Page 48 of Seren

“Hey.”

Seren was shooting baskets alone on the driveway court. “No party tonight?”

He shook his head. “Would you have come?”

“God, no.”

He laughed, and I still couldn’t get used to the foreign sound. “I don’t blame you. They’re a bunch of assholes.”

I smiled, unsure what else to say since we both knew it was the truth.

“What are you doing tonight?” he asked between shots that he sank effortlessly.

“Well, I plan to get this awful uniform off and shower. Then maybe watch a movie or read the book I’ve been trying to finish.”

“Trying to finish?”

“Yeah, since my dad died my focus has been shot.”

His lips twisted regrettably.

“It’s like my brain can only focus for so long and then poof. Nothing.”

“I still struggle with that,” he admitted. “But it’s gotten a little better with time.”

A long silence passed between us. I wanted to get out of my uniform, but I moved toward him and lifted my hands instead. Seren smirked and bounced the basketball to me. I dribbled a couple of steps before shooting the ball. It bounced off the rim.

“Almost,” he assured me as he grabbed the loose ball and shot the ball from the three-point line. Of course he sank it.

“Show off.”

He laughed as he nabbed the ball and tossed it back to me.

“I’m just getting warmed up, you know,” I said before shooting the ball and making the basket.

“Nice shot,” he said, grabbing the loose ball and turning to look at me. “You wanna get changed and grab some ice cream or something?”

“Ice cream?”

He shrugged. “Well, I’m not taking you to some Coopersville party.”

I shook my head. “Did you need to remind me that you messed with my night?”

“I was jealous as hell,” he admitted. “I wanted you to stay here. Not hang with some drunk guys where I couldn’t keep an eye on you.”

“That’s not normal, you know that, right?”

He shrugged.

“If you want to spend time with someone, you ask them out. You don’t have them pulled over by the cops and then have their party broken up.”

His face hardened. “I needed that night to suck so you wouldn’t need to keep going back there on the weekends.”

“Well, you went to a lot of effort to be sure it did.”

“I never said my actions weren’t fucked up.” Sensing my indecision over his sanity—or lack thereof, he moved closer to me. “Grace. I’m not gonna apologize for messing with your night. I’m happy it sucked. All I can say is I’m gonna try not to do anything like that again.”

“You’re gonna try?”

---