Yesterday's You |18+|

Chapter 6

CHRIS

"Nice shot, Gabe!" I praised him after he successfully shot the ball. Gabriel took a seat beside me on the bench and took his bottle to quench his thirst. "Man, I know it could be tough during the game, but just set your focus right, okay?" I advised him while patting his shoulder.

"Why don't you join us? For the next league?"He asked. I chuckled.

"What? No? I am no longer a student here," I answered while shaking my head.

"They won't find out though," he replied nonchalantly.

"You're not the only person who suggested that. Peter asked me to join the competition too before I went to college soon," I said as I stood up and tried to bump the ball.

"Then, what's your answer?" He said while watching me doing the tricks with the ball.

"I said I will take it into account and it is more likely I'm going to join it," I replied.

A few moments later, I saw Grace. I wasn't dreaming and I couldn't hide my smile as I saw her.

"You with Katie have a thing now, huh?" Gabriel asked.

"No," I said but I couldn't take my eyes off her. I saw her with her yoga pants and pastel t-shirt, talking with her friend which I couldn't recognize who. And then, I turned to look at Gabriel after Grace no longer there. "Look, I knew you and Katie used to be together," I said.

"It's 2 years ago and it only lasted for several months so no big deal," he stated.

I nodded as a sign of understanding. "Well, she seems hard to get, though," I replied.

"Pretty much. It took me one year to finally make her as my girlfriend so it's really a hard task," Gabe took over my ball and he did the bump.

"That's a very long period. So, why did you guys break up?" I asked.

"She wanted to take a break," he answered as what I expected. "She was chosen to enter International Mathematical Olympiad with a few of our batch too. And she thought it's not fair if she and I still have the relationship because she said I could be with anyone else who could give much better than she could. It's actually another way to say she wanted to break up," Gabe said but the look on his eyes was filled with sorrow. "There's no one could ever replace her," he said while shooting the ball to the basket.

"You with Barbara now, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, she's definitely the best. She's like one of the girls in Mean Girls type of student but she's a kind one. And absolutely pre-" his phone was ringing, "sorry," he said to me.

He went to another bench so he could talk to someone on his phone. I just played with the ball while waiting for him to finish.

"Sorry, I have to go. My girlfriend," he ran towards me and took his bag and bottle. "See you tomorrow, man," he rapidly exited the hall and I was left alone.

I took the ball with me and I exited the court and suddenly, I remembered that Yoga students were instructed to have class beside our court. But I didn't remember that Grace was part of Yoga students. Through the transparent glass of the class, I scrutinised Grace. She stood at the back, listened to her yoga instructor carefully. I could see that there's an open door near Grace, so I should step slowly so she wouldn't realize I was there.

And then,

'CHING'

Accidentally, my head crashed the wind chimes that were hanging at the location of the opened door and I immediately held on to it to stop the sound. I closed my eyes hoping no one would see it and when I opened my eyes slowly, Grace was looking at me and she was laughing. Her smile was so beautiful. And then, I rapidly ran away from that place because I couldn't hide my embarrassment.