The Wallflower of Parkview High

Chapter Thirty Three

"Dad, can I ask you something?" I asked tonight at dinner, completely breaking the silence that was in the air. He twirled a piece of spaghetti around on his fork and turned to look at me.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Um..." I began, trying to twirl the spaghetti on my plate around my fork like Dad did. However, it unraveled and fell off the fork the second I thought I got it. I just sighed and set down my fork. Why was I so nervous about this? After all, I was just asking Dad if I could go to a basketball game. Was I afraid that he was going to say no and it would mean the end of the world for me? Did I even want to go to the game that badly? I didn't even like sports that much.

But then again, Zander was going to be there...

"Noah, are you okay?" Dad asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, it's just, there's this basketball game tomorrow night where my school is going to be playing against this other school." I said. Charlotte looked up from her plate and gave me a questioning look, probably the second she heard the words "basketball" escape my mouth.

Yes, it was that rare for me to talk about sports in this house - or anywhere for that matter.

"Okay?"

"I was wondering if I could go." I murmured, looking down at the napkin in my lap. A wave of silence washed over the table soon after I spoke and a few minutes later, I heard the clatter of Charlotte's fork as she probably dropped it in surprise.

"You want to go to a basketball game?!" Charlotte asked, looking at me with wide eyes. I bit my lip and averted my eyes from her.

"I thought you hated sports!"

"I don't hate sports, it's just that I'm horrible at them and they disinterest me-" I said, but Dad held his hand up, cutting me off.

"If you want to go to the basketball game, then I will let you. In fact, I think that it's good for you to put yourself out there and go to school events, even if you aren't directly involved in them." Dad said.

"Really?" I exclaimed. Just the thought of getting to see Zander again and watching him play in the game made me feel insanely happy for some reason. Dad smiled and nodded and if it was possible, my smile brightened.

"Wait, wait, wait." Charlotte interrupted, turning to look at me like a detective would look at some clue that is important to a big mystery they were trying to solve. "Why do you even want to go to the basketball game in the first place?"

"What do you mean?"

"It just seems so strange to me that you would suddenly want to go to a basketball game when you don't give two shits about the sport in the first place. That and you practically fell asleep the last time we watched a sports game on TV. What's the sudden change about?" I was about to answer, but Dad beat me to it.

"First of all, Charlotte, language." Dad told her, "And second of all, Noah could just be going to cheer on a friend who is playing in the game. Some people who go to games simply go for that reason. They don't have to know anything about the sport in question. Isn't that right, Noah?"

"Yeah..." I murmured. "I'm going to cheer on a friend." I added.

"Is it Zander?" Charlotte asked, almost instantly. I nodded.

"Oooo! Noah is going to the basketball game to cheer on his boyfriend!" she cooed. I stared at her, red instantly spreading across my cheeks

" Zander is not my boyfriend!" I huffed, giving her a (rather un-intimidating) death stare.

"Righttt. Didn't you say you had a crush on him the other day?"

"I did not say-"

"Noah has a crush on someone?" Dad asked, raising his eyebrows. I gave Charlotte a look that said "thank you so much for that". She just smirked.