From Teammates to Best Friends to Boyfriends?

I was feeling somewhat better when I woke up the next day. I only had a slight headache, a runny nose, and a little pain in my chest. I sighed and looked down at Garret. He was still sleeping with his arms loosely around me. I smiled, remembering last night when he called me ‘babe’, and then proceeded to cuddle with me. I removed one my arms from around his shoulder and fished out my phone that was in my pocket of the basketball shorts that I was wearing. It was six and I decided that I would try to go to school today. I gave Garret a little shook and he made a soft whine. I chuckled, remembering that he didn’t get that much sleep and he was probably really tired.

“Garret, we got to get ready for school.”

He looked up with tired eyes and blinked. “So you’re going?” He asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m gonna try.”

He mumbled something and got out of bed. “Do you want to borrow some clothes?” He asked.

I slightly smiled and nodded. He turned his head to look out his window and then picked out some black basketball shorts and tossed them towards the bed, but they landed on the floor. I chuckled and bent down while still on the bed to pick them up. He threw a light blue shirt and socks my way too. I quickly got dressed and noticed Garret still had his sweatpants on and a hoodie. I don’t even think he put on a shirt first, but oh well. He came over to the bed and fell face first on it beside me.

“Tired?” I asked.

He nodded and lifted his hand to punch my thigh. “It’s your fault.” He muttered.

I chuckled and asked, “Want to go to McDonalds or somewhere to get breakfast?” He lifted his head and just stared at me for a minute. “Yeah.” He rubbed his eyes as he walked over to his entertainment center and grabbed his wallet and phone. “Let’s go.”

We pulled on our shoes and headed out. We passed by his dad on our way to the door and he smiled when we made eye contact. “Good morning, boys.” He continued his way to the living room with a cup of coffee in his hand.

When we got done eating breakfast at McDonalds, I headed to the school which was block away. I loved it that our school was like right in the middle of town. We had fast food places and gas station surrounding us, and on one side of the school, there is a bowling alley, movie rental store, a farming equipment store, and a furniture place. It was really fun to sneak off campus when it was the last few days before Christmas break or at the end of the year. If you didn’t have to take the exam for a specific class, but you had to for another, you could just walk off campus and come back later. Of course the principals don’t like it, but they don’t really try to stop us or punish us. And the teacher seem to not mind.

By the end of the day, I was worn out. I still had a headache and my back was starting to hurt. Garret had asked me to come watch him play today, since it was a home game. But I told him I didn’t think that was such a good idea. I don’t know why, I just think it would be weird for me to sit there and watch my former teammates play when I had just quit. But then Garret asked me if I could pick him up when the game was over. He said he wanted to spend more time with me and then he blushed. I thought it was cute that he was embarrassed to admit that, and I let him know it. I agreed and started heading home to see if my mom was there to explain to her where I went.
When I stepped inside the house and shut the door and turned around, I was met with my mother who was clearly angry. I greeted her and waited for her to start nagging.

“Where did you go last night?” She asked in surprisingly normal voice and not a loud one.

“I went to Garret’s.” I answered.

“And why?”

I shrugged. “Because I wanted to see him.”

Mom sighed. “I know you want to spend a lot of time with him, since now y’all are dating or whatever, but you could’ve have at least called me! Plus you were sick! What if you were sneezing or something and you had your eyes closed and drove off into a ditch!” She exclaimed. (I told mom about my crush on Garret right after our first date.)

“Mom, I’m okay. See still in one piece and so is my truck.” I said and wrapped my arms around her to give her a tight hug.

She sighed. “Okay. But don’t ever do that again.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“And you’re gonna help Sammy tonight.”

“Do what?” I pulled away to see her smile.

“He wants to make dinner.”

I chuckled. “Okay. But I promised Garret I would pick him up after his game, so can we do it when I come back?”

She nodded. M’kay. I’m going to get your cousin with Sammy right now. Be good and lock the door.”

Sammy rushed into the living room and asked mom if she was ready. They left and I went to my room to hang out in there. I just played around on the computer until mom, Sammy, and Joe came back. We kicked the soccer ball around in the back till it was time for me to go pick up Garret.

When I got to the school and parked, I saw that the game was over and most of the players and parents were already in their cars heading out. I got out and walked on the familiar sidewalk that led to the baseball fields. Garret was alone in the dugout, stuffing his helmet in his bag.

“Hey, stranger.” I plopped down beside his bag on the bench and looked up at him. Even when he was sweaty and had dirt on his uniform and face, he was still pretty to me.

He smiled and continued on with zipping up his bag. “Hey.”

“So mom’s making me help Sammy make dinner and my little cousin is spending the night since my aunt is leaving tonight to take Uncle Eddie to the airport.”

He nodded. “Okay. What are y’all making?” He asked and moved his bag to sit beside me.

“Don’t know yet. Whatever Sammy wants.” I chuckled and draped my arm on his shoulders. We just looked out at the baseball field in front of us. The dirt was kicked around and the white lines weren’t really white anymore. I looked at third base and a part of me wished I had stayed on the team just so I could play with Garret again.

