Bitter-Sweet

Chapter 12: The start of a beautiful friendship

Cyrus and Buffy hugging

TJ POV:

I had basketball practice after school again and I was really nervous, it was the first one since the incident and I was scared of what they were going to say. I had P.E last so I just left my stuff in the changing rooms and went out to the gym where Buffy was already sat on the bench. She looked...less mean today. We were both really early, to avoid talking to her, I picked up the basketball that was discarded on the gym floor and bounced it, dribbling to the hoop and shooting. It went in and it hit the floor hard before I caught it mid-bounce.

'Hey TJ.' She called without an ounce of attitude towards me whatsoever, something I'd never heard before.

Tucking the ball under my arm, I turned around, 'Yeh?'

'Could you...come over here for a sec?' She said awkwardly, gesturing to the space on the bench next to her.

Once I jogged over there, I put down the basketball and made eye contact with her, waiting to see what she had to say. She stared at me for a moment, obviously trying to say something but wasn't able to so she just blurted out, 'Do you wanna do a drill together?'

I started blankly at her in surprise, 'Uhhh yeh sure?'

We both stood up and she went to stand opposite me, 'Pass to the end and back?' She asked. I nodded in response, throwing her the basketball ball and taking a step to my left, she immediately returned it and stepped to her right. Wow she has such good hand to eye coordination. I returned it quickly and stepped to my left again and she passed it back, stepping to her right. We worked up a rhythm so we made our way down the court and back again doing the same thing.

I smiled, 'Driscoll, you got moves.'

She grinned back, 'glad you finally noticed.'

'There's that wit I was missing!'

Once we had done it about 10 times we were both already worn out and we needed our energy for practice which started in 10 minutes so we sat back down to cool off. Buffy's breathing evened out quicker than me because I was, of course, wearing my hoodie in the sweltering heat.

'Ready to go again?' She joked, throwing the basketball lightly in her hands.

I pulled at my hoodie to distance my skin from the fabric, 'Ha ha, very funny.'

Buffy smirked, 'Awww is Captain tired?'

Shaking my head I lifted my hand playfully punch her arm, 'I could go again, fifty times.'

She raised an eyebrow, 'I could go a hundred.'

'Well I could go one fifty.'

'Well I could go-'

'Hey guys!' Cyrus walked over to us smiling, 'You two seem...good.'

Buffy shrugged, clearly not sure on our situation and started picking at the basketball.

Cyrus didn't push it and instead took a seat next to her. The boys came out as did coach, to my surprise, none of them said anything. Like, at all. They just all pretended this was practice as usual and ignored what they saw last time. Which I really appreciate but also thought was weird because I was constantly worried that they would mention it. I kind of want them to bring it up so we can just get it out of the way. During practice, there was a good opportunity for me to shoot, I was about to but-

'TJ!'

I saw Buffy stood in an open space, one that would probably be more suited as she was at a better angle to shoot and surrounded by less markers.