Bounce Back

Chapter 17

Ryan's POV

Tyler was waiting for me in the library on Monday afternoon. He already had his books out on the table and was quietly working. I stood there for a second just watching him. His head was ducked down, one arm writing and one resting on the table.

I moved towards the table and Tyler only looked up when I dumped my own stuff on the table.

"Shit, I didn't see you," he cursed.

I laughed slightly and started to organise my own stuff as Tyler continued to work. We had agreed to do some maths work but he seemed to already be focused on something so I started on my own thing.

We'd been working for at least half an hour before Tyler looked up again and closed the book that he was working out of.

"Sorry for ignoring you. I just figured out what to do with this," he apologised.

"It's alright. We are here to study so it doesn't just have to be maths," I said.

He nodded but then grabbed his maths stuff out and I moved around the table so that I was sitting beside him.

"This is really working. My math grades have been improving," Tyler mused.

"Well, it's good that this is working," I smiled.

He smiled and we opened to the next section. As we had worked together he was also getting faster at understanding and learning concepts and skills. It meant that we didn't have to spend as long as we did at the beginning.

The book gave a pretty good explanation of the next section and then Tyler started on the exercises. I noticed that he hadn't written anything for a minute so I glanced at his work.

"Do you need any help?" I asked.

"What do I do after this?" he asked.

I borrowed his pencil and slowly showed him how to do it. He started the next question and I had to nudge him a couple of times but he mostly did it by himself.

I started working on my own maths work as he did it and once he was finished the questions that he was doing he dropped his pencil and leant back on the chair.

"I'm not doing anymore today," he complained.

"Ok, do you want to go over some basketball stats for the game tomorrow instead?" I asked.

He nodded and I swapped my maths work for my laptop and pulled up the stats for the next team that he was facing.

This wasn't the first time that we had looked at this set of stats but there were still things to talk about. We had to be quiet because we were still in the library and there were a lot of people studying but we could still talk a bit.

Since we had been spending a lot of time looking at these Tyler was getting better at realising what they all meant and it wasn't just me talking anymore.

We couldn't spend as much time as we usually would because I was going out for dinner with my family since Dan was in town. We talked up his upcoming game as we packed up and we headed in different directions so I said goodbye and told him that I would be at the game tomorrow.

My family was already seated so I slide into my seat and for a minute just listened to their conversation.

"How was school?" Dad asked.

I shrugged a shoulder, indicating that it wasn't particularly good or bad.

The conversation quickly moved back to Dan and what he was doing. Mom and Dad were hoping for grandchild at some point and were making a point of asking all my brothers when they were around. I was glad that that wasn't my concern considering my age and that I'm gay.

Food was placed in front of all of us and the conversation stopped for a few minutes as we ate. My food was good and it was nice to hang out with my family.

Once we got home Mom and Dad disappeared into the office to do something work related leaving me and Dan in the lounge.

"Did Jamie get to meet Tyler?" he asked as we settled on the couch.

"I think so," I thought.

"Then I want to meet him."

"You aren't going to. He was only here on accident."

"I don't care. I want to meet the guy that you have a crush on," he smiled.

"Dan, it's not going to happen," I protested.

He scowled at me and I leant back on the couch.

"Honestly though, why do you want to meet him? He's just a guy at my school," I asked.

"Because I've never known you to have a crush on a guy and so I want to meet him," he explained.

I didn't say anything else because I didn't really know what to say to that. Dan had turned the TV on and for a few minutes we didn't talk.

"You know that I'm just looking out for you," he said after a minute.

"Jordan said exactly the same thing," I said.

Dan smiled and we didn't talk about it much more. It was getting late so I headed upstairs and to bed. I grabbed my phone out and found that I had a couple of texts from Tyler.

What did you say about the point guard?

Was it that he could or couldn't shoot long shots?

Forget about it. I had forgotten that you were out for dinner

I was starting to type out a response and then realised how long it was going to be so I just hit the call button instead and settled on the bed. Tyler answered after a couple of rings.

"You didn't have to respond. I had forgotten that you were out with your family," he protested.

"It's fine. We are back home now," I told him.

We started talking about the basketball team again and I could tell that Tyler was more nervous than he usually was about a game.

"Tyler, what is worrying you?" I asked.

"It's just that Coach told me that a couple of scouts are going to be at the game and I have one chance impress them so I'm nervous," he admitted.

"Tyler, you are a really good player. Even without the stats you are a good player. You will do well," I assured him.

"It's just scary. I'll just be glad when the game starts and I can just focus on that."

"How about you go to sleep and then the time will go faster?"

"I don't know if I can but I'll try," he said.

We talked for a couple more minutes but he did hang up leaving me in silence. I was glad that Tyler trusted me enough to tell me about it and why he was more nervous. I was glad that we were friends even if I had a crush on him. With people like Tyler it was just good enough to be friends.

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The Wise One