“You know, if you ever get back into liking baseball again, I’ll play with ya. Like one on one.” He laughed.

I raised my eyebrows. “Okay.” He smiled and nodded. “Ready to get out of here?” I asked.

“Yep.” We got up and I picked up Garret’s bag with one hand and placed my other arm back over his shoulders and we headed out to my truck.

When we got back to my house, Sammy had been waiting the kitchen for me with Joe. I looked at the counter and saw there was stuff to make pizza.

“So we’re making pizza?” I asked. Pizza was one of Sammy’s favorites to help make. And we’ve made homemade pizzas so many times before that I don’t even have to have the instructions anymore.

“Yep. Pepperoni.” He shouted. My cousin, Joe laughed. Joe was a year younger than Sammy and they got along great. They’re like best friends. I looked over at Garret to see his face expression changed when he heard the word ‘pepperoni’. I laughed at him and he gave me this look as if he was going to tell me to shut up.

So while Sammy and I started making the pizza dough, Garret and Joe sat at the table and watched us. I would glance over at Garret a few times and smile. He and Joe kept on making fun of us when we would screw something up.

When the two pizzas were in the oven, I told Sammy and Joe not to mess with it and to come and get me when the timer went off. I grabbed Garret’s hand and dragged him to my room. He was still in his baseball uniform and I asked him if he wanted to take a shower or something, but he said no and that he just wanted to hang out with me. I smiled and sat down on my bed. I watched as Garret came over and sat down beside and then noticed my drawing book under my pillow and picked it up. He opened it up and looked at me. I guess he wanted permission to look in it, so I nodded. He flipped through the pages looking at each drawing that was in there.

When he got to this one of a tiger’s face, he told me, “Oh, I really like this one.” He grinned.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” He went to turn the page.

“Well you can have it then.” I told him. He stopped and looked up to meet my eyes with his.

“Really?”

“Yes, but you have to do something in return first. . .”

“What?”

I pushed him a little. “Go take a shower. You reek.” I laughed. He chuckled and got up.

“Fine, but I’ll need a shirt.” He said as he walked out. I laughed and got up as well. I picked out a random shirt from my closet and went out into the hallway. I watched him walk out to go to my truck. He came back in a few minutes later with his sweatpants from earlier. He grabbed my shirt when he walked passed me and went into the bathroom that was at the end of the hall.

I went down to check on the pizzas and found Joe and Sammy sitting in front of the oven. They were literally watching the pizzas cook. I laughed at them and told them to back up for a second. The timer still had about 20 minutes on it. I turned to the boys.

“Hey, wanna watch a movie?”

“Yeah!” Joe shouted.

“Cool. Scary or funny?” I asked them.

They wanted action so I put in Tranformers, my favorite of the three, and lied down on the bigger couch. They were sitting on the smaller one. I pressed play and we started watching the movie. The front door swung open and my dad came in.

“Hey.” He greeted everyone in the room.

“Hey, dad.” I smiled.

“Where’s mom?” He asked me.

“In here!” We heard mom shout from their room. Dad made his way to the hallway and then disappeared in it. Soon enough, Garret was out of the shower and I sat up so he could sit beside me. He smelled like my body wash now and I smiled at the scent. I placed a kiss on his clothed shoulder. He leaned back and I threw my arm back to rest on his shoulders and kicked up my feet to rest them on the coffee table.

“When do you want to go home?” I asked him in a whisper.

“Uh . . . whenever you want to take me home.” He muttered and leaned onto my side more. I gave him a small smile and looked back at the television.

When I thought it was time for the pizzas to done, I went to check on them. I turned off the timer that had about a minute left on it and took them out. I yelled that the pizzas were done and Sammy was the first one to come running in. I cut the pizzas in slices and grabbed one for me and went back into the living room. I took the smaller couch this time so it could just be me and Garret to share. The boys and dad sat on the big couch while mom was in the recliner. I was sitting on the left side of the couch and I swung my legs over the left side’s arm rest and rested my head in Garret’s lap. Garret looked down at me and raised his eyebrows. I gave him a cheeky smile and he rolled his eyes at me and focused back on the movie.

When the movie was over, mom made Sammy and Joe go to bed in his room. Garret and I went to my room and just hung out in there for a little bit before I had to take him home. We sat on my bed and just talked about anything while music played in the background.

“So how did the game go?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “It went alright. We lost though.” He frowned.

“Y’all get ‘em next time.”

“So is this the last year you’re gonna be on the team? Are you gonna come back next year?” He asked me while playing with a string on the shirt that he was wearing.

I shrugged. “Probably not.”

He frowned at this. “M’kay.” He muttered and lied down.

“You still want to play soccer?”

He nodded and I smiled. “Maybe we can play together? One on one?” I asked him like he did to me earlier in the dugout. He grinned and chuckled.

“Okay.”

I stared down at him for a few seconds before leaning down to kiss him. I didn’t want to push him into going too far, so I pulled away after a few seconds. But I was surprised when he grabbed my shirt and pulled me back down. He continued kissing me until we were out of breath.
I chuckled at how red his cheeks were and kissed them.