Just a Game | ASHANNIE | ✓

four

Annie didn't know whether she wanted to throw the ball in his face or to beat him in this game. She was gonna try for the latter but she could settle for the prior.

He wore this giant smirk that irked her nerves, and she knew it was meant to. Oh and why couldn't he just wear the darn shirt?

She dribbled in front of him as he tested her, waiting for her to make a move. She gave it about three more seconds before she rounded on herself and went around him in turn. She started to run but Asher was there to block automatically.

By the time the one on one ended, they were forty five minutes in, and Annie was breathing hard and more sweaty than she'd like to admit. She took a breath and drank a bit of water.

"You trained yourself to favor your left cause you expect everyone to think you favor your right." Asher noted. He was sweaty too, but Annie was avoiding looking at him. His eyes alone were enough to steal her breath and she was already out of breath at the moment. "You do the unexpected every time."

Annie finally brought herself to look at him. "And?" Asher seemed a bit thrown back by the rudeness. He was out of breath too but he seemed steady on his feet.

"And, when you do the unexpected every time it becomes expected of you. You have to switch it up. Any team could make a comeback if they know what moves you'll make...why are you so rude to people?"

It was Annie's turn to be thrown off. She didn't really think anyone took the time to ask her that. "I hate the world. Why be nice to it?" She finally said, a bit of a joke but the meaning was there.

"The world gave you basketball." He reminded her. Annie shook her head.

"Caleb gave me basketball." She told him.

"The world gave you Caleb." Annie scoffed.

"The world took Caleb away." Asher was quiet. "The world takes things away as simply as it gives them. I don't care for it."

"You mean God?" Asher finally said. Annie reluctantly nodded. "Don't you think you were lucky to have known Caleb at all?" Annie looked away. "You had time with him, you have memories of him. God didn't have to make him live a single year on Earth, but he did for 13. He exposed Caleb to this world full of chaos and sin, and when he called Caleb back you push everyone away and become everything Caleb wouldn't have wanted?" Annie stood up abruptly.

"You have no right to say what Caleb would have wanted. You don't know him or me for that matter." She sounded more hurt than anything.

"Would anyone want their death to turn someone into a cruel unrecognizable person who never lets herself love anyone?" Annie grabbed the ball and began mindlessly dribbling.

He couldn't do this, spend forty minutes with her and be able to read her. He had no right to.

"Come on pretty boy shut that mouth of yours and show me how to play basketball not be my therapist." She told him, taunting him, testing him.

He sighed and followed her back onto the court.