Addiction (Jim x Tilly - The Basketball Diaries fic)

Chapter 25. Basketball and dancing 🏀

Tilly
Last night was probably one of the happiest moment of my life. It all felt like a fairytale come true. It's almost as if I dreamt it. It was all so perfect. My whole body feels full of emotion. So much love. I don't want to ever be apart from Jim. He fills my body, my mind and my heart. That small red thing in my chest seriously feels like it's about to burst every time I see him, like a balloon.

We staggered our way home, giggling last night at sometime around two in the morning before crashing into my bed, snuggling up against each other. Mom was already asleep by the time we got back. I assumed she thought I was in my room all evening.

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Once we had both woken up, we cranked open the window for a morning smoke. We touched each other at every moment. Was it possible to be this in love? I cherished him and everything that happened last night.
"Reckon we should go to the courts today. Haven't played in a while" he suggested, blowing a mouthful of smoke into the air. I nodded in response.

Half an hour later, we found ourselves attempting to beat each other at our first game of basketball since last year. Embarrassingly, I'd gotten out of practice. Jim moved around the court effortlessly, grinning at me knowingly.
"Bit out of practice there are we love?" he teased, lobbing the ball over my head and into the hoop.
"Woo!" he threw his hands up in the air as fake pouted. He blew a raspberry at me.
"Sore loser" he said, poking me in the side and retrieving the ball. I rolled my eyes and smiled when his back was to me.

We played for another hour before the rain came. I'd been getting a little better as we played more games. Although I couldn't help but think Jim was letting me win out of pity. The rain fell in small droplets to begin with but quickly turned into large splashes that fell onto our head. I watched Jim bounce the ball between his legs as his ruffled dirty blonde hair flattened from the water. He still looked good. Looking up, Jim caught me and he let his face turn into a broad smile.
"What?" he shouted over the pitter patter of the rain on the concrete. It was getting heavy now. I had to continuously keep wiping my eyes.
"Nope, nothing... uh" I moved over to him unhurriedly taking his hands in mine. I looked down at our feet, pushing my body towards his and glanced back at him. A confused expression settled against his face.
"Let's dance" I smiled and he laughed lightly.
"In the rain?"
"Yep!" I watched his head turned to the side.
"Okay" his mouth pulled up at the side.

I'd taken a few dance lessons back in school when I was younger. I didn't know if I remembered how to do this, but I guess we'd find out. One of my dreams was dancing in the rain with the guy who'd so kindly stolen my heart.
I lifted our arms up to the correct position. Moving my head back to push my hair back out of the way. Jim looked so lost. It was kind of sweet.
"Just follow me". He nodded.
We began stepping to the side, carefully and measured. Our eyes once again connected. I gazed into his ocean eyes and he did the same.
Unexpectedly, he moved apart from me, motioning for me to twirl. I took ahold of his index finger and twirled around, eyes closed. I pulled back into him, and we went back to the side stepping.
We quickly abandoned the 'proper' way to dance and he moved his muscular hands to my back, engulfing me in a safe hug. I pressed my head against his chest, placing my arms around his neck. I could feel his heart beating. I felt comforted.

Rain fell around us as we swayed from side to side. We slow danced to no music, but it was still perfect. It was like that dream I had had all that time ago where we were at the beach together, in each others company. At that moment in my life, we were nothing but best friends. Now look where we were. It's simply amazing how time moves so fast.
I felt tranquil. I squeezed my eyes, taking in the scent of his jumper against my face and this dance. Everything was going right again. I had no one else really to share it with. But I didn't care. All I cared about was the boy I loved who made my heart beat so wildly and made my life so widely better.

Jim
Oh Tilly. Tilly, Tilly, Tilly. My beautiful, gorgeous girl. Please never leave me.