𝑫𝑰𝑨𝑴𝑶𝑵𝑫 𝑴𝑰𝑵𝑫𝑺

[ CHAPTER THIRTEEN ]

[ U N D E R  T H E  B L E A C H E R S ]

⟡

It was the next day; Brandon waited for Tasha outside of her fourth period class a minute before the lunch bell rang. Once the boisterous sound echoed throughout the hallway, students began piling out of the classrooms and towards the cafeteria. Brandon would've lost Tasha in the large crowd if he hadn't been standing next to the door. The moment the girl stepped out, Brandon instinctively grabbed her hand to pull her towards him. Tasha looked up at him in panic before she relaxed.

"Oh my gosh, you scared me." To Brandon's surprise, Tasha didn't step away even after she noticed how close they were to each other. Brandon doesn't even try to lie to himself: he likes it, their closeness, for it made it easier for him to observe her. Her slick-n-gelled waves smelled like green apples, she had on mascara and lipgloss that shimmered, and the top she was wearing clung very nicely to her chest—

"You ready to head to the library?" Tasha asks, interrupting his thoughts. The quarterback chuckles, shaking his head.

"Nah, I got a better idea."

With their hands still intertwined, Brandon leads Tasha to a remote spot of the school campus, ignoring all the eyes in the hallway that shifted to them. Near the football field stood a tall tree that had more than enough branches and leaves to shade away the Californian sun, and the tree's trunk was wide enough for the both of them to lean their backs against it. Tasha smiles for reasons she doesn't want to admit. They sit down on the soft green grass and start getting comfortable as they crack open their books, and the brief silence that occured between them surprisingly wasn't awkward.

"Not that I don't like it, but why here to study instead of the library?" Tasha inquires, looking to the quarterback in curiosity.

Brandon shrugs, but not because he doesn't have an answer. "There's just less eyes here, if you get what I mean."

Tasha tries not to take Brandon's words in the wrong way, but Brandon caught on to the slight disappointment that briefly registered on her face before it quickly disappeared.

"No, wait. I didn't mean it like that, I," Brandon pauses as he tries to find the right words. "Lately, people have been stickin' their noses into my business and I ain't fond of it. We're here so we can be together in peace, trust me, I'm not embarrassed to be seen with you or anything like that."

Tasha and Brandon stare into each other's eyes for what feels like forever. But Tasha looks away the moment Brandon's eyes flicker down to something else. To lighten the tension, Tasha laughs.

"And to think we couldn't stand each other at the beginning of this. I think we're both gettin' soft."

"That's not a bad thing though, right? That we can sorta get along now?"