𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐇𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬 | 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐝𝐬𝐨𝐧

002.

"PATRICK, you know i have a final to study for. in fact, you should be studying for it too instead of going to some lame ass party," art said as he followed his best friend through a row a people to sit in the two empty seats by the rest of their tennis teammates.

the brunette rolled his eyes and took a bite of his warm nachos. "screw that. its friday. you got all weekend to study," he objected with a grin. "its a party and its at tashi's house. thats, like, as good as it gets. which means you should be going. who knows, maybe you'll meet a sexy tennis player."

art turned to glare at him. "theres no sexy tennis players here," he replied in annoyance. "i'm not going and thats final. besides, you and tashi are gonna have your tongues down each others throats and i'm gonna feel left out like usual. it's nasty."

"thats why you need to get out and talk to people," patrick said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "dukes womens team will be there tonight. maybe you can strike up a conversation with one of them and get lucky."

the blonde grimaced and turned his attention back to the court where tashi and the player from duke were taking their places. "gross, dude. i'd rather not," he said. "i'd enjoy my night a whole lot better if i stayed in. and you said we'd have a movie night tonight."

patrick's face dropped, immediately regretting that once he remembered all the things he promised to do already. "yeah, uh, i told tashi i'd come with her to the swim meet after this. then i'd go to her party," he replied almost awkwardly. "but you could always come with me."

"no," he said bluntly. "why are you going to a swim meet? why would i go to a swim meet? i didn't even know stanford had a swim team."

the brunette offered some nachos to his best friend, who gladly took him up on the offer and grabbed a few with some cheese plopped on top. "its for her best friend or something. remember? the one she lives with? shes straight from romania or something. shes like a complete prodigy dude. tashi said she's the best in the country."

art smacked his lips in disbelief. "theres no way thats true," he stated confidently, head turning from left to right to watch the ball being hit back and forth between tashi and her opponent, sarah. "if shes the best in the country, why the hell would she be going here?"

"no clue," patrick shrugged. "i heard shes, like, super fuckin' smart too. i have her in my biology and she aces every test. i should start stealing her homework answers or something."

"or maybe," art began. "you could just, oh i don't know, not go to this party tonight and instead stay in and study? you're gonna fail if you keep it up and all this shit will be for nothing and once its all over, i'm gonna be right here to tell you i told you so."

patrick grinned and gave him a quick slap on the back. "i'm looking forward to that, man," he said sarcastically. "but for tonight, you can just come and enjoy the beautiful stanford college atmosphere."

while art began to protest, a break in the match start running on the clock and tashi was immediately seated in her chair beside adelina with her leg propped up.

"take your shoe off," she ordered as she quickly got up and reached into her bag to grab some rolls of athletic tape. she had noticed tashi playing slightly off and immediately spotted the slight limp in her left leg. "how bad is it?"

she toed her shoe off and gulped down the sip of water she had just taken. "just a slight ache. i can still play but it'd feel better wrapped," she explained between soft huffs of exhaustion slowly creeping in.

she nodded in a silent understanding and peeled her sock back to her toes before she began effortlessly and efficiently wrapping the black tape around the ball of her foot and up her ankle. in record breaking time, she was ready to get back on the court.