Chapter Twenty-Seven

      “Nice practice guys!” Talia commended us, as we finished up one of our last practices of the season.

      Wow. I truly can’t believe it; the volleyball season is coming to an end. It feels like just yesterday I was trying out, confident in my spot on the team. When the season eventually does end, I think I’ll miss it. I like volleyball. There’s something about the intense mix of aggression and fun that’s appealing to me.

      “Yeah you too!” I told her, taking a large gulp of water. As the cool liquid traveled down my throat, my head released, and something lifted in my chest. It felt good.  

      Then, I saw him. His dirty blonde, curly hair was unmistakable from a distance, as was his height. I ran over, my knees aching, though I had worn kneepads, from hitting the floor after diving to get the ball multiple times. He waved at me, flashing a bright smile, as if we were good friend, which in my mind, we’re not.

      “Jules!” he called, walking over to me, meeting me halfway. I jogged to him, and let out a deep breath.

      “Hey Mason,” I said, panting.

      “I caught the end of your practice, you’re really good!” he said, trying to make me feel good. At the end of practice, I failed. Straight up, I wasn’t focusing, and I sucked.

      “Thanks…” I said, breathing in the simplistic element of air.

      “So, not to be rude, but why am I here?” he asked, getting straight to the point.

      “I wanted to talk to you,” I said, regretting my choice of words. Now he’s going to think I’m interested in him. Shit.

      “About what?” he questioned, perking up as expected.

      “Who, and Izzy,” I said plainly.

      “Who’s that?” he blinked, genuinely not knowing to whom I was referring.

      “My friend, the one over there, in the yellow shorts,” I said, pointing her out.

      “Why are we talking about her?”

      “Because… I want to introduce the two of you. I think that you’d get along well… and make a cute couple,” I said, mumbling the last part.

      That was indeed my motive. I wanted to get Izzy a boyfriend. She’s such a sweet girl, and I really think that she needs someone else in her life. When I was musing about on this idea, Mason came to mind. He’s the nicest boy I know, by far, and I think that his and Izzy’s personalities would mesh well together. There’s something about him that I feel Izzy could potentially connect with.

      “The girl with the wavy hair up in a ponytail?” he asked.

      “Yeah,” I said, nodding my head.

      “She’s cute… I guess.” He scrunched his face, thinking whether or not to say something, before coming to a conclusion, “Why do you want me to go out with her. I’m your… ex boyfriend, and I mean, firstly I think it would be amazing if the two of us got back together, but I just don’t understand your reasoning behind trying to get me set up with another girl.”

      “I want you to be happy Mason-”

      “Then you should go out with me,” he said, staring at me like a lost puppy with his grayish blue eyes.

      Damn. When we were younger, his eyes had the same effect on me as they did now. His eyes looked so full of joy, and life, and as though nothing could penetrate his youthful heart. Mason only wants to do good. He wants to please everyone around him to a degree, but like with everyone, he has his own opinion, and his own outlook on the world. Those eyes! When I was first telling him about moving to California, I didn’t look into his eyes; I couldn’t.

      “No, I can’t. Mason, I’ve moved on. Beside, I never fully deserved you; but Izzy, Izzy’s the type of girl who has a heart almost as ginormous as yours, and I think the two of you would be perfect together!” I sighed.

      “Because you’re asking me Jules, I’m going to go along with it, but if I don’t like her, don’t expect me to pretend to,” he said, staring at her.

      “Thank you!” I said, taking another sip of water. “Izzy!”

      “What?” she called, snapping around to face me.

      “Come here!” I shouted across the gym. She nodded, sprinting over. Her feet came to a halt, as she stood before Mason and I, somewhat timidly, unsure of what to say.

      “Mason, this is Izzy, Izzy this is Mason,” I introduced.

      “Hi,” Mason said approachably.

      “Hi…” she said, flipping her head so her hair was removed from her shoulder. 

      “I’m just going to come out and say it: I think the two of you should go out,” I said. At that moment, each of them slapped my shoulder in unison, as if it had been planned. Ouch.

      “What the hell J!” Mason said.

      “Do not call me J!” I said, hitting his shoulder like he had done to me.

      “Sorry,” he said, genuinely apologetic.

      “You should be. Now, I’m going to leave the two of you to talk, while I go off and change. Have fun. I hope you fall in love. Don’t have sex,” I said, retreating from the two. There were a few motions of objection as I left, but I disregarded them.

      I made my way over to the double doors that connected the gym to the rest of the school, and pushed. As I exited, I saw an absence of people in the halls. The afternoons always scare me, there’s close no one in the building, and it feels empty.

      I turned a corner, preparing to enter the locker room, when I heard voices. I momentarily stopped my expedition, and walked towards the voices; which in retrospect probably wasn’t the brightest idea…

      “Ugh! What the hell!” one said. I continued to walk, wanting to know the identity of the speaker.

      “He was into me! I swear! It wasn’t my fault!” the other defended.

      “How the fuck do you just freaking hook up with my brother, and say it wasn’t your fault? Of course it was! You’re such a bitch!” the first accused.

      “Calm down. All I did was kiss him. I swear. We didn’t go any further!”

      “He was drunk! You fucking took advantage of him!” the vocal level of the first raised considerably.

      “No I didn’t!”

      “This is just like in 7th grade! You did this to Julia when you asked Chase out- you fucking knew she liked him, and then you screwed it up for her!” I stopped walking at the mention of my name. It was Emily and Taylor. I was sure of it. Okay; that makes sense! Emily probably hooked up with Aaron, and now Taylor was pissed. Reasonable enough…

      “She didn’t deserve him!” Emily screamed, probably close to tears.

