Bounce Back

Chapter 7

Ryan's POV

Tyler was struggling through today's tutoring session and I could tell that he was slightly distracted. We had been working for a while and it was taking us longer than usual. After about half an hour I gave up because it was clear that we weren't getting anywhere.

"Ok, let's give up for the day. You seem a bit distracted," I said.

"Sorry, we can keep working if you want," he suggested.

"No, we are going well with our tutoring and we can take some time off. Do you know if anyone is using the basketball courts?" I asked.

"I don't think so. How come?" he asked.

"I was thinking that we should play a one on one game," I said.

"Do you think that you can beat me?" he asked as we stood up.

"I think I can."

We had to stop by my locker to grab my gym stuff from my locker before we could head to the gym. As Tyler had predicted there wasn't anyone in there so we could change and get onto the court. We slowly warmed up before we started to play.

I had watched enough of Tyler playing to know what he liked to do and what I knew he struggled with so I could use that against him. I grabbed a ball and handed it to him.

"You can start," I offered.

I hadn't played for a while but I was glad that I had been shooting hoop by chance the other day. I missed my first shot but I picked up from there. It was close and we were keeping a score as bragging rights for whoever won.

I managed to start to build a nice lead before we were both starting to tire and gave up. Tyler collapsed on the floor and I joined him.

"How the fuck did you beat me?" he moaned.

"Because I used to play a bit of basketball and all basketball is is stats," I said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I should show you sometime."

We didn't talk about it anymore. Instead we just lay there and focused on being able to breathe. After a couple of minutes I stood up and offered a hand to him. He gladly grabbed it and we headed into the locker room.

We didn't take long to change and head out of school.

"Are you going back to the library?" he asked.

"Yeah, I should go and get some work done," I complained.

He laughed slightly and we both stopped when we reached the library.

"I'm sorry for mucking you around today."

"It's fine and I had a lot of fun playing you. We do a lot of maths work anyway."

"True, you've got to show me those stats some time."

I nodded and he then realised that he had to get home so he headed out and I headed into my library. My friends were already at the table in the corner and I slid into my usual seat and grabbed my stuff out and started to work.

"What happened to you and Tyler? We saw you leave ages ago," Drew asked.

"Yeah, find a nice quiet corner to study," Jordan teased.

I rolled my eyes as my three laughed at me.

"No, we went and played basketball as a break from studying," I said.

I don't really know if they believed me but it was dropped and we returned to doing our work. I had a bit of work to do so I focused on what I was doing. I wasn't going to regret playing the game against Tyler because I had a lot of fun.

I stayed into the library until it closed. Drew and Morgan had left a while ago since they had finished their work. Jordan was hanging around even though I'm pretty sure he had also finished a while ago as well.

We finally got kicked out so we headed out together. At first Jordan didn't say anything but I knew that it was coming.

"Just spit it out," I said plainly.

"You're spending a lot of time with Tyler," he said.

I shrugged because I didn't know what to say to that.

"I thought that you liked him," I said simply.

"I do, it's just...." He trailed off.

I shrugged again because I still wasn't sure what to say and I also wasn't sure exactly what he was getting at.

"So, how was your game against him?" he asked when he realised that I wasn't going to answer.

"It was a lot of fun. I won so that made it better," I smiled.

We had reached my house and stood outside talking for a bit longer. I steered the conversation away from Tyler. I was confused what Jordan was getting at because he seemed to like Tyler when he joins us.

"Anyway, I should go," he said.

I nodded and watched him walk down the sidewalk. I stood there for second before heading inside. Mom and Dad were sitting on the couch so I grabbed a plate and joined them. I talked for a little about what I had done but I was happy to listen to them instead.

"Did you get all your homework done?" Mom asked.

"Yeah, I'm going to go to bed now," I said simply.

I said goodnight to both of them but I didn't go straight to bed. I grabbed my laptop out and returned to my basketball stats. I had noticed a couple more things about Tyler's play from playing against him.

I felt tired but I couldn't seem to fall asleep. I had put laptop on my desk away at least twenty minutes ago but I still couldn't sleep. I ended up tossing and turning for ages and unfortunately the thing that my brain had decided to focus on was my conversation with Jordan.

I had a bit of an idea what Jordan was talking about but I really didn't want to think about it. I didn't really know the basketball team that well except Tyler and so far he seemed really nice.

Tyler and I had been starting to spend a lot of time together with our tutoring and him joining my group of friends. He was always really nice to me and I finally managed to fall asleep after pushing it out of my mind.

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The Wise One