love me like you • jeremiah fisher

chapter seventeen

"I'm sorry you're what-" I turned to see Belly and Conrad standing behind us. "Oh hey guys!" I jumped up startled by their presence.

"How was your game?" Jeremiah tried to change the subject.

"Yeah, no. You two are sucking faces?" Belly said crossing her arms, while Conrad just straight up stared at me.

"It was a metaphor." I laughed, trying to play it off. "A metaphor for what exactly?" Conrad asked. "You know, how uhm sucking means well..we're-" Jere was cut off by Belly.

"So you two are together?" She asked dumbly.

"Yeah." Yep." We confessed, ultimately just giving up.

"Took you long enough." Belly grinned, causing Conrad to whip his head towards her. "You knew?" He asked the girl.

"Obviously, Bri gives him googly eyes like twenty four seven." She laughed.

"I do not." I pouted. "Whatever you say, I'm happy for you guys." She congratulated, making me smile.

Now feeling comfortable, Jeremiah wrapped an arm around me, pulling me closer to his side.

Belly nudged Conrad to say something, "Yeah, I'm um happy for you guys too." "Thanks guys, that means a lot." Jeremiah told the two.

"Team Bri and team Ben please report to the court." We heard over the intercom.

"Goodluck you guys." Conrad nodded to us. "Thanks, but we're not gonna need it." Jeremiah smirked, pulling me away towards the court.

"What are you talking about, we so are." I groaned as he tugged me. "Shh he doesn't need to know that." We laughed, entering the court.

We did a few warm ups and discussed our plan for the game. The whistle blew and I turned to Jere, doing a quick handshake with him. "Let's do this." He told me, I replied with a nod. The game began and it was surprisingly easy at first.

~

We won the first few rounds, having fun along the way. "We will now be heading into intermission for a few minutes before the championship match." The speaker let out.

"I can't believe we made it this far." I jumped up excitedly.

"We're amazing." Jeremiah cheered, clapping his hands together with mine. "I'm going to go get a drink, want one?" The boy asked me.

"I'm good, you go ahead." I smiled.

He nodded before leaving. I sat down on one of the many picnic tables, brushing the hair out of my face. "Hey, you did amazing out there." I heard Conrad come up behind me, taking the seat next to me.

"I know, right! We're so crushing you guys in the final match." I replied, bumping my shoulder with his.

"Yeah, you wish. So, have you found an escort to the ball yet?" He asked suddenly. The topic had completely caught me off guard, I had forgotten about finding an escort.

"Shit, you're right. I haven't ask Jere yet, I'll probably ask him after we win the game today." I laughed, trying to keep the mood lighthearted.

"I thought he was going with Belly?" Conrad said.

"What? No, I doubt it. He would have told me." I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. Why would Belly ask Jeremiah to take her? It made no sense, but somehow I still began to feel nervous.

"Well maybe-" Our conversation was interrupted by the intercom letting us know it was time for our game. "Goodluck out there." Conrad told me.

"Yeah, you too." I said distracted, my mind going miles a minute still thinking about our previous conversation. "Hey you ready?" Jeremiah called, jogging up to me.

"Yeah, yeah." I replied, nodding my head as we made our way to the court. "You alright?" He asked, as the whistle blew.

"Are you taking Belly to the ball?" I asked him quickly, catching even myself off guard.

"I mean my mom asked me to-" I turned my gaze to the other team as the words left his mouth.

He didn't get to finish his sentence due to the game starting. So he did ask her, I scoffed. I spiked the ball in the first set, scoring our team a point. "Good one!" Jeremiah cheered, but I ignored him.

Maybe this is all a misunderstanding, it has to be. It was our ball so Jeremiah hit it, but it was quickly blocked by Belly. "Seriously." I complained, obviously upset. "It was only one point, we'll be fine." Jeremiah tried to reassure me.

"Yeah, only one point." I muttered.

~

He was wrong. The score was now at 15 to 19. Once Belly's team got to twenty one it was over for us.

I couldn't stay focused after what Conrad had told me. "Time." Jeremiah told the referee, causing him to blow his whistle. I looked at him confused as he just pulled me to the side.

"What's going on with you?" He asked. "I don't know." I said frustrated, putting both hands on my head. "Seriously Bri, I'm trying my best out there to win because I know how badly you've been wanting to. You're not focused, what's on your mind?" He asked softly.

I felt myself physically calm down, "You're trying your best for me?"

"Of course I am, I always do." He took a step closer to me. I sighed, deciding it was best to let him know what was bothering me.

"Conrad talked to me before the game, telling me that you asked Belly to the ball." I admitted, playing with my hands.

"Thats what's been eating at you this entire time?" He asked, causing me to nod.

"My mom told Conrad and I to ask her to the ball since she couldn't find an escort, but I told her that I wanted to take you." Jeremiah added, taking my hand in his. I felt my cheeks redden from embarrassment.

Yeah, that made much more sense. "I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier." I told him, looking down.

"Don't apologize, you did but we were too busy playing." He said pulling me into a hug.

"Why would Conrad tell me that then?" I mumbled into his chest. I felt Jeremiah turn his head to look at Belly and Conrad. "He wanted to throw you off your game." He replied, planting a kiss on my head.

"But he was unsuccessful right?" Jere asked pulling away from me to look into my eyes, I nodded.

"And now that everything is cleared up, we're crushing them to dust, right?" I nodded again, a grin coming back to my face.

Jeremiah always knew exactly how to cheer me up. I spontaneously, leaned in pecking his lips before running back to my position on the court.

"Come on babe, we've got a game to win." I smirked, calling out to him.

word count: 1140
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