the sophomore||muke

||7||

Luke was still outside the basketball court, watching Michael. He couldn't help but smile whenever the boy would score or tease the other players.

Luke giggled being interrupted by a figure ruining his view.

"Excuse me", the person mumbled.

He looked up to see Neil standing in front of him.

"Neil?!", he exclaimed.

Neil looked down, frowning. "Luke?"

"What are you doing here?!", he exclaimed.

Neil scoffed, showing him a notebook and pen. "I'm the writer for the school's newspaper, and I'm getting an issue on Sport. What are you doing here?"

Luke gulped, scratching his neck. "Um-nothing, just checking out the game."

Neil frowned, looking at his best friend. "Since when have you been into basketball?"

Luke shrugged, turning his attention back to the game. He watched as Michael sat down on a bench, sipping a bottle of water before he grabbed a white towel, wiping his face and neck. Luke bit his lip, his eyes widening as Michael made eye contact with him.

"Shit!", he ducked, bringing Neil down with him. The skinny boy, grunted, standing back up. "Luke what the hell are you doing?"

"N-Nothing I gotta go-", but before he could leave Michael was walking towards the door. "Oh my God", he whispered.

Michael smiled, opening the door. "Hey", he looked at Neil. "You're the newspaper dude right?"

Neil nodded, giving out his hand for Michael to shake. "Neil Glendon, nice to meet you."

Luke's face began to heat up as Michael caught his gaze.

"And Luke. Nice to see you again", he held out his hand. Luke's eyes widened, he slowly took Michael's larger hand in his own.

Neil furrowed his eyebrows, confused as to what was going on.

"I'm Michael. Don't believe I told you my name when we met", he smirked, letting go of Luke's hand. Luke was still speechless, looking up at Michael in awe. "N-no you didn't", he stuttered.

Michael grinned at the pair. "Well come on in, we're on a timeout but we've got at least six minutes of a game left."

He opened the door, allowing them to follow.

Neil looked at Luke from the corner of his eye, seeing he was obviously crushing on Michael. "You know him?!", he whisper-shouted. "How?"

"What! I met him like two days ago!", Luke whispered back.

"When were you gonna tell me about this?"

"Tonight actually!"

Neil rolled his eyes. "Yeah right."

"You've been too busy studying anyway!"

"You know we have a test tomorrow!"

Michael turned around, oblivious to what they were saying. "So you guys can just sit in the stands. I believe Andrew has volunteered for the interview, and our coach is just over there if you have any questions", he smiled.

"Thank you", they said in unison as he walked away. Luke glared at Neil. Neil shook his head, walking over to the stands.

Luke huffed, following him. He pushed his wheelchair beside the team's sit out bench, as Neil sat behind him, next to the coach. Luke gasped as a ball flew past him.

He looked up, seeing Michael jogging towards him.

"Not here", Michael smirked, bending down and pushing him backward slightly. "Wouldn't want you getting hurt", he smiled.