In the shadows, under the bleachers

Chapter 9

I felt uneasy. The silence was deafening.

"My boyfriend," Will replied, sliding his phone into his pocket and walked over to me. His smile reappeared. my boyfriend.

"Lucky, I don't even have a girlfriend and you already have a boyfriend." Mark went back into the kitchen.

"Do you want help?" Will asked.

"Nah I'm fine." Mark replied grabbing all the things he needed. Like flour, eggs, sugar etc etc. I sat back in my chair busy looking at my phone.

"Aiden." Will whispered, moving from his original seat next to me.

"Yeah, what is it?" I asked clearing my throat.

"How are you?"

"I'm okay, you?"

"Just okay?" He frowned, "Why?"

I shrugged, "Don't know, maybe my mood will get better as the day goes." He nodded slightly. He looked at me with an expression I couldn't quite figure out.

"Anyway, here you guys are." Mark suddenly said. We broke eye contact as he set out plates in front of us. "Why don't we ever go to your place?" Mark asked sitting down.

Will looked up from his plate, "Do you want to spend your time in a tiny little apartment?"

"Well I don't know, I've only been there once."

"You want to go right now?"

"After we eat."

Will nodded, "Great." He turned to me, "do you want to go?"

I nodded, "Yeah." I've never been to his place so why not?

—

Surprisingly his place was only a ten-minute drive from the house. It was gated so you had to put in a code and then walk up to the apartment which was 4 flights of stairs, a lot of stairs. My legs felt wobbly, I could barely stand.

"Woah there Aiden, don't collapse on me now," Will said opening the door.

"I wouldn't if you didn't live so high up."

"It was the only on they had available at the time."

I walked in with Will following behind. I was surprised to say the least. I don't know what I expected his place to look like but it certainly wasn't this. On my right was the living room which had light gray leather recliners in front of a TV that looked nice but expensive. In the middle of the room was a coffee table that was marble.

On my left was the kitchen that had a stove, fridge, dishwasher, marble counter tops, and dining table of course. I was already blown out of my mind and I hadn't even seen the rest of the apartment. The bathroom also had marble counters and a gigantic mirror above the porcelain sink. The shower had a glass door. Fancy.

"You having fun looking around?" Will asked from behind me. He was leaning against the door frame with a smile plastered on his face.

"Are you secretly rich or something?" I whispered.

"You could say that," He quickly changed the subject, "come on let me show you the rooms. I nodded following him out. There were three rooms in total, his bedroom, a guest room, and another room that was locked.

"This way, that room isn't important." Will urged as I made my way over.

"Then why is it locked?" He ignored the question moving over to the guest room. There was a bed in the middle of the room there were two nightstands on either side of the bed. There was another door, probably a bathroom and a TV. I also noticed a certain theme of colors. Light gray and white. "You said that your place was tiny and small, this isn't tiny or small." I said as we moved to his room.

"Did I?" He asked opening his bedroom door. There was a bed that looked to about a queen size, another TV, shelves of books all around his room. There were also fairy lights hanging above his bed. There was also a desk that had all of his books, computer and finally, and spiny chair. The only running theory I had so far was that he was loaded but keeping it a secret.

"So this is your place?" I asked sitting on the bed while he took the chair.

"Yeah, this is it."

"I like your room, the vibe is calm." I said, he smiled. "But I do have one question."

"And that is?"

"What's in the locked room?"

"Something I'd like to keep to myself," He paused, "Come on, lets go give your brother some company." He said giving me a kiss.

"Are you trying to just us caught?" I asked covering my face.

"You didn't push me away reckless." He grinned. He's right, I didn't. I shook my head.

"You can do that later when we're alone." I said, Mark usually leaves somewhere over the weekends so I have the house to myself.

"Is this my invitation?"

"Oh please like you ever need one." I rolled my eyes smiling. I followed Will out into the living roon where Mark was on his phone the recliner out.

"You two finally down with the tour?" Mark asked looking up from his phone. We nodded. He turned to me, "Aiden, trust me you're not alone. I was also surprised when I first came to the apartment." He turned to Will, "And to think you have all this space just to yourself."

Will shrugged, "What can I say? I like my space."

For the next couple of hours we spent our time playing all of the board games Will had. There was monopoly, because of course there was monopoly. There was also candy land, sorry, scrabble. Mark and Will kept losing which they weren't happy about, but me? I was busy having the best time with my bragging rights.

Right now, the three of us were playing scrabble and of course I was winning.

"That's it, I'm done." Mark yelled, crossing his arms.

"Oh come on man don't be a sore loser." Will said.

Mark rolled his eyes then turned to me, "How are you so good at these games anyway?"

They were both waiting for an answer.

"I play them online." I shrugged, which wasn't a lie. Really I do play them online when I'm not sketching, or reading.

Mark eyed me suspiciously, "Let's play a different game."

"How about a card game?" Will suggested, I perked up.

"Could we play blackjack?"

"Sure, you want to deal?" He asked Mark.

Mark nodded, "Sure."

Will handed him the cards. It's a game of luck so Mark can't get mad.

After a few rounds Mark was fed up with his losing streak.

"If you want I can deal." Will suggested, Mark handed him the cards. He took a minute to shuffle before passing out the cards.

"Hit me." Mark demanded, looking at his cards then at Will. He nodded and handed him a card.

"Everyone ready?" Will asked after a few minutes. We nodded in unison. "Would you look at that," Will pointed out. This time Mark got 21.

"It only took a bigillion times." I commented, we all laughed.

"Bigillion? First, that isn't a word. Second, wow I'm hurt Aiden." Mark said in between laughs.

This is nice. I could get use to this.