Why We Fell in Love

Chapter Three

It's the weekend which means it's a Saturday. A Saturday means a day with my brother Gavin. He decided to live with mom after the divorce but he's now in college. He goes to Rutgers for football so at least he's close by. He's only three years older than me but he still looks like a high schooler.

"How's life treating ya?" he says as we're strolling around the park eating fro-yo.

"Hate school, hate people. You?" I ask.

"Same," he says as we both smile. Whenever we stare at each other, we automatically start smiling but we have no idea why. "Abs, look! There's a game going on!"

He pulls me towards the basketball court and there's a crowd around teenagers playing basketball. Since when was he a sucker for basketball? He pulls me up close to the guys as he's cheering along with the other people. 

But my attention immediately focuses on Noah who is playing in the game. He plays outside of school as well," Gavin, can we leave?" I ask over the loud noises.

"No!" he yells.

"Why?"

"Because this group of teenagers are homeless and it's nice seeing their talent. The people wearing the white shirts are helpers," he explains. Noah is wearing a white shirt. He's helping them? I didn't notice I was staring at Noah until he looks at me too.

I immediately turn around and walk away from the game happening and luckily, Gavin doesn't notice," Abby, wait up," Noah yells, running up to me.

"Ew, you're sweaty," I say, stepping back from him.

"Why'd you run away?" he asks, smirking.

I roll my eyes," because I'm claustrophobic and I don't like tight spaces."

"Your boyfriend seemed to be enjoying it."

I start laughing," he's my brother you idiot."

I throw my fro-yo away because it's already melted due to my sweaty hands.  I start walking in the direction of the game hoping Gavin is done watching," so why were you here?" he asks.

"I don't know, my brother wanted to watch you guys play. I guess he's into it," I say as he's scratching the back of his head. I think he's worried about if I know that he's helping the kids. Im not going to say I know though. I'll wait for another time. "Shouldn't you go back?"

"I'm good," he says, pulling out a cigarette from his pocket. 

I push his hand back down," please don't."

He looks at me in a funny way but then turns serious," it's just a cigarette."

And it also contains thousands of chemicals that can kill you. "Okay, and you can do whatever the heck you want with it but not around me. Got it?"

He seems surprised about what I said so he puts i away, "alright Abigail, but you still make me sick."

"... Why do you bother doing this."

"Doing what?" he says. Are you serious?

"Smoking and drinking and dealing. All that stuff," I say in a serious voice.

"You won't get it blondie," he says, pulling out the same cigarette.

"Did you not just listen to what I said?"

He shrugs," deal with it."

I roll my eyes, walking back to my brother. He's still focused on the game but I don't care at this point because Noah has gotten on my nerves. I know there's a reason why he's doing this. I need to know why though because I'm just dying on the inside.