You took my heart, could I please have it back?

[11] You took my heart, could I please have it back?

He thinks he can just be an arsehole then get an answer to anything he likes. Well, no way was that happening. Thank god it's Friday, I thought as I walked home. My side really, really hurt - I honestly shouldn't have played so much sport. I didn't even like it anyway; I could have bluffed my way out of sports day. Maybe I would on Monday.

~*~*~

The next day was, obviously, Saturday. And that meant going back to the library. When I got there, the other guy taking my shift wasn't there - he had called in sick, according to the girl before me. I sighed as I looked at the usual pile of books, and went to go put them away.

On the second floor, where I was putting away some books, I saw Alex reading Jim Kelly in the comfy seats.

"Hey, Alex," I said, walking over to him.

"Oh, hi! Didn't see you there. Hey, yesterday I remembered where I'd seen you before. You remember the fight you had with...Nicola, I think her name is, outside, and she punched you in the face?" I nodded - I remembered. It was the day she had thrown my bag in a tree and she punched me for telling on her. "I was the one that called her in to the school - I thought she really needed to get an anger management check," he said, looking ever so carefree.

"That was you? But you didn't even know me!"

"So?" he said shrugging. I was, as usual, awed by the Collins's endless generosity and kindness.

"Thank you, thank you so much. If you hadn't then-"

"Hey, don't worry about it. You've got bigger fish on your plate. How are you?" he asked, and I knew it wasn't just a casual gesture. I sighed, sitting on a chair beside him.

"I could be better. Your goddamn cousin isn't making things any easier," I added, scowling. It was true - James was making it much harder to cope with my father, even if he wasn't doing it intentionally.

"Ignore him, he can be an arsehole," said Alex, waving his hand as if to dismiss it. I sighed, and knew I couldn't ignore him. Not when he held so many mysteries for me to crack.

~*~*~

Football on the following Monday really didn't go down well. The moment I arrived on the pitch James tackled me once again on my bruises, and I shut him out once again, but he just kept nagging me! He wouldn't stop. In the end I flipped and started shouted at him, resulting in me playing badly.

Example numero Uno - I went to tackle someone to get the ball, tripped over in the process and fell into the referee, who didn't take to kindly to it and gave the other team a free kick. Then when some kid tried to pass to someone and I ended up getting it, I took a shot and it went in but it was the wrong goal. And the third time was when we had formed a wall for a penalty - the ball came my way, I ducked and it went in the goal

Needless to say, my team weren't too happy with me.

Thankfully, after football was basketball. I was much better at that than anything else - not that my team knew that. One we had all registered, I was put in a team with two of the bitches, Tom and another guy that I think I had seen talking to James and the others at break time.

I suddenly realized the only way I would know that was if I had been watching them, which I almost certainly had been. Maybe I was getting a little too stalker-ish in my attempts to figure out the many mysteries that clouded my vision of James Black, who happened to be in the other team. Perfect.

We started the game, and I surprised my teammates - and myself - for getting a pretty good run up the court, and then performing a pretty good shoulder pass to Tom's friend, who received it and bounced it further up the court. James intercepted him and got the ball, but me and Tom managed to intercept James.