love me like you • jeremiah fisher

chapter sixteen

"Goodmorning!" I yelled in excitement, throwing a pillow at my brother's head.

"What do you want?" He groaned. "Wake up, it's tournament time!" I cheered, running out of the room. "Go shower you smell gross." He yelled out after me.

I rolled my eyes, knowing he was right. I grabbed a towel and headed towards the shower. Today was the annual volleyball tournament and I was beyond excited.

This was the first year I was actually going to start competing and I intended to win.

Once I finished showering, I wrapped the towel around my body, letting my wet hair sit on my shoulders. I exited the bathroom, accidentally bumping into someone. "Oh sorry." Conrad apologized.

"Uh, morning." I greeted the boy. "How'd you sleep?" Conrad asked.

"Fine, oh uh thanks again for going out with me last night." I smiled, wrapping my arms around myself. "Yeah, no, of course. Maybe we can hang out again like after the tournament when everything is over." He said, leaning on the doorway.

"No, yeah, that sounds great." I smiled. "Awesome." He matched my grin.

"What are you two talking about?" Jeremiah said, coming up next to me. "Nothing much, I'm going to go change and get ready. Don't fail me Jere." I teased, winking at my boyfriend.

"Me, never." He chuckled, saluting me as I closed the door to my room.

I sighed, leaning against it as it shut. The only competition I was really worried about was Belly and Taylor. Belly was the captain of her highschool volleyball team and I haven't played in a few years.

However, recently, Jeremiah has been practicing with me and now I'm pretty confident we can actually win this thing.

~

"How do I look?" Jeremiah said spinning around. He was wearing my purple shirt design with our names printed on the back.

"Amazing. Do you even have to ask?" I giggled, walking over to him.

"No, but I like it when you compliment me." He smiled, meeting me halfway and pulling me into a hug. "Let's crush this thing." He whispered in my ear before placing a kiss to my cheek.

"Oh we're crushing everyone." I said as he planted a quick kiss on my lips. "You know it." Jeremiah replied, spinning me around. "You look amazing baby, if I haven't told you already." He complimented, looking me up and down.

"You've only told me about a hundred times." I teased, pressing my hands to his chest.

"Okay, so let's make that a hundred and one." He grinned, leaning in once again.

~

"Good afternoon, I'm Susannah Fisher." We all cheered as she made her introduction.

"I am delighted to welcome you to Play It Forward! So in the spirit of fun and friendly competition it is time to open our hearts and our wallets and give back to those who may not be as fortunate. We have teams raising money for homelessness, woman's shelters, environmental causes and many more." I nudged Jeremiah when she mentioned our cause.

Jere and I decided to donate our proceedings to the "Friends of the Earth" charity.

I've always been passionate about our environment and trying my best to help stop global warming so this was a no brainer for me. I felt Jeremiah slip his hand into mine, intertwining our fingers.

My face twinged pink, embarrassed by how I still got butterflies around the boy.

I tuned out the rest of the speech, looking at our competition for the tournament. Everyone looked good, too good. Shuffling my feet, I could feel myself starting to get nervous.

Jeremiah squeezed my hand, sending me a reassuring smile which I returned just as fast. What did I have to worry about, as long as I had him by my side I was positive we were going to do great.

~

We watched as the first game began, it was Belly and Taylor against two random guys.

We were next and I tried my best to distract myself from the nerves building up. As we were cheering Belly on, Taylor had fell and hurt her ankle.

"Oh my gosh, is she okay?" I asked Jeremiah, concerned for the girl.

"Looks like she's switching out.." Jeremiah dragged as we watched her walk over to Conrad and Nicole. I turned to see her take off her shirt and give it to Conrad.

"Oh we're dead..." I whispered to Jeremiah. Conrad was amazing at volleyball, not that we weren't, he was just..more advanced.

"Hey, don't be so negative, he's not that good." He scolded me playfully, bumping my shoulder with his.

Just as the words left his mouth, Conrad landed a harsh spike on the other team's side. "You were saying." I looked at him dumbly, not waiting for a response as I turned to go grab a drink.

I went alone since Jeremiah had opted to watch the game and "assess our competition." "One lemonade please." I asked the cashier. "Coming right up." They replied, once they handed me the drink I went to turn, but almost crashed into someone.

"I'm so-" I looked up to see someone I never really intended on seeing again.

"Bri?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Oh hey Matthew." I smiled awkwardly. I shifted my weight on my feet, not knowing exactly how to escape this newfound situation.

"How come every time we bump into each other you look like you have somewhere to be?" He asked with a chuckle.

"That's because this time I actually do." I told the boy, trying my best to end the conversation quickly. "Oh yeah, mind if I join you?" I felt my stomach twist uncomfortably.

"I don't-" I was cut off.

"I do actually." I heard a voice say from behind me. I let out a sigh of relief once Jeremiah wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Oh sorry man, I didn't know." Matthew said, raising his hands up in defense.

"Yeah, yeah." Jeremiah rolled his eyes as the boy left. "Someone's jealous." I teased, hitting his shoulder lightly. "Can you blame me? You were literally sucking faces with him not too long before we got together." He defended.

"Please never say sucking faces again." I cringed. "At least we're sucking faces now." He grinned, pulling me closer.

"I'm sorry you're what-" I turned to see Belly and Conrad standing behind us.

word count: 1081
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter please feel free to vote or leave a comment!🤍