      “What are you talking about? They would’ve been perfect for each other! They were in love with each other, but both too fucking stubborn to admit it! You knew that! Emily why the fuck do you always have to screw up everyone’s lives?” Taylor boomed. I spun around, and went back to my original route.

      I didn’t need to hear the end of that little argument; they all ended the same way. Emily would say sorry, promise to never do it again, and say she wasn’t thinking straight. Taylor would accept this bogus ass form of an apology, and they’d go back to normal. That’s how it worked when it was the three of us, and chances are, things haven’t changed much. It really is amazing that I forgave them so easily back then; well, that is until I finally broke…

      I entered the locker room, and lazily went over to my locker, taking out my bag, and extra clothes. I didn’t feel like completely changing, so I put my sweats on over my shorts, and rolled the bottoms up. I lifted my T-shirt off, and put on a clean one over my black tank top I had been wearing underneath. I didn’t have the energy to untie my shoelaces, or take my shoes off, so I kept on the current ones.

      I stuffed the residue of my quick change in wardrobe back into my bag, about the leave, when I remembered I had forgotten my phone in the gym. I swiftly ran out, slinging my small drawstring backpack over my shoulders, and opened up a door to the gym once again.

      As I was about to step in, a large “Thump!” sound stopped me. The sound repeated, as my eyes scanned the now empty gym bleachers. No Mason. No Izzy. I heard the noise again, and looked to the other side. There was a boy, dribbling a basketball. It wasn’t Mason. Mason plays (or used to play) basketball, but he was never into it to the point where he would actually spend out of school time practicing.

      I crept in, going off to the side of the gym where I had left my phone. I picked it up, unnoticed, about to leave, when I gave the boy one last look. He was making every shot, and looked to be in some sort of a trance. He went to retrieve his rebound, after having made it into the net, and I caught a glimpse of his face. I immediately dropped my bag and phone, and ran over to him without a second thought. I came up behind him, and hugged him from behind.

      “What the fuck?!” he roared.

      “No, what the Jules,” I corrected.

      “Oh shit. Julesy, did you just see what I was doing?” he asked.

      “Yeah. Trenty, being amazing at basketball is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s a talent. Embrace it,” I said, releasing him.

      “I haven’t played since you left,” he whispered.

      “Why?” I asked.

      “I don’t know,” he said lightly.

      “Why are you thinking about going back to it?”

      “College,” he said, throwing the orange ball to the floor once again. It bounced back to his hand, and he hit it back to the floor. The ball traveled back and forth between his palm and the floor a few times, before he lifted his arm, and one-handedly shot the ball into the white net.

      “You, Trent Johnson, are thinking about college?” I questioned. “Where’s the real Trent, and what the hell have you done with him?”

      “Haha. Funny. Seriously Jules, I want to go to college. I think I’m ready. I don’t want my old life back, but I want to quit the weed, and I want to get my life with a bright future back again [A/N: and it's funny, because that's the name of this story!]. I want to start going to classes,” he said, shocking me.

      “I’m still waiting for the punch line,” I said, staring blankly at him, unable to believe his words.

      “There is none,” he said solemnly.

      “I’m proud of you Trentyboo,” I said, bringing him in for another hug, to which he accepted. I squeezed my arms around him, and then let go, plunging to the floor to retrieve the basketball he had so carelessly dropped. I took it in my own hands, about to shoot, when he stopped me.

      “Not so fast!” he said, steeling the ball from me.

      “Trent!” I whined.

      “Jules!” he mimicked.

      “Let me try once,” I pleaded.

      “Nope,” he smirked. He flung the ball out of his hands, and it easily dropped into the net. Trent missed this sport; he missed basketball. I remember once, we were going to hang out, but he changed his mind just to shoot hoops with Mason. Mason and he were actually friends back then… good friends…

      “Well, I’m glad that you and basketball have reunited with each other, I hope this love story ends with a happily ever after. I have to go,” I said, jogging back over to where I had abandoned my belongings. I picked them up, and strolled over to the door. As I was about to reach out, and push the heavy barrier between the hallway and me open, a hand thrust on the hard wood overhead (well, at least over my head).

      “I’m walking you out,” Trent said, explaining his actions.

      “Oh. Sounds like a dream come true,” I said dryly.

      “Don’t say it like that, because Jules, you know it is a dream come true,” he laughed.

      “Whatever you want to think TJ…” I said, rolling my eyes. We slowly walked out of the building in a comfortable silence. As our feet met the pavement of the steps outside the school, I noticed two figures talking and laughing. Mason and Izzy.

      “Mission accomplished,” I said to Trent, not loud enough so the two of them could hear.

      “What’d you do?” he asked.

      “Nothing…” I said, smirking as they noticed us. I waved, and saw Adam’s large car pull up along side the curb.

      “Bye Jules,” Trent said.

      “Bye Trent,” I said, skipping over to Adam’s car. I opened the glossy door, and slid into the passenger’s seat, shoving my bag below me.

      “Hey,” Adam said, turning the wheel, and driving away.

      “Hi,” I said, placing my arm on the sill of the window.

      “Good practice?” he asked.

      “Yeah,” I shrugged.

      “Cool. Talia was there?”

      “She’s your girlfriend, shouldn’t you know?”

      “I did know, I was just verifying.”

      “Oh.”

      “I told her,” he said, the corners of his mouth upturning into a grin.

      “And what exactly did you tell her?” I asked.

      “I told her that I love her,” he said with such a joy I had never seen in Adam before.

      “What’d she say?”

      “She said that she loves me too.” His face was radiating happiness onto me, and all I could do was accept it, and smile along. My brother’s in love with a girl who loves him. Congrats Ad, I didn’t think it’d happen this quickly to you. Hopefully, you won’t screw it up.