Airball

Chapter 14 - I Decline Multiple Offers To Party

January 4, 2020.

"Keep going, keep going!" Austin yelled at me as he threw the ball to me.

I missed the shot, Austin caught the rebound again, and he threw it back to me. I shot again and made the shot, moving on to the final position along the three-point line. It took me another two tries to get it in from that position.

"Nice!" exclaimed Austin, who had been keeping count of the shots along with me. "Fifteen isn't bad!"

"It's alright," I said, but I was smiling a little too. Whether fifteen shots to make five three-pointers was good or not, it was definitely an improvement. I caught the ball as Austin passed it back and pushed it into my bad on the bench.

"We're stopping?" Austin breathed. "Thank God! Er, I mean gosh." Austin was raised in a heavily Christian family, and was always conscious of when he used the Lord's name in vain, even when his parents weren't around.

"What's that?" I asked, cupping my hand around my ear. "You want to keep going?"

"No! Please, no," he pleaded. "We've been out here for hours. Every day since we got out of school for Christmas break!"

Austin loved to help me practice basketball, but not for long periods of time. He also didn't care much for my teammates, and preferred to hang with me when they were elsewhere. That worked out well for me though. If my teammates couldn't practice with me, Austin could. And if nobody could, I'd do it myself. Nothing was stopping me from practicing, not even the cool weather. Not that it was too bad with us living in Florida and all. but when you get used to the hot weather and it makes anything under 80 degrees seem cold.

"I'm going back to the house," I told Austin. "You can come with if you'd like. My dad is out with some of his friends."

Austin shrugged. "Sure."

So I threw my bag over my shoulder and we walked toward my house. We were about halfway there when my phone started to vibrate. An incoming Facetime call from Nathan. I answered it and Nathan's face appeared on my screen, along with flashing lights and lots of music and noise.

"Hey, Blake!" Nathan yelled over the music and yelling so I could hear him.

"What's up, Nate?" I asked while continuing to walk with Austin.

"I just wanted to update you—" Nathan paused to avoid a wildly dancing couple as they swung by, "—on how much fun you could've been having. Oh, hi Austin," he noticed Austin in the corner of my screen for the first time.

"Hi, Nathan," Austin replied.

"Yep, looks like you're having a blast," I replied, not really interested much in what I was missing.

"Tell Blake that there are tons of girls here!" shouted a distant voice that I could immediately identify as Cam's.

"Say hi to Blake for me, too!" said Max, also from somewhere is the distance.

"Wait, that's Blake?" a girl appeared on the screen that I didn't recognize at first. It was Maia, but her hair was flowing free instead of braided up and she was wearing a bright dress. "Hi Blake!"

"Hey Maia," I said.

"Let's get back on the dance floor, Natey," Maia pleaded, with Nathan making a face at me at the sound of his new nickname.

I laughed. "Looks like you have your hands full without me there," I said. "Besides, I'm working on my game."

Nathan nodded, like he completely understood. "That's great. You're getting better, man, I can see it."