After Dark

Twenty-eight

Liam follows Ian inside the building. Ian smiles at the woman behind the receptionist desk. She smiles politely back at both of them.

"We wanna use the basketball gym." Ian begins, glancing over at Liam with a little smile.

"Okay, are you aware we close at eight thirty?"

"We are." Ian nods. "We'll be gone before then."

"Okay then." She types something up on the computer and then Ian and Liam are paying. They split the pay halfway and then go through the small gates.

Ian smiles, loosely wrapping his hand around Liam's wrist and tugging. "Follow me."

Liam follows close in step behind him. Ian's hand stays wrapped around his wrist. They walk down the wide hallway, the floors white tile and clicking under their feet.

"Here it is." Ian drops his wrist in order to open up the big blue doors. A big room that's the size of three gyms put together awaits them. There's a volleyball net set up on the first one and the two behind it are for basketball.

Liam follows Ian over to the farthest area. Big windows are on the wall, showing the parking lot. There's a walkway hanging around the walls, higher up than the basketball goals. It's a cool place.

"Okay, you know how you dribble right?" Ian asks, picking up two basketballs out of the bin. Liam doesn't answer so Ian demonstrates. He bounces the ball in his right hand repeatedly. "It's pretty simple, you try."

He bounces the ball in his left and it hops over to Liam. He catches it and looks down at the orange ball in his hands. He bounces it on the floor once and catches it afterwards.

"Yeah. Basically like that but when it comes back up instead of catching it, send it back down." Ian instructs and then shows him once more.

They take about five minutes to let Liam warm up and get used to dribbling the ball. Once he feels confident he can do it consistently, if only a little shaky, they move on.

"Okay, come back here." Ian walks backwards to stand on one of the green lines. Liam goes and stands next to him. "Okay, this is the free throw line, and that line back there is the three pointer line."

"Okay." Liam nods. "So, past that line is three points?"

"Yeah." Ian nods. "And inside the line is two points. Then, if someone fouls you, which that's when they touch you illegally when you have the ball. So like pushing or shoving while guarding you, that's a foul. Anyways, if someone fouls you then you usually get at least one free throw, typically two, and sometimes three. A free throw is only worth one point though."

"Um, okay." Liam nods, trying to soak in the information.

"Okay, the basic point of basketball is you have to always be dribbling no matter where you are on the court, as long as your moving. If you pick it up you have like five minutes to pass or shoot before it's against the rules." Ian says, and then he starts dribbling. "Which, I don't guess any of this matters because I kinda thought we'd just mess around and shoot a little."

"Oh." Liam nods. He starts dribbling the ball too, eyeing the goal a little. "So, do you play basketball?"

"Not anymore." Ian shakes his head. "I did in middle school and freshman year, but didn't take it seriously enough to continue with it all throughout high school."

"Oh." Liam nods. He stares down at ball as he dribbles it.

"You wanna try a shot?" Ian asks, looking over.

"Oh." Liam picks up the ball, almost dropping it. "Okay."

"Alright." Ian picks his ball up and spreads his feet apart some more in an athletic stance. Then with a little smile he adds, "Watch and learn."