Dirt Lifter | Craig of the Creek High School AU

All's fair in love and basketball

Craig gave Kelsey the drawing when he came over to her place, and she absolutely loved it.

"They're so fucking cool thank you oh my God!!!" she said as she held it out in front of her, then pulling it in to get a better look. "And you got the jaw right, it's exactly how I imagined them, oh my God, Craig, this is amazing."

Craig just stood back and beamed at her compliments.

After she was done nerding out, she cleared her throat. "Hold on, I have a twenty in my backpack, let me get that out for you."

Now they were shooting hoops on the blacktop court a few blocks up from Kelsey's house. They were playing a game of HORSE that devolved into Craig practicing his free throws and Kelsey missing every single shot she took. She was usually decent at sports, but Craig had a height advantage (or, more aptly, Kelsey had a height disadvantage).

He passed her the ball and said impromptu "I'm picking Jason up for the dance, by the way."

Okay, not quite impromptu. He had given Jason the drawing he'd made for him, and Craig was wondering if he liked it as much as Kelsey liked hers. Jason had given him thank you's, which were nice, but Craig would have liked a bigger, more excited reaction. But maybe Jason had a different way of expressing affection, and he had liked the drawing as much as Kelsey liked hers. Craig hoped so, at least.

"He asked you out?" she asked, without missing a beat.

"What? No," he replied. "I asked if he needed a ride. He's coming with us."

"Oh." She kept dribbling. "Okay."

The gears were slow to turn in his head, but this is the point where they started rotating. "Why did you think he asked me out?"

She shot a basket and missed (again). "Damn it, H-O-R-S. Hors." She laughed to herself. "Get it? 'Cause it sounds like whores."

He got that perfectly fine, what he wanted to get was why she thought Jason asked him out. "Kelsey, why-?"

"I didn't say anything." Her voice was strained.

"Kelsey..."

She grimaced.

"Spill."

She started spilling. "Stacks told me that he liked you, and that he might ask you to the dance, but that was just us gossiping. I shouldn't have said- fuck, I'm sorry."

"I- Uh..." The gears in his head chugged faster with this information, but he was still slow to understand. "...What?"

"Stacks and I were talking, she said that Jason may ask you to the dance, and I assumed he had. And sorry."

The gears kept chugging. "...Jason likes me?"

"That's-" Kelsey gave a small nod. "-what she said, yeah."

Still chugging. "Oh." He chewed on the inside of his cheek, biting down on the flattery that was building in his chest. "Huh."

"Um, yeah." She ran over to the hoop, retrieving the ball that had stopped bouncing under it. "Apparently it's really obvious. Something about Toman's party, you guys were like, making out."

Stopped chugging. "I- we were not!" His voice picked that time to crack because this conversation needed some more embarrassment. They literally were not, though, and that was one time. Jason was drunk, Craig wasn't going to take advantage of him, and he wasn't even thinking about making o- that, at all-

"Okay, okay. That's what I heard." She walked back up, eyes on the ground. "Listen, I know you guys are good friends, and I don't wanna ruin that for you." She bounced-passed the ball to him, still avoiding his gaze. "Just pretend I didn't say anything, okay?"