The Text Message Love Story

Chapter 120

Rose took a deep breath and stepped inside the already crowded gym. As her eyes adjusted to the gym's fluorescent lighting, she felt overwhelmed, not even sure what Luke looked like. She scanned the gym, but no one stood out to her so she made her way over to the crowded bleachers. She managed to get seat on the third row, coincidentally next to a girl with curly brown hair who was facing the other way, talking to someone Rose did not know.

"Cassandra! I didn't know you were coming to the game." Rose exclaimed, excited to have someone she knew there. She leaned forward and gave her friend a massive hug. The girl turned around and Rose noticed, to her horror, that it was not Cassandra, but instead, she realized, a total stranger.

"Excuse me," the girl stated coldly, slipping out of the now awkward embrace. The girl immediately scooted away from her, putting as much space as possible between them.

Rose put her head in her hands, embarrassed. Why had she even come? She was about to get up and leave when she remembered Luke. Luke, the boy whom she had accidentally texted; the best mistake of her life. She pulled out her phone and sent a message: 'I'm here. Where are you?'

She waited with anticipation, staring at her phone. In what felt like five years, it vibrated. She grinned as she read his response: 'I'm in the locker room trying to psych up my teammates. I have to win this if I want to be captain. I'm glad you made it. Can I meet you after the game?'

Just hearing from him made her happy. And he had confirmed that he was there. And he would meet her after the game! She could not contain her smile as she answered: 'Good luck! I'll be cheering the loudest! And I wouldn't have missed this for the world! Sounds good, can't wait!'

His reply was a smiley face that gave her all the reassurance she needed. She was there to support Luke and meet him for the first time in person. Her anticipation turned into excitement, as she put her phone away and watched the cheerleaders do flips and jumps. "Gooo Eagles!" They screamed, flinging their pom-poms in the air. The crowd's response was automatic, people flapped their arms like birds and others clapped and screamed.

Just then a short bald man made his way to the center of the basketball court where a cheerleader was waiting to greet him with a microphone. He tapped it once, and the crowd immediately quieted. "Good afternoon, I'm so pleased that so many of you were able to make it today; I wanted to stimulate an actual game day environment for our team. As most of you know, we have divided our team into two separate teams so they can compete against each other for practice. As usual, the two captains of the teams were chosen based on skill. We have our captain from last year, senior Jake Davis!"

Rose watched with dread as Jake, her ex-boyfriend, raced out onto court next to the bald man. People got on their feet and gave him a standing ovation as the cheerleaders started chanting his name. "Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake! Gooo Eagles!"

The bald man waved his hand, and eventually the crowd settled down. "As I'm sure you are all aware, Jake won us the championships last year!" Of course Rose knew that, Jake never let her forget it. "He is one of the best basketball players, and captains, that this school has ever had and we are very proud of him."

This was met with another chorus of "Go Jake! Gooo Eagles!"

Jake grinned at the crowd, and took the microphone from the bald man. "Thanks coach. As you are all aware, I'm Jake Davis," this was met with more cheering, which Jake let continue on for a couple more minutes before he waved his hand, silencing the crowd. "I hope to be captain again this year, but if I'm not, I know there's a great kid who will do a good job as well." Rose flinched at his condescending tone. "I'd like to introduce you to, from the sophomore class, Luke Evans!"

At this Luke, Rose presumed, ran out onto court as well and waved at the crowd. Rose's heart caught in her throat as she noticed how hot he was. He looked awesome with his slightly curly black hair and piercing blue eyes. How had she never noticed him before?

The bald man, who had the microphone again, resumed speaking. "The teams have been divided as such: Jake will be captain of the red team, which is comprised of juniors and seniors."

This was met with an extremely loud chorus of "Go team red!"

"And Luke will be captain of the blue team, which is comprised of freshmen and sophomores."

The crowd was pretty quiet, except for a single girl who cried out from the stands, "I love you, Luke!" Rose was close enough to note the blush that appeared on Luke's cheeks and felt a sudden, strong desire to find the girl and punch her.

The crowd laughed lightly and the cheerleaders shouted "Team blue!" Though it was with a lot less enthusiasm.

The bald headed man grinned, "Are you ready for some pre-season basketball?"

The crowd answered with a deafening roar and Rose could not help but get caught up in the excitement. Her spirits dampened, however, once the teams came out and she realized how much smaller Luke's team was than Jake's.

Luke did not seem phased by the unfairness and led his team into a huddle where they started an incoherent cheer. Rose watched as they broke apart and Luke walked back to center court to meet Jake. The two shook hands and then got ready to play basketball.

Rose was not a huge sports person, but since she had dated Jake, she had been required to attend all his games, so she understood what was going on.

She admired Luke's footwork and dribbling and was incredibly impressed by his scoring ability; he could make the ball, from anywhere on the court, go straight into the basket. However, not only was Luke amazing at basketball, but he also made sure his team had ample opportunity to score and he was always encouraging them.

She could not help but compare him to Jake, who, though he was just as talented on the court, did not seem to care about his teammates and yelled at them when they screwed up.

She upheld her promise to Luke and screamed at the top of her lungs whenever his team scored. She was actually surprised by how many people were cheering for his team, it seemed that most of the fans did not care who won so long as they got to see a good game of basketball.

The game passed by in a blur, and in the blink of an eye there was only one minute left in the fourth quarter. Though the odds had be placed against Luke's team, they had managed to keep the score close at 47-52.

She held her breath as she watched Luke race down to Jake's side of the court with the ball. Her heart was racing madly as she watched him stop and shoot the ball from half-court. It glided into the net and brought the score up to 50-52; she had never screamed so loudly.

Rose clenched her hands and watched the time get closer and closer to zero until she heard the crowd scream. She quickly looked up and noticed that the score had jumped up to 52-52.

She watched in amazement as Jake missed a shot and Luke caught the rebound. The timer had reached 15 seconds as he sprinted to the other end of the court and shot. Rose shut her eyes as he let the ball fly. She partly looked out one eye as she watched the ball swoop gracefully into the net. The timer went off! Luke had won!

Jake started yelling profanities at his team, while Luke's ran to surround him. The picked him up and started to carry him around the gym. Rose led the cheering crowd out of the stands and onto the court. Luke's team made a loop around the gym and when they reached where she was standing, Luke slid off their shoulders and landed right in front of her. Their eyes locked.

A/N: Sorry if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes, I wanted to update this quickly so I'll go back and edit it later. Hope you enjoyed the first scene! I'm so sad, there isn't much left in the story! Thanks to all of you for reading this! Like always, you guys are the best and I love each and every one of you!!!