Why I Love Him | ✓ [SAMPLE]

Chapter 8

It was five in the evening in the park. The sun was receding back into the clouds, making the atmosphere cooler and the crowd of screaming people less stuffy and unbearable. Wayne and I were standing behind the string fences that lined the basketball court as we watched the local team play against another. It wasn't a big tournament or anything — it was street basketball, so the rules and the players were a bit rough around the edges.

Someone bumped into me, making me lose my footing a bit but Wayne helped steady me, putting his hands on the string fence of either side of me to give me space. I smiled, holding on to the net as I tried to focus on the game. It was out being out in public. I don't think I've taken a breath of fresh air in days — well, as fresh as a sweat-soaked crowd could get. I kept holding on to the net fence that was a faded yellow while Wayne hovered behind me as we watched the game together.

There was loud cheering, and then a long groan from the crowd as the sound of the ball bouncing off the court was drowned off by that of metal clattering to the ground. Wayne tapped my shoulder, making me look back at him with a raised brow. Sweat was forming on his brows, but he still looked decent. He had a loopy-sided smile on his face.

"Did you see that?" he asked, making me blink as I realized that I had zoned out and hadn't really been paying attention to the game for the last few minutes.

"See what?"

"The player took the ring with him when he did a slam dunk. I saw it coming, the ring was already busted," Wayne replied, making me turn to face the court again. Just like he said, the basket ring for one of the posts was laying on the floor as a group of players talked to each other at the end, and another — the person who I assumed broke the ring was having a loud argument with one of the game organizers.

"Woah," I said, making Wayne laugh.

Wayne was laughing.

I was smiling.

This is fun. It feels almost surreal. It was one of those dates I've always wanted to have with Wayne when we were in university together. Basic, fun — inexpensive.

"Too bad they had to cancel the game, it was only halftime," Wayne said, taking a sip of his soda through a straw as we walked through the park gardens. The game had been canceled because of the broken ring, so the crowd at the court quickly diffused. Wayne and I had planned the day by the minute, so we had to look for something else to do before he dropped me off at my place. I smiled to myself, holding the can of Soda Wayne had got for me from a food stand not too far away. We walked side by side through the stone part, noticing the squirrels that were running about trying to hide nuts and the birds that dropped sticks from the tree branches ever so often.

"Do you think we have enough time left to walk to the fountain?"

"There's a fountain?" I asked, displaying how little I knew about the town.

Wayne laughed, nodding before he let out a small sigh. "Yes John, there's a fountain," he answered, smiling as he looked away from me and up ahead the path.

"I think we could waste an extra hour. We'll walk to the fountain now," he said, and I nodded, finishing the last drops of my soda before scrunching the can and tossing it into one of the bins lining the path.

Wayne has only been in town for just a little over a month and he already knew every nuke and cranny. I wasn't surprised, he's always been the social type and I guess having to oversee the construction of stores made him move around a lot. It was only sad that I've been here for five years, and I didn't really know anywhere apart from the mall and places around it, and that was only because of work.