Bittersweet Heartstrings

Chapter 4: Ideas

The next day in school, talk of yesterday's basketball game was circulating around. That didn't make any sense, though. Declan had said that it was cancelled, but he didn't know why. I should've picked up that he was lying, considering I am his best friend and on-and-off girlfriend.

I thought that Avery might've known why he skipped the game, but she was clueless as to why he would. He's the star player and he hasn't skipped a game since he had the stomach flu, which was years ago. Basketball was his passion, so why he would skip was beyond me.

Throughout the morning, I kept hearing little snidbits of conversations. Most included something like, "Did you hear about that foul?" or "That dude should've been taken out of the whole game! But he only got a measly two minute timeout!" or even, "Griffin should have beat that dude's sorry ass!" So, that left me wondering what happened at the game. And, who best to ask but Griffin himself? The almighty jerk. 

When lunch time came, Avery and I walked over to Griffin's table and without asking, I found out what the talk about the foul was about. Griffin had a bandage on his nose and you could see part of the bruise sticking out from beneath it.

"What happened?" I sat next to Declan, brow furrowed in worry.

"A fucking bastard broke my nose." Griffin snarled, glaring at the table.

"Did you hit the guy back?" I asked, assuming he did.

"Hell I did. Couch benched me the rest of the freakin' game." I thought for sure he would burn a whole through the table, he was glaring at it so intently.

"What about the other guy?" I knew the answer to that question, but I asked it anyway.

"He only sat out for two minutes! And he's the one who started everything! The ref didn't even say anything about it." He finally looked up at me, meeting my gaze. This time, I didn't freak out about his eyes, though. I knew for sure that he wasn't the one who abducted me.

"I told you, they paid the ref off. That team's known for playing dirty. Bet that team will be making it look like you started the fight, though." Ricky said. 

"No shit." Griffin was in a really bad mood; his green eyes were dark and he had a frown etched on his face. 

I stared at Griffin a moment longer before turning my attention to Declan.

"Why didn't you go to the game yesterday?" I asked. Then, almost as an afterthought, added, "You lied to me." 

"Sorry." Declan mumbled, only loud enough for me to hear.

"Yeah, Declan, why didn't you go? We could have used you at the game last night. Your the best player, besides myself. After I got benched, the team tanked. I assume you have a valid reason?" Griffin asked.

"I, uh," He scratched the back of his neck, trying to think of something reasonable.

"Well?" Griffin pressed.

"I don't have to tell you." Declan sounded bold, but he looked just the slightest bit uncertain.

"Tell me. That was we can buff it up before you tell couch. You do need a valid reason for him." Ricky smirked, a devious look in his eyes.

"Alright." Declan sighed, "I screwed up with Carson and I went over her house to fix things."

"That sissy answer will just make coach force you to do a ten mile run." Ricky chuckled.

"Yeah, I know." Declan blushed slightly. 

Griffin had went back to glaring intently at the table. I studied him with curiosity. That game couldn't have been the only thing that got him into such a bad mood. So, I lightly kicked him under the table. He barely glanced up at me.