Rosie

Chapter 4 - Sam

Sweat dripping down the side of my face, out of breath and sitting on the bench with a water bottle in my hand. That is how Charles finds me on the side of the basketball field.

"Dude what the hell were you doing here so early, training starts in thirty minutes," he says throwing me a towel.

"So?" I catch the towel and wipe it across my face.

"So? What the hell are you doing?" he drops his bag taking a seat next to me.

"Just had to clear my head" I open the water bottle to drink.

"And? Cleared?"

I shrug "A bit"

Charles slaps my back getting up to go to the dressing rooms. He knows better than to stay with me when I'm like this.

I decided to go straight to the basketball court after class. I need to get rid of all the thoughts buzzing in my head.

On Friday I met my new roommate Leo. Let's say that it was a first meeting none of us is going to forget. After I reassured him that things wouldn't happen again, he told me it was fine with it and that it wasn't a problem. Turns out we get along really well. We are different but that is kind of refreshing. He is a classic boy next door good student type. To my surprise, he told me he has a huge crush on Rosie. I remembered Rosie vaguely from my photography class last year. She is cute. A bit annoying, but that is more my fault than hers.

I decided to eat lunch in the garden. I wanted to see Leo ask out Rosie. After all, I encouraged him to do it. We trained the whole weekend the poor guy didn't even know what to do. Pretty sure that if he wouldn't have met me, he still wouldn't have asked her out. He already kissed her on the most awkward moment he possibly could have created and to make it worse after that he told her to forget about it and move on.

Coach interrupts my thoughts "Brens" he nods walking past me. He is a great person. Sometimes I'm not even sure he is even human, but besides that he is great. He can be so tempered when he is on the sideline or on the field or during practice. But after the game he is cool, he has his moments, I guess. I hear the whistle blow which signals the start of practice, sighing I stand up and go to the center of the court.

Practice started only forty minutes ago and I'm screwing everything up. All the focus I had before seemed to have vanished during my quick break and I can seem to concentrate on the task on hand.

Without me being able to control it, thoughts of Rosie cloud my mind. I guess she made quite the impression without even meaning to. I miss easy shots because I can't stop thinking about Rosie's brown shoulder-length bob. Balls slip through my hands because I keep on seeing her brown almost green eyes. I bump into my teammates because I keep on picturing her body in that jean skirt she was wearing today. This never happened to me before. It has been a long time since I've been friendly with a girl but with her it happened so naturally.

Me thinking about her is starting to be annoying. I annoy myself which makes me incompetent which annoys the other players on the field. In the back of my mind, I'm also wondering if thinking about her in this way is vaguely breaking the bro code. But to make myself feel better I just keep telling myself that her and Leo are not officially together. So, for now, my thoughts are still in the safe zone.

"BRENS!" coach yells making me jump. "Go sit on the bench you are out for the rest of practice".

"But..." I try to protest "No! go!" when I don't immediately move, he starts yelling "Now. please." I sigh and walk to the corner of the gym dropping down on one of the benches.

One hour later practice is over. We all regroup in the middle of the court "Everybody good job, go shower I see you tomorrow. Brens come by my office before you leave" coach turns around without another word.