ball boy • b.u

6; brendon

I watched as Cassidy walked away after she excused herself to the bathroom. I waited until she was out of earshot.

"You fucking asshole." I punched Ryan hard in the shoulder.

He laughed, "What? I'm helping you!"

"How in all hell is embarrassing me helping me?"

Dallon leaned in, "To be fair, it is helping because now we can tell that she likes you too. Her face was equally as red as you're, Brenny boy." He folded his arms across his chest. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever." I turned and saw Cassidy walking back over, "Hey. That was fast." I smiled.

"Yeah, the bathrooms are closed for cleaning." she said and looked at her feet awkwardly and sat down beside me. Gosh is she adorable. I saw from the corner of my eye, Ryan winked at me and I glared at him.

"So-"

"Do you want to meet me at the basketball court tonight? Normal time?" she blurted out, and looked at me. I saw her eyes flick around as she studied my reaction.

"Uh- sure." I smiled, and her face softened. Her teeth formed a perfect smile and I couldn't help but admire her features.

The bell rang and we went our separate ways.

•

I waited at the basketball courts, dribbling the ball and taking random spiratic shots just to kill time. I heard cars stop at the lights and I turned to see Cassidy walking toward me, but without her dog. She had her hair down, which I'd never seen before. It was always in tied up.

"Hi Brendon!" she smiled.

"Hey." I tried to act cool, but I mentally slapped myself because I definitely just sounded like a douche. She walked over to me and took the ball out of my hands. "Wha-"

"I want you to teach me how to play basketball." she said. "I've always wanted to, but I never had anyone to teach me." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Sure." I smiled. "Okay, so first I'll teach you how to shoot." she nodded and I went behind her, moving her hands on the ball. "Okay, so you want to always have you hands kind of making a T with your thumbs." she shifted her hands,

"Like this?" she asked.

"Perfect, okay so now you're going to bend your knees," she nodded and crouched a little. "Okay, good. Now lift the ball to above your hairline, and keep your hands the same way. When you're bringing it up, gradually go on your tippy toes and when its up push the ball away and keep the hand on the side in the air." She nodded and tried it, and turned around to see my reaction.

"Okay that was good, imagine your sticking your hand in a cookie jar.

"Okay." she said and went to go get the ball. She was about to do it again before I stopped her. I went over to fix her hand placements. Cassidy face was so close to mine. She watched my eyes rather than her hands. I looked up from the ball and looked directly into her eyes.

Our faces were merely inches apart.