In Fate's Hands

When Elizabeth came back, she noticed that Jesse was in the exact same place she had left him: on the couch in front of the TV.

“Where you sitting here the whole entire time I was gone?” she asked.

“Not the whole time,” he responded. “I went to the gym and worked out for a little bit.” He pointed to the millions of bags in Elizabeth’s hands. “I guess shopping went well?”

“Very well. I bought things that I never thought I would ever be able to own.”

“That’s good. I have an idea of where you can debut some of your new clothes.”

“Where?”

“I have a game tonight and I’d like it very much if you could come and watch me play. What do you say?”

“I say heck yes.”

“Awesome. Usually after the game, I go out with the guys. Do you want to come?”

“Oh, I don’t know…”

“Why not? It’ll be fun.”

“Yeah, but those guys always used to make fun of me. I don’t want to set myself up for anything.”

“If they’re mean to you, they’ll have me to deal with. Besides, those guys worship me. If I tell them to be nice to you, they’ll do it.”

“Ok I’ll hang out with you and your buddies afterwards, but if they say one rude thing to me, I’m out of there.”

“Deal. The game starts in an hour though, so we’d better start getting ready.”

Half an hour later, Elizabeth was ready. She was wearing her new pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a black cashmere sweater with a white camisole underneath. She straightened her hair and brushed it into a side part. A black pair of open-toed shoes with thin heals was the finishing touch to her new look. Jesse stood at the bottom of the stairs in his white and blue Lions jersey. When she came down, his mouth dropped open. Lets just say that, at that moment, he wanted her more than he ever imagined he would.

“Wow…”

“Thanks,” Elizabeth said, smiling.

“So are you ready to go?”

“Yup.”

He offered her his arm and escorted her out to his car.

“So this should be interesting,” Elizabeth said once they were in the car on their way. “I’ve never been to a high school basketball game before.”

“Even if you don’t like it, at least it will still be a new experience.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing you in your glory though. I’ve heard so much about your skills from other people, but now I get to experience it firsthand. I’m sure you’ll be great.”

“I hope so. It’s my dream. I’ve always wanted to win a basketball scholarship for college and then eventually get drafted to the NBA.”

“Which school do you want to go to?”

“Right now I’m thinking maybe Duke because they have such a good basketball program there, but I’m not really sure. I’d be happy anywhere as long as I can play. What about you?”

“I’ve never really thought about college until pretty recently. Before, it never even crossed my mind that I would even go to college because of the whole Anthony thing. Now that I’m free, I have absolutely no idea what to. I feel a little bit lost, to be quite honest. I guess I would really like to go to an Ivy League school, but I wouldn’t be able to afford it without a scholarship.”

“College is so expensive these days.”

“Yeah. If I don’t go to an Ivy League or get a scholarship, I’m going to need to take out a lot of loans to cover the bills. Right now, I don’t really want to ask my mom for the money because I don’t want to owe her anything, so I’m just going to see if I can pay my own way as of now. Once I get a job, all the money I earn will be put straight into the bank.”

“Good for you. It’s good that you don’t feel like you have to depend on anyone to get by.”

“I haven’t really been depending on anyone for awhile now, so not that much has changed. For these past few years, the only person I could really depend on was me, except maybe up until recently.”

“I wish I could have been there for you sooner.”

“Better late than never. Would it have been nice to have a friend like you back then? Of course, but I’m glad for what we have now. You can’t change the past, but you can change the future. That’s something I’ve been going by lately.”

“You’re right.”

They arrived back at their school where the game was, so Jesse dropped Elizabeth off at the front and went to park the car and then he went inside to join the team. Once she was inside, Elizabeth decided to go find Jesse’s parents and sit with them because she did not really know anyone else at the game that well. She immediately found them sitting on the front row of bleachers off to the left and sat down next to Karen.

A few minutes later, the announcer introduced the players on both teams. When Jesse jogged out, he immediately spotted Elizabeth on the bleachers and smiled at her. God, she looks so beautiful, he thought.

Karen immediately noticed when he smiled at Elizabeth. “He must really care about you,” she whispered in Elizabeth’s ear.

Elizabeth smiled and said, “I hope so because I care about him too.”

The referee blew the whistle and the game began. He threw the ball up in the air and Jesse immediately jumped and hit it toward one of his teammates. The Lions made their first basket. Elizabeth noticed the way Jesse played with such ease. He had become so good at taking the ball from the other team that they were barely ever in possession and he was scoring more points than any other player on either team. He looked like he was having the time of his life. By half time, the score was 40-5; the Lions were really on their game tonight. By the end of the game, the score was 60-15. The Lions’ undefeated record was still safe.

When the buzzer went off and the game was over, all the Lions fans stood up and cheered. As everyone started to leave, Elizabeth ran up to Jesse and gave him a hug.

“That was awesome!” she gushed as he lifted her up off her feet and then put her down again.

“Thanks,” he said. “I played better tonight than I ever have. I think you must be my lucky charm.”

“No, you were probably just trying to show off for me,” she laughed.

“Yeah, probably.” He smiled and laughed.

“So remember at school the other day when you said that you want to be more than friends with me?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, I want that too.”

“But, I thought you said you wanted to figure some things out first.”

“But then a little birdie reminded me that I shouldn’t take anything for granted. This whole thing with Anthony could have ended a lot worse than it did and, if there’s one thing it taught me, it’s that time is precious and you never really know when your time might be up. I should live it up while I can. It was never really fair of me to ask you to sit around and wait for me, so I’m sorry for that, but I hope it’s not too late.”

“It’s never too late for us. I was hoping so much for you to change your mind.”

“And now I have, so what are you going to do about it?”

“This.” He put his hands on both of her cheeks. They both slowly closed their eyes as he leaned in and kissed her deeply.