Always Been You

Just another game

"And so you all are responsible for your parts, but it's going to be all graded as a group effort," Professor Martin tells the class. Great. Hahaha, I love group projects! I'll end up doing the most work anyway, as always. I ended up in a group with a jock, a sorority girl, and one mutual friend. Tyler Cruz, fellow Communications major. I've had a few classes over the past years and we've developed an understanding over the years. He and I exchanged a look as we met up with the other members. 

"I feel like we have a lot of time to do this. So we all should divide up the parts and regroup like later? This week is crazy busy for me," Kylie Gordon manages to say under one breathe. I see her all over campus but don't really know her personally. She's the type a girl that has every guy do a double-take. For some reason, I've only gotten weird stares from her. She looks at me and smiles. The other guy started talking to her about a Greek event, and I turn to Tyler.

"You wanna meet up next week to talk through the assignment? Once we get a good grasp of what we need to do, I think we can divvy up the parts," I say to him. He nods his head. "I agree. We'll talk and figure it out," he assures me. Once we all exchange numbers, we go our separate ways. The next item on my to-do list was to go home, relax for a bit, and then get ready for the game. Jacob and Nicole were gonna come over so we could all go together. We usually wear shirts or sweatshirts we've collected over the years from events. This group is pretty preppy on game days.

Jacob and I decided to match with the same oversized sweatshirt and similar blue jeans. Nicole wore a blue and white tee, and Alia wore a mock jersey. All of us stopped by the Dunkin' right next to the apartment building and got some iced drinks. It's currently autumn, so we're trying to drink as many as iced beverages before it gets too cold. But let's be real, iced coffee is a drink for all the seasons. Since we were all energized, we decided to walk to the sports center instead of driving.

We walked in 20 minutes before the game, so there were still empty seats throughout the arena. The players were doing their warmup routine as we settled in the third row. We all cheer as we see Karan make his way to the basket. "WOOOOOO," we all scream. Karan looks over and shakes his head as he smiles. He high fives his teammates as they look our way and laugh. Alia is good friends with a couple of the guys on the team. I always joke and tell her to hook me up with one of them. I'm afraid that one day she really might.

The speaker gets our attention as it's time for the tip-off. But before that, the starting line-up is introduced. All the boys enthusiastically run out and pump up the crowd. We always have the ultimate shit talkers show up and make the games 10x better. They pick on random players from the opposing team and roast them. It's hilarious to witness these top notch sarcastic comments. The team gets a head start pretty early in the game. All of us are so pumped and take multiple snapchats of the arena. Soon enough, half of the game passes by, and we're up by 10 points. I start getting distracted by texts I was getting from one of my classmates about an assignment we had due tonight. "I swear people are getting stupider by the second," I say out loud. I aggressively type my responses as my patience lessens. Alia nudges my shoulder hard and gets my attention. 

"What do you want?" I ask her in an annoyed tone. "Cutie on the floor," she gestures to the court. I roll my eyes."Yeah, I know. You think Drake is really cute. You don't have to say that every 5 seconds," I reply giving her a look. "Bitch, not him. I think he's new," she tells me. I look up and look at the players wearing white jerseys. I saw someone with "07" on the back of the jersey, but I couldn't see his face. 

"Who is that, though?" Jacob asks. I shuffle in my seat, trying my best to look at him. Suddenly, he jumps in the air, and his hand blocks the opponent player's shot. As people start cheering, he turns to his side and gives one of his teammates a high-five. I gasp really loud and begin rapidly tapping Jacob's knee. "It's him, It's him, It's him," I reach over him and tell Nicole."Who?" Nicole replies looking confused as ever. "ELEVATOR GUY!" I exclaim. The three of them look back at him, and in harmony, say "Ohhhh."

Of course, he's on the team. I should've known the second I realized how tall he was. I mean, that would be such a stereotype, but so true. I didn't think I would even see him again. I continue to observe him on the court, but make sure to look around, so it's not totally obvious. I looked over at the screen with the scores and look for his number.

#07 Drew Davis.

In a few minutes, the buzzer rings and the band starts playing music to celebrate the win. The players begin to jog by the front row, giving the fans high-fives. Karan passes by and gives us a quick shoutout as he runs back to the locker room. Drew was behind him and was unphased by his surrounding. He didn't look my way at all.

"Are you sure that's him?" Nicole asks again. "Yes. I am positive Nicole. He stands out in the crowd," I tell her.

On the way back to the apartment, I had to deal with my friends making fun of the situation. "I could feel her nails pierce through my jeans," Jacob jokes. Alia and Nicole start cracking up along with him. "Hilarious," I sigh. It was just so unexpected. I really didn't think I'd see him again. They're acting like I'm in love with him or something. Any chance they get to tease me back. I knew my elite sarcasm would catch up to me someday. But I don't think they believe that it happened the way it did because it sounds so cliche. It sucked that we didn't get to finish our conversation. Plus, now I'm more intrigued. Who is this guy, and where did he even come from? But I guess the more important question is, why do I care?

With a toothbrush in my right hand and my phone in the other, I couldn't help myself. I totally tried to insta-stalk Drew. I went through Karan's following and found his profile. He had 900 followers and was following back. Okay, so he knows a lot of people. From what I could see from his private profile, his icon looked like it was a group picture. His bio said, "You know what they say... Ball is life." I'd be lying if I said I didn't roll my eyes. Cringe. But in a good way. I wanted to know more about him. But I knew it'd be weird If I followed him all of a sudden. He probably doesn't even remember me. I set my phone aside before I let myself get too much in my head.

I finish up my remaining homework in the living room as I rewatch episodes of The Office. Alia plops right next to me. She sighs loudly. I choose to ignore her. She dramatically sighs again. I raise my eyebrow. "What's wrong with you?" I ask. She puts her head on my shoulder. "I really like him, Kristina," she says. "Then why don't you do anything about it?" I ask her. Alia has been friends with this guy that she met at orientation three years ago. I was there too. But I might as well not have been because they had instantly hit it off. They went on a couple of dates, but some personal stuff came up, and it just didn't work out. But they've been friends through it all. I know both of them have always had feelings. I just don't get why they don't try again. Maybe because Alia's scared of letting a good thing go.

I put my arm around her in an effort to comfort her. "Don't be afraid of the unknown. Put your heart first for once. It's worth the risk."

"For someone who has had minimal dating experiencing, you sure know it all," she lightens up the mood. It was true. I've only had one boyfriend, and that was in high school for a few months. I tried getting tinder for a while but that didn't go too well. I guess I'm afraid of putting myself out there too. Rather than getting rejected by someone, I just don't put myself in that situation. The thought of someone liking me back is hilarious to me. I would never believe it. But I have lots of hope for everyone else. And that's why I encourage my friends to go for any opportunity they have. 

"Why don't you go get ice-cream with him or something? You can have a nice conversation," I tell her, putting aside my laptop. She looks up at me. "No, I can't do that." Next, I turn off the TV and face her. "Why not? Just throw the idea out there, or just see where his headspace is now," I suggest. She thinks for a moment before saying anything. "Yeah.. maybe," she replies. "Ok, but what do I wear?" she asks nervously. "You look great in this sweatshirt right now. Just call him, and GO."

She gets up and goes into her room to call him. I put away the dishes and clean up the kitchen before going to bed. I pour myself a hot cup of water for some green tea as Alia is rushing out of the door. The door slams behind her shortly. I turn off the light and proceed to head to my room with my cup of tea when the door opens again.

"Hey Kristina, thank you," she says. "Always."