Worth Fighting For

Chapter 8

It was the end of November by now, and I was waiting for my brother's basketball practice to finish so we could go home. Waiting on Spencer is like waiting for a turtle to cross the road. He always stays after practice to shoot around or talk to the other guys.

"Spencer, let's go," I shouted across the gym. I was standing by the door and the bleachers with my backpack on, ready to go. Of course he didn't listen and continued to carry on a conversation with two of his teammates, Asher and Nate. They were Spencer's closest friends and honestly were just like him, arrogant and only into basketball. "Hey little Stewart," Asher said to me from across the gym. "I told you not to call me that," I rolled my eyes as I walked over to the three of them. He laughed at my reply. "Spence, Mom is going to kill us if we're not home by 7:00." "Would you chill, Skye? Give me five minutes, I gotta go change out of these clothes." He quickly jogged over to the locker room leaving me to wait with Asher and Nate. "I have to go, I'll see you later, man," Nate said while doing a handshake with Asher. I will never understand why seventeen year old guys still do handshakes.

After Nate left the gym, Asher tossed me a basketball and asked if I wanted to play one-on-one until Spencer got back. "I'm good," I said, knowing it would be embarassing. "Come on, I'll go easy on you." I eventually gave in and started dribbling the ball. I wasn't terrible since both of my brothers had played but I also wasn't an all-star. We played a short game to ten, and were both tied at eight points. The next basket would win and it was my ball. I dribbled in just in front of the 3-point line but then stepped back, keeping my dribble. I was now behind the 3-point line, shooting the winning basket, which thankfully went in. "I WIN!" I yelled. "I can't believe I beat THE Asher Jones," I yelled again while laughing. By this time, Spencer was coming out of the locker room, wondering what the noise was.

"What's going on?" Spencer asked. "Your sister just beat me in one-on-one," Asher replied. "Are you serious, that's surprising," Spencer said while laughing. I was still reliving the moment of winning. "Yeah, she hit the winning shot with a 3-pointer, if only I could do that in a game," Asher joked. Spencer and I said goodbye to Asher since he had to leave as well. "Maybe you should join the basketball team, Skye," Spencer joked while we were walking out of the gym. We both laughed at his joke and got into his car to go home.

The next day, my morning was super slow so I decided to go to the coffee shop that Luna worked at. It was close enough that I could ride my bike. I walked into the small shop and instantly saw Luna behind the counter. "Hey, Lu," I said. "Hey, what's up?" she asked back. "I just needed something to do so I thought I would come support you at your job." She smiled and thanked me before getting called into the kitchen to help with something.

"Skye?" I heard a voice from behind me say. I turned around to face Asher sitting at a table reading Jane Austen's Emma. "Asher? What are you doing here?" I asked, surprised to see him in a coffee shop on a Saturday morning with a book in his hands. "I come here every Saturday to catch up on my reading." "I didn't know you were such a big reader," I replied. "Yeah, well there's a lot of things you don't know about me." I blushed at his comment. "So what's the book about?" I asked. "Have you seriously never read this book? It's a classic!" "I honestly don't have time to read, I'm always busy with school. I think I've only read two books in the past five years." Asher laughed and replied, "I've read about two books in the past five weeks." How did I not know Asher Jones was such a bookworm? "So what's it about?" "Oh, I'm not gonna tell you, you'll just have to read to find out," he smirked while opening the door to leave the coffee shop. Before I could say anything else, he was gone.

Luna's break was starting so she walked over to me. "Does he really come in every Saturday?" I asked her. "Asher? Yeah and with a different book every time. I'm pretty sure that guy has read every book on the planet." I began to wonder what other secrets that boy could be hiding. He was full of mystery, yet I had known him for three years. Luna's break was almost over so I told her goodbye and that I would see her at school.