Dusk (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 18 - Floater

Why are these morons cheering?

Erik read my expression and rolled his eyes,

"People will cheer for anything."

I finally spotted Rowan being pulled away from the other players by two teammates and he shrugged them off, angrily walking back to the bench as the refs tried to settle down the rest of the players.

"The refs seem to have gotten it under control..." The announcer spoke and Rowan dropped to the bench, ignoring the fans shouting for his attention a few feet behind him.

The rest of the players finally went back to their benches and the refs met with each other, before turning to the officiating table and talking to one of the people taking down statistics.

"And the refs are giving out a personal foul and a technical foul to Cardinals guard Baker," the crowd cheered around me and I glanced over at the player who'd just fought with Rowan. There was a bruise under his eye and he looked furious. "And another technical foul to Bluejays guard Williams..."

Boos filled the arena and I glanced down at Rowan, but he didn't look surprised in the slightest. His coach was talking to him with a cold expression on his face, and the rest of the team stayed a few feet back as they spoke as if they were afraid of both of them at that moment.

While they talked, the refs sent a player from Stanford who went to the free throw line. The crowd tried making as much noise as possible to distract him, but he made it easily.

"Point guard Hall makes the technical foul shot for the Cardinals," The coach had stopped talking and gave Rowan an abrupt nudge towards the court where he headed towards the free-throw line. "Looks like Creightons sending Williams for theirs..."

The crowd went silent as Rowan went to the line. I found it odd how people actually thought they'd make a difference on whether or not a player would make the shot. I'd think it'd be more difficult to make a shot with an arena full of thousands of silent people watching closely, rather than making a lot of noise. But I figured the players were all so used to it, it probably didn't affect them at all.

Rowan took a dribble before shooting the ball, which fell through the net smoothly. The silence broke as people cheered and the rest of the players went back to the court.

"Williams makes the foul shot, and Creighton gets possession of the ball due to Stanfords earlier personal foul..."

"Well this is pretty dramatic for preseason." Lucy said, as the game resumed back to normal. Erik laughed and shook his head.

"I don't know what's gotten into Rowan, he never lets anyone get to him like that."

I felt myself biting my lip again in nervousness. I hadn't distracted him had I? Maybe he'd been surprised to see me at the game, with Sam...

God, how conceited do you have to be to think he cares that much?

I shook my head and re-focused on the game, feeling stupid for even allowing my mind to go there.

Rowan rejected you. He's not into you.

I pushed the thoughts away and glanced at the scoreboard. 60-65. Creighton was down by five points, and there were forty seconds left of the game. How had it gone by so quickly?

Rowan had the ball and passed it to a teammate on the lower post, who leapt up and lightly dropped it through the hoop. 62-65. They were only down by three, though it wasn't looking good now that Stanford had possession of the ball with twenty-five seconds left.

"Shit!" Erik said, he was on the tips of his toes watching the game with wide eyes. "They need to steal it and make a three just to tie." He didn't look hopeful as his eyes flickered from the clock and the game.