in the clear," he tells us, he would be a great captain (i don't know if he is the team captain on the basketball team, but I have a feeling he wouldn't be).
One of the guys who are on the sideline comes in with the ball as we all lineup, whoever gets this ball gets the rhythm of the same.
"Make this a fair match, no cheat moves, and illegal moves," he's about to throw the ball into the air "START!" he threw it high.
Genki and Kaori are high in the sky, how long and how good is Kaori? Who's gonna get the ball? My heart is racing, I need to relax, relax. I open my eyes and see both of them in the air (how long can they hold that?)Genki tips it up and tips again in my direction before Kaori's hand touches the ball. I move in to get the ball, it's about to touch my hands as Yasuo comes up from behind me and takes the ball, and moves towards the net. They set up to make it difficult for us to help Genki. Yasuo was telling them how to position themselves by just dribbling the ball in place, how long has Yasuo been playing? That doesn't matter right now, I just have to make sure that he stays in front of me.
"What do you think about Genki?" he asked me, why was he asking this now?
"He's a good friend of mine," I tell him, he tilts his head and moves his eyes to his teammates'
"What do you think he thinks about you?" Why is he asking these questions?
"He may think of me as a friend or even a close friend, why are you asking these questions?" I ask him, he tilted his head as a person comes up on my left and screens me.
Yasuo goes past and goes straight to the basket, Genki came over but as soon as Genki left Kaori, Yasuo had already thrown the ball to Kaori with perfect accuracy. Kaori went for a dunk but little did he know that one of my teammates was coming on his right side. Kaori was already up but my teammate blocked his shot. They both hit the ground. Kaori was fine, he got up and kept playing, but my teammate wasn't. I went to him and saw where he was holding his ankle.
"Time out!" I yell, I look back at our teammate, and look around to see anything that can be useful, "Genki, come help me lift him to the bench," Genki came over as soon as he heard me calling his name.
He helps me lift him to the benches, I go to my bag and look for sports tape. I find it and go back to the injured player, I take off his shoe and sock to put the tape on. Every time I touched his ankle he would start groaning with pain in his tone, I could feel the throbbing throw his ankle. I tape it up, by wrapping it around his ankle feeling for support. He soon stopped groaning when I was finished taping it up, I helped him up and helped him out the door, and another person came to help as well, but I didn't recognize him. They talked to each other and joked around with little things. We got to one of their cars and placed the injured player in the back of the car. After we placed him in the car the other guy went to the driver's side and drove away. I started walking back to the gym as I saw Genki coming with one of his coaches. Did I do something wrong?
"Mrs.Hara, I heard that you treated a wounded player this afternoon," the coach said. Am I in trouble? "I would like to ask you how you treated the injury," he asked
I took a deep breath and explained what I did, every word I spoke he sounded surprised and happy, what was happening?
"Am I in trouble for helping an injured person?" I question, he shook his head
"Hell no, Genki just told me you helped someone with an injury perfectly and I was wondering if you know how to tape other injuries," he says
"I know how to tape a couple, but only on legs, feet, and fingers," I tell him
"Amazing, I was wondering If you would like the opportunity to become the team manager?" he asked me, I looked at Genki and he's smiling (is this for real?)
"I would love too," I tell him, the  coach was very excited
"Great, Genki can give you the team schedule," he said, Genki slightly bowed as the coach then walked away
"Was that all you were doing?" I ask him, he shrugged his shoulders
"I guess you'll never know," he tells me, I start to walk past him as he grabs my hand and pulls me forwards "a girl shouldn't walk alone with a boy, hasn't your father ever told you that?" he asks, I smirked and said
"Until I see a boy then I'll be scared,"
I started laughing, he soon joined in. We got back to the gym and we see them all playing
"We're back!" I yelled, Yasuo stopped playing and looked at the door, me and Genki were still holding hands (I'm pretty sure Yasuo saw because he looked down and then kept playing).
"Finally pretty boy. Let the game continue, you two get off the court," Kaori tells them, they run off the court (is Kaori that scary to other people?)
We got on the court and kept playing until nightfall, Genki left after he made fifty shots during our game (he asked me if I wanted him to give me a ride, but I refused), and Yasuo left too because he had to pick up his little brother from daycare. Everyone except the actual basketball team was out of breath (including myself), I checked my phone and saw I had about a million calls from my father and his girlfriend. I pick up my bag and start heading out of the gym,
"Hey Atsuko," I turn around when I hear my name. "I can give you a ride on my motorcycle if you want," it was Kaori, should I accept or decline? He started walking towards the doors, meeting me in the door frame
"It's alright, if I move fast then I can catch the last bus," I tell him
"Wrong answer," he tells me, he grabs my hand as my breath feels like it's been taken, why is he the only one that I feel this way? We started walking towards the parking lot, I remember going through here to find his motorcycle that day.
We get to the motorcycle, and he goes onto it and hands me his helmet
"Are you crazy?" I ask him, and he smirks (he has one of those smirks where you feel like you'll die if you stare too long)
"How would you feel if I said I was crazy about you?" he says, how can someone say something like that so easily? Does he mean it?
"Stop joking around," I tell him, I start blushing so I rushed to put the helmet on.
Once I put on the helmet it felt a little loose, I looked up and saw him holding out his hand. I grab his hand as he helps me onto his bike, I get on and don't know how to hold onto the bike, I start to hold the back making sure my body doesn't touch him. I think he smirked again, I wanna see him smirk. I start to move forward as he grabs my arms and wraps them around his waist tight,
"You should hold on tight," he tells me
My heart is racing, and my breath is becoming shorter. He can't feel it right? I can feel my whole face turning red.
"Are you ready?" he asks me, I put my head on his back and nod my head (he's so warm and his heart is racing too)
We start moving, I'm a little scared and start holding tighter. I feel like I'm holding onto dear life being on this motorcycle. He's trying to scare me as he keeps driving slow too fast at different times, making me loosen my grip so I'm going to suffocate him accidentally. We got to my house while he was holding his hand out for me. I was reluctant to take his hand because of him teasing me while we were driving. I take his hand and get off his bike.
"Thank you for the drive," I tell him
"Anytime and day," He says, I smile and turn around. I look at my phone and see a message from Yasuo, I look at his message and see a photo of him and his brother. I liked it. I turn around as I see Kaori's still looking at me, I wanna tease him too
"If you keep staring I'll think you're going after me," I smile and turn back around, I hear metal hitting the concrete, I turn around and see him coming off of his motorcycle. He walked up to me, has he always been this tall? He got right beside me and wrapped his arms around my waist,
"What are you doing?" I ask him
"I don't know, this just feels natural," he tells me, how can this feel normal to him? My whole body feels heavy and I'm nervous
We start to get closer and closer, and he's slowly moving in, it's not like I wanna stop him I just think we haven't gotten enough time to get to know each other that well. He keeps leaning down, I bring my chin up and close my eyes slowly, I feel something soft and warm on my lips. I could feel his grasp on my hips getting tighter, he didn't pull away (how long are we gonna do this?), it felt like he was gonna lift me off the ground. My body feels like it's in heat, how is he so good at this? I felt him lifting his hand (I didn't feel any part of my body) as he suddenly let go, I'm confused. I see his face blushing almost as red as a tomato, he let me go and walked back towards his bike. He got to his bike, got on, and rode away. What just happened? Does he like me? Do I like him? Are we gonna have to talk to each other? Can we still be the same? What's gonna happen from now on?