The Racquet Accident

Chapter Thirteen: You Do Know But You Don't Know.

Chapter Thirteen: "You Do Know But You Don't Know."

WE WERE DOING doubles.

It wasn't said out loud but when our Peters declared something, it was going to happen even without a verbal agreement.

However, doubles season didn't start until the second semester but it didn't mean that Nikko and I didn't spend time together. In fact, I think I spent more time with him and my team than I did with my busy friends. We were either at gym sessions, practices, or tournaments every week. Even when our tournaments were split for women's and men's, nowhere near each other, we still had breakdown meetings before and after together to watch hours of film.

The last tournament I had been at I placed seventh, obtaining my goal again. The women's side of our team placed first with the most wins and Liya, the bright, confident yet humble girl that she was, placed first individually. While I was getting along with the rest of my team as the weeks went by, I barely spoke to Rhett. Instead, I pushed down any annoyance and ignored him whenever he would give me a knowing look whenever Nikko and I were within proximity of each other. 

Besides him, I had been having good days. Really good days in the moments leading up to Reading week. In fact, Sundays were best.  

After Nikko and I went running, we'd find ourselves laying back on the grass in a clearing by the trail that was soon dusted with frost as October started to close to an end. We'd lay back and talk. Talking consisted of various subjects ranging from our teammate Alan's latest hookup story that he wouldn't stop talking about whenever we saw him at the gym to looking at the clouds and attempting to decipher if we could see them the same way.

We rarely ever did until one Sunday when Nikko pointed to a cloud right above us. "Three." He said.

"Two." I continued.

"One." He ended.

"A hat."

I gasped, sitting up to face him as he broke out into a wide smile accompanied by a loud laugh. "Finally! We did it!" We finally saw a cloud the same exact way.

He raised his hand up in a high five that I slapped with glee before lying back down beside him. My arms were getting cold, the frost surely seeping into my fabric as water but I wasn't complaining. I couldn't complain when I was happy over something that may have been so childish. But with the amount of clouds the two of us had observed? This was groundbreaking. 

"Can't believe it took us this long to get on the same page," Nikko said. 

"It's not my fault your imagination isn't as good as mine." 

Nikko scoffed, playfully nudging me in the side with his elbow. "I'll take weak imagination over not being a criminal." 

He'd been teasing me about this for weeks. "Is this what you do in your free time?" I asked. "You keep a list of my crimes?"

"Yes," He said, sitting up to face me. "You're a hater—"

I sat up as well, leaning back on my hands. "That's only because I told you I didn't like Boston cream donuts."

Nikko looked appalled. "Because who doesn't like Boston cream donuts?" 

"To be fair, I really don't care for donuts anyways."

He pursed his lips. "Then what kind of sweet things do you like?" 

I wasn't a huge fan of candy. I liked chocolate but liked coffee, too much of it and I fell easily sick. "I like ice cream," I concluded.

"You're going to say you like something bland like vanilla aren't you?"

"No," I huffed, bringing my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. "I like pistachio."