After Hours (boyxboy) | ✓

Chapter Eighteen

School was starting in about a month. Was I mentally prepared for senior year? No. Never. I was excited, but not prepared. Senior year was supposed to be the best year of my childhood — the last hurrah. But it kind of looked like it was going to be a confusing, frustrating mess right now.

“Let’s play tennis,” Laura blurted out. 

We were in the break room, all four of us. The shift had just ended, and the next guards were already in. Laura stood in front of the TV, smiling at Donny. He looked as if he wanted to run away. I didn’t blame him. Playing tennis with coworkers wasn’t the coolest idea we’ve ever had. But at the same time, it sounded like a pretty good fucking idea.

Donny had been giving me and Brendon the cold shoulder since Friday. It was now Monday. And he still wouldn’t talk to us. He would give us fake smiles and polite small talk, but he wasn’t himself. I couldn’t tell if it was because he was jealous, annoyed, or worried. I thought it was my fault. I assumed he was pissed that I was spending time with his best friend. But it became clear to me that both Brendon and I were at fault for this one.

“I can’t,” Donny muttered. He began to leave, but I grabbed his arm. 

“Nope. Everyone’s coming. Two on two,” I said. He scowled, but nodded in agreement. That was easier than I thought. 

We all walked to the tennis courts, trying to avoid any security. We had passes to get in, but they were employee passes. I didn’t know if we were actually allowed to use the country club’s facilities. I wasn't too concerned though. We had a month left before school, and I didn’t really care about the job. Like, at all.

It was another cloudless day. The whole weekend was like this too. Usually, I’d be happy about it. But I kind of missed the occasional rainstorm. I had to work full, sunny shifts in this weather. If just one bolt of lightning had graced us with its presence, I would’ve had one less rotation to work. Sure, the sun was nice. But after being a lifeguard for about a month, I appreciated rain too. 

“What’re the teams?” Laura asked as we entered the courts. No one batted an eyelash as we grabbed four rackets. The tall wire fences cast odd shadows on the blue ground. White lines stretched across the courts, marking boundaries and nets.

Brendon threw his arm around my shoulders. “How about me and Emmett, and you and Donny?” he asked. I was aiming for Donny and Brendon versus me and Laura. Now Donny would probably bail.

“Sounds good to me,” Donny said, much to my surprise. We walked to a court and set up. 

The only one of us who had never played tennis was Donny. I played for the school team when I was younger and Laura did too. Apparently, Brendon was still on the varsity tennis team. I knew he liked tennis, but I didn’t know he was on varsity. The surprises just kept coming.

Me and Brendon went easy on the other team for the first few serves. Laura was mediocre at best. She hit a few serves, and scored maybe once. But Donny, on the other hand, was quite the pro (despite it being his first time playing). After he got the hang of it, he was off and running. He hit every ball that came his way. Brendon didn’t seem surprised at this. I was, obviously. He had allegedly never held a racket in his life. 

“Why are you so good at this?” I asked as Donny scored another point. Laura gave him a high-five.

He shrugged in response. “It’s kinda like baseball.”

“No, it’s not,” Brendon said. “You think everything is ‘kinda like baseball.’”

“Well it is.”