[Legacy of a Martyr #2] Liberation from the Masquerades (A Key Keepers novel)

Episode 24: Horse

"I don't think I've seen you around before." The guy offered his hand. "Sebastian Barriola. Seb."

"Marshall Glynnhorn." My face got hot. "I think I've heard your name somewhere before..."

He smiled. "Wouldn't be surprised. This might seem a little out of left field, but you're friends with Watanabe, right?"

Watanabe? Who did he mean by that? He couldn't have meant Becca since her other name was Recah Willigan. I'd heard that in passing. Lie's was Thompson, and Duke's was Goodwin. I didn't know why Tiana and Phoenix had one since they were royals. I didn't think royals needed a last name, but theirs was apparently Cunningham. Ai's was Koizumi if I remembered right. Wait. Koizumi had a similar sound to Watanabe. Oh! He meant Alain!

"I am. How'd you know? I don't think we've met..."

"I don't think we've met, either, but I've sort of met a few of your friends."

A few of my friends? Who did he mean?

"I ran into Watanabe the other day. A little girl with curly hair was with him. She didn't seem to feel like being social, but it didn't bother me. I probably wouldn't either if I'd been in her position."

Sweat beaded my brow. "That wasn't fun..."

"That boy that was with them seemed like a good guy. Got the feeling those two were close."

"They definitely are... They definitely are."

He furrowed his brows. "I met this other girl, too. She had grey hair and eyes. She seems like a good person to have around. Might not seem like I should care, but I'm glad to know she's in his life."

"Audrey sounds like a jerk from what I heard. Just cuz you know her, I didn't assume you were too."

"She certainly isn't the sweetest apple in the orchard..." Seb shook his head. "We don't have to talk about that now. You came to play ball, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Hey, Jake!" Seb shouted. "Get your sorry butt over here!"

The boy went red. "Oh, come on, Seb! Just cuz I don't know my left from my right doesn't mean I can't follow directions! Besides, nobody's here! A game would be boring!"

"You're not good at paying attention sometimes..."

That was awkward... I wished I hadn't had to watch that...

"Oh, sorry! Sometimes my mind runs away when I like what I'm doing!" The boy saluted. "I'm Jake Morales!"

"Marshall Glynnhorn..."

This boy was well-built. His hair was dark, and his eyes were brown like mine. "Good to meetcha, Marshall!"

"Have you ever played a game called horse?"

Horse? A game called horse? What the heck was that?

"Our version is different from the one most people are used to, but we still call it horse."

"How do you play?"

"When there's three of us, two people try to make shots. The third tries to stop them." Seb smiled. "One makes a shot, the defender loses a letter, if the defender blocks the shot, the person who threw the ball loses a letter. If the person plain misses the shot, the defender gets a letter. If the defender fumbles the ball, whoever threw the ball gets a letter."

I scratched my head. "That sounds complicated..."

Seb laughed. "I promise it's not as bad as it sounds."

If he said so... If I didn't play ball soon, I was gonna explode. I just had to take my chances at this point.

Jake got in front of the hoop and smiled.

"Jake has always been our best defender, so he's usually the defender when we play," Seb explained.

That made sense. I was usually a shooting guard. My friend, Wen, had always been a better defender. We usually stuck to what we did best like these two seemed to do.

How was Wen anyway? I hadn't seen him in a long time... If I saw him while I was on my journey, I probably avoided him. He was probably mad at me for how I left him. It wasn't nice, but at the time, I didn't care...

"Who goes first?" I asked.

"Usually a coin toss or rock, paper, scissors or whoever's name comes first in the alphabet. M comes before S, so you could go first if you wanted to."

I took a breath. "Works for me."

Seb grabbed the ball he put down earlier and threw it at me. We got in position after that.

With the look on his face, Jake clearly had no plans to let us score any points. Whatever. That was how a real game was anyway.

I hadn't played since I ran into James on my eighteenth birthday. I was probably rusty. Oh, well. These two didn't seem like the sort that they'd really care.

Jake caught my first shot. It didn't seem to take him a lot of effort, either. "H."

When Seb took his shot, he arched his shot higher than I had. It fell into the hoop before Jake could even try to grab it. "Now you've got an H."

I put more power into my next shot. This one caught nothing but net.

"O!" Seb called.

Since Jake caught Seb's next shot, Seb got an H.

Still. he got Jake to S. By that point, I was at S, too, but it was only because Jake fumbled the ball a few times. It wouldn't have surprised me of Seb was ever the captain of a basketball team.

Jake was the first one to get to Horse, but he played well. It might not have been fair with him playing against both Seb and I, but he seemed to enjoy it.

We were all sweaty when we were done. We were all breathing hard, too.

I felt better. I didn't feel like I was gonna explode anymore. This was a worthwhile trip.

Seb handed me a strip of paper. "Here's my number in case you ever wanna hit me or Jake up for another game of ball."

"Thanks."

"Hope you don't mind me asking... Has Watanabe been holding up alright? I've been meaning to see if he'll grab a coffee with me, but I've been putting off cuz I'm expecting him to say no."

I tilted my head. "Why?"

"Cuz Watanabe was never much of a social butterfly in school..."

"Well, you won't know until try."

Jake took his phone out of his pocket. He looked at it for a minute then started talking a hundred miles a minute.

Seb grabbed his shoulders. "Jacob Morales. I need you to get a grip. I have no idea what you just said."

"Mi-ma had her baby! Mi-ma had her baby!" Jake then ran out of the room.

"Sorry, Marshall." Seb scratched the back of his neck. "I need to run, too. I need to catch up with Jake before that blockhead gets himself good and lost."

I waved it off. "You're fine!"

When I got back to the house, everyone but Lie and Phoenix were gathered in the front room. This was going to be interesting.

***

Thoughts on Marsh this episode? Jake and Seb? Theories? Predictions?

~Shino out!