"Where've you been all day?" Flash asks as he runs to my car and jumps in at the end of the day. I did not return to school till it was the end of the day. Instead I ended up driving to this diner my dad used to take me to.
I sat there for the rest of the afternoon and contemplated my shitty life and ways I could try to improve. With my mom dying, my dad gone and my only other father figure about to get arrested, it was hard to look on the bright side of things.
"Uh just didn't feel like school you know?" I shrug not really sure what I should say. "You sure you wanna hang out?" He asks probably because of the miserable look on my face. "Yeah, yeah for sure." I say making myself a bit more enthusiastic.
We talk on the car ride home about his day and what I'd missed at school, also about what they'd gone through in class and I was just giving him basic explanations on the things he didn't get.
***
"Gayle what are you doing? You're gonna be late." I say once we enter the apartment to see Gayle sat on the couch, Tommy on her lap, she was no where near ready to go to work. "Oh, I forgot to mention I'm not going today, I had to switch shifts with Dina." She says before looking up at me her face faltering at the sight of my face.
"What happened to your face?" I give her a nonchalant shrug, "I tripped." I mumble but her eyes narrow because she sees right through my lies. Her narrowed eyes move from me to flash in an accusatory way making my eyes widen as I shake my head at her.
"I was mugged, well almost mugged." I explain making them both turn to me wide eyed, "you said you tripped." Flash says making me shrug, "well I did, during the mugging."
"Are you ok?" He asks his mouth about to open again with what I'm sure will be an abundance of questions, "I'm fine, I'm fine both of you." I almost tell them about how Spider-Man saved me but I decide not to. I don't know why I just wanted to keep it to myself. "I just don't want to talk about it, I got away fine, and Anna made me take her car to try and make sure that it wouldn't happen again."
They both nod and Gayle eventually tears her eyes from my cheek and smiles, "since I've got a handle on things here why don't the two of you go and hangout?" She suggests surprising me. I was still so not used to her being nice to me. "You sure?" She smiles softly and so I nod, "alright we'll see you later." I say kissing tommys head in goodbye and grabbing flash's hand, pulling him along with me excitedly.
"So what'd you wanna do?" I ask as we walk down the street our hands are still joined and I'm swinging them as he turns to me with a soft smile on his face. "I don't know, whatever you wanna do." I nudge him lightly, "Eugene! We always do what I wanna do, let's do something you like. We can go and watch any movie that you want or we can go and shoot some hoops." He laughs, "what don't laugh at me."
"Shoot some hoops sounds so weird from your mouth. Can you even 'shoot hoops'?" I drop his hand as I push him away from me gently, "alright stop mocking me now." I laugh as he laughs harder.
"Anyways I don't care what it is we're doing but you have to choose this time."
We end up in the park at the basketball court. "Can you even play?" He asks as he finds us a ball from I don't know where. "I'm yeah, I think I can."
"You think?" I step forward and quickly push the ball out of his hands before running past him and throwing the ball up hopefully.
Thankfully I'm not embarrassed when the ball actually goes through the hoop smoothly and so as I hear it bounce to the ground behind me I turn on my heel and send him a smug smile. "Don't doubt me again mr Thompson." I wink making him nod as he smiles, "wouldn't dream of it."
I was not as lucky as I had been with that first shot through the remainder of the game, I got some really close calls but barely any shots. "Alright come here Mj, I'll let you in on a few basketball secrets."
"Ok Lucas Scott." I say making his brows furrow, "who?" I gape at him in disbelief, "you did not just say that." He looks so confused it's kinda cute. "What are you talking about?"
"One tree hill? Nathan and Lucas Scott? Basketball rivalry that-" he shakes his head, "never heard of it."
"That's it I'm going home." I say over dramatically making him laugh as he grabs my wrist and gently pulls me back to him, "I'll watch it with you later." He assures making me beam at him, "you'll love it, it's only one of my most favourite tv shows of all time."
"Ok, so you were gonna show me basketball secrets?" He nods and hands me the ball as he goes to stand behind me, I feel myself blush slightly as he winds his arms around me to show me the correct way to stand and hold the ball. He claimed that I'd been throwing the ball aimlessly and just hoping for the best, which was true.
Once he lets go of me and instructs me to try without him I do and I get three for three in. "You're a quick learner." He says as he grins down at me proudly, "I know, I'm just good at everything." I shrug making him smile as he nods, "I don't doubt that."
"Thanks for the tips Eugene." He shrugs, "anytime, you're a natural." I shake my head, "nah I just have a great teacher." I then snatch the ball from his hands, "but watch me beat your ass." He chuckles, "is that right?" I nod and dodge his attempt to swipe it back. "You bet." I say kissing his cheek before I run past him and towards my net.
I was trying not to ship them but I can't help myself haha, I mean we can't just have mj waiting around until she eventually ends up w Peter. I am trying to make this rlly slow burn after all and I find that so hard haha so bare w me :)
