Broken Heart Season

Chapter Five.

Gina and Bella never could understand what basketball and volleyball meant to me. They both thought it was just sports, and they were too lazy to play them. Well, Gina liked the sports, but she didn't understand what it meant to me. To me, basketball and volleyball were a stress reliever. The sports kept me going, gave me motivation.

Sadly, at my house we didn't have a volleyball net or a basketball goal. The only place to play sports at was the local New Oak park. That's where I was.

I dribbled the basketball across the cemented court and threw it towards the square on the backboard. Swish. To me, basketball and volleyball meant having the time to tune the world out. Tuning the world out was something I couldn't do whenever I needed to.

"You play basketball?" A deep voice startled me from behind, making me miss my shot. I grumbled and turned around to see who had the guts to make a basketball fan miss their shots. It was Jax from Calculus AP.

I nodded. "Yeah I actually do play basketball. Why are you here?"

I never meant to be rude to Jax, but if you interrupted my basketball time, I got into grouchy mode. I walked to the goal and grabbed my ball.

"What does it look like?" He chuckled, showing his ball as well. "I'm here to play basketball. My brother took up my basketball goal, so I heard about this one and decided to come here."

I nodded and walked over to him with my ball under my arm. "Okay, well I'll make my way out."

As I started walking past him, a warm hand grabbed my wrist and turned me towards the culprit. Jax's face held a wide smirk and he let out a audible chuckle. "Now, now. Don't be shy and leave just because I showed up."

I rolled my eyes. So this is how Jax was: a bad boy who thinks he's bad. I ripped my arm from his grip and made a 'hmph" sound.

"I am not going to leave just because you showed up!" My hands motioned with my annoyance, causing the basketball to drop from beneath my underarm.

"Well," He chuckled again. I'll show him what's funny. "I mean, you kinda made it seem like you were going to. I announced myself, and you decided to leave. Explain princess?"

Princess? Seriously? Hmph.

"I have to go home anyways," I snarled,  bending down to pick my ball back up. It rested, once again, under my arm. "It's almost 6 in the evening. I'm not supposed to stay out late."

He chuckled. Is that all he can do? "Okay, well I guess I'll see you tomorrow at school?"

Did he not check the school's calendar? Wednesdays are usually Teacher Inservice meetings. Us students always get the day off when they have their meetings once a month. Maybe it would be fun to play a little trick on him, I thought.

"Yeah," I nodded, smirking mentally to myself. "I'll see you tomorrow at school. In Calculus."

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If you would have told me that wouldn't have been the last time I crossed paths with Jax Welsh, I would have rolled my eyes and laughed at you. Maybe I would have called you a liar as well. It floored me how he seemed genuinely nice and easy-going at school, but when I was alone with him he turned confident and arrogant.

"So I was thinking that we could go to Charming Charlie's first," Gina spoke loudly, using her finger to scroll through her phone. We decided to go shopping today since it was Teachers Inservice. "I mean, it's right there when we first walk in, and it's color-coordinated."

I nodded and started our walk to the big store. Charming Charlie's was our favorite store -and our first store- to go to every time we go to the mall. We walked inside and immediately we smelt the familiar perfume the employees spritz every morning. All of the black merchandise was in a corner, right next to all the gray and all the white. The shades of blue were distributed further back in the store, next to the turquoise.