Born and Died 2 Days Apart

Chapter 8: Lyla

I beat him. We stand there on his driveway, hands on our knees, panting like dogs. I smile and slap him on the head.

"Ow!" He yells and glares at me. "What was that for?"

"For fun!" I wink at him and steal the ball out of his arms and start dribbling. Well, I guess I'm not really dribbling, more like showing off my skills to him and bouncing the ball under my leg, that kind of stuff. I jump up when I'm near the hoop and launch the ball into the hoop. It makes it through and bounces on the ground towards Derek.

"You're pretty good," He says and starts dribbling. "But not as good as me!" He grins and starts sprinting for the hoop, dribbling like lightning. I realize that he's gonna shoot so once the ball is out of his hands I sprint over and block his shot. The ball slaps my hands and falls down to the ground. I grab the ball before he even has a chance to reach for it.

"Who's the good one now?" I say and smirk at him.

"Alright, alright you got me," he says putting his hands up in defeat. "Ready for a rematch?"

"You betcha," I say and start dribbling.

We play for a little while longer until we are both super tired. I wipe the sweat from my forehead with my hand and hand Derek back his ball.

"Hey, wanna come over to my house for a snack?" I ask, hoping silently in my mind that he'll say yes.

"Sure." He puts down his ball and starts to cross the street. As we walk I tell him about my brother, and he says he has two younger siblings who are twins named Amy and Andrew. Apparently they are really annoying.

"I'd like to meet them some day," I say as we walk through my front door.

"No, you don't. Trust me. They are like demons. They will pester you and bug you and annoy you and they are DEMONS." He says and I laugh really hard.

"Well even if they are demons, I still want to meet them." I smile and lead him over to the kitchen in my house. I grab the bag of potato chips and plop down on the couch. He follows and sits next to me, but keeping a safe distance away. I place the bag of chips in between us and turn on the tv.

"Do you wanna watch anything?" I ask and look at him. He shrugs.

"Whatever you want." I decide to turn off the tv and go to my room. I put away the remote, pick up the chips and start walking towards my room, motioning for him to follow. We walk silently down the hall, and into my bedroom where I see the one person I wasn't expecting on my bed: Jonathan.

"Who's that?" Jonathan asks pointing at Derek.

"It doesn't matter. GET OUT OF MY ROOM." I yell and Jonathan skips out yelling for dad.

"Dad! DADDY! Guess what? Lyla has a boyfriend. Ooh, you're gonna be so mad! Boyfriend! Boyfriend! Lyla has a boyfriend!" I stick my face in my hands and guide Derek into my room and close the door.

That was embarrassing.

"Sorry," I say and turn to Derek who is looking all over my room silently. "That was my pesky little brother, Jonathan."

"Don't be sorry. I know how you feel. Your little brother is like Amy and Andrew every single day," he says. I laugh a little and then grab my phone off my desk. Derek notices me doing this and whips his phone out of the pocket in his basketball shorts.

"Do you have a number?" He asks motioning towards my phone.

"Ya," I say and look up my number in my contacts. I made a contact for myself so if I forgot my number I could look it up. "It's 650-330-2819." Seconds later my phone buzzes and I check what its about. I smile as I read it; it's a message from Derek.

"You know I'm right here right? There's this thing called talking you know? Where you move your mouth and speak to the person in front of you?" I say and make big gestures with my arms and mouth. Derek starts cracking up. I grin as well. He's cute when he smiles.

"I know how to speak dummy," Derek says winking. "I was just testing it to see if you got the number right."

"I know. Just messing with you." I grin and shove him a little. He smiles even bigger and does it to me too. I'm about to shove him again when my dad bursts in the room. He stares at Derek intently, scanning him and his face. I have to admit, it looks really creepy.

"Who are you?" My dad asks Derek, frowning in disapproval.

"I-I'm Derek." He says, stuttering.

"And why are you in my house and even worse in Lyla's room?"

"I, uh-" Derek starts but I interrupt him.

"Dad, this is Derek. Derek this is my dad. Dad, Derek is my friend. I met him at school. We were just playing basketball and we were just exchanging phone numbers and talking about the importance of speaking." My dad looks impressed and reaches out to shake Derek's hand.

"Hello Derek. So you're a basketball fan?" My dad asks Derek, now less scary and more friendly.

"Um, yeah," He says and starts getting really engaged in the conversation. "I'm on the school team." While they talk about basketball I look at Derek. I notice he's strong. Very muscular, very cute, very...well, hot. I'm not surprised when he says he also play football, and my Dad asks all about his favorite football teams and favorite positions and everything that has to do with football. Once they finish talking about two minutes later my dad asks if we want any snacks and Derek and I say "no thanks" in unison. My dad smiles and leaves, leaving Derek and I alone. We are silent for a while. Not saying much and just staring at the ceiling while sitting on the edge of my bed.

"So," Derek starts and I turn to look at him. "You, uh, play volleyball right? I saw you doing that thing with the pole, ball, and goal this morning."

"Oh so you were checking me out this morning huh?" I ask and smile. He blushes and fiddles with his fingers. I like making him blush, blushing makes him look cuter.

"Aw come on Derek, I'm just kidding." I slap him and the back and wink. He smiles back and I forget what we were talking about before.

"So, do you play?" He asks again and then I remember what we were saying.

"Yup. I play on the school team and for club. Do you play?"

"Nah. Volleyball isn't really my thing," he says and gets a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Actually, I've never played."

"Really?" I ask and grab his arm. "I guess that will have to change."