Love's Playbook

chapter three: starving

what's up everyone! thank you again for reading, commenting and voting- it means a lot and i'm glad that so far everyone is enjoying this and is into it! 🥲 I'm lucky enough to have had vacation time last week as well as this upcoming week which means updating a little more than usual but it may slow a little just because i'm a perfectionist. now lets see where these two are taking us now, shall we? ☺️

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you know just what to say, things that scare me/I should just walk away, but I can't move my feet/ the more that I know you, the more that I want to/something inside me's changed, I was so much younger yesterday/ I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted you/don't need no butterflies when you give me the whole damn zoo/ By the way, right away, you do things to my body.../you know just how to make my heart beat faster/emotional earthquake, bring on disaster

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"So, what makes Spencer James, Spencer James?" Olivia asks through a mouthful of ice cream. It had been a few minutes of silence and she figured that she'd have to be the one to break it. It was a simple question but it was a starting point at least. The hope was that it'd ease him into other questions and eventually make it easier for when they actually sat down for the real thing. 

Looking a little confused at first, Spencer took a spoonful of the ice cream into his mouth as he reflected on the question. As she rose her eyebrows and continued to stare at him, he laughed at her impatience before answering. "I guess, my family. Where I'm from. Those are the main things that make me, me. I have my mom and my brother, Dillon. They're pretty much the main people in my life outside of Coop and Darnell. Coop's like a sister and we've been tight since elementary school and Darnell, he's like another brother really and we lucked out and ended up getting drafted for the same team."

Nodding her head to signal she was listening, Olivia let him talk. She didn't want to pry too early but she could see the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his family. It gave her pause though that he failed to mention how he met Darnell. Any other person wouldn't have picked up on it but she thought it was a little weird. "And how did you guys meet? Just being teammates?" 

Spencer shifted in his seat a little and broke eye contact. His introduction to Darnell wasn't the simplest situation and he never really explained the whole situation. Always leaving it at, "we met in high school, we both played football". Not many people put much thought into his explanation after hearing that and it was always a relief when they didn't. Spencer really didn't want to get too far into. It wasn't small talk nor easy to explain that you'd found out that the new kid on your team was actually the would be step-son of the father who'd abandoned you. It felt like bringing up the exact and deep details of that was going into the situation he never really wanted to talk about. Cory James was a complex subject and usually one Spencer felt was easy to stray away from discussing with people. Yet, looking into her eyes, he felt like the question wasn't one that was simple or prying. She was genuinely interested, if not concerned. As though she had easily picked up on his omission. 

"Yeah, we both played for South Crenshaw and grew a bond from there. Darnell being QB meant we had to get along for our team to be successful. It helped that we also had a personal connection." His clarification wasn't completely a lie. They had met and formed a bond after meeting because of football. 

"Personal connection?" Olivia's eyebrows scrunched together. She was sure that there was more to it. Not wanting to create another situation where they felt uncomfortable or pushed too far, she decided to drop it for the time being if he chose not to respond.

Taking a deep breath, Spencer finally spoke again. "Our parents knew each other."

"Did you want to tell me how? If you don't, I totally get it, it's not really my business", holding her hands up and giving a small smile, she tried to ease the stress she sensed building in him.