She Was Ugly

Chapter 21: The Closet

It's been a week since Homecoming and nothing eventful has happened. It's been really boring. I haven't really talked to Teddy that much or Leo, but that's because he's been busy practicing for tryouts because they are tomorrow and I know despite how he acts and what he may say he is nervous.

Leo always pretends to be a tough guy but anybody who's friends with him knows that he's not all that tough. He gets nervous very easily but he masks it by acting confident, he also gets shy very easily but again masks it by acting confident.

He seems to be one of the most confident people in this school but the truth is, most of it's an act so people don't discover what he's really thinking.

It's said that he thinks he can't let people know what he's truly feeling and I wish I could help him but this is something you have to learn to overcome on your own.

I know he is nervous for the tryouts but I know he can do it. He just has to believe that himself.

This team may be a completely different one than the one he was on in France. The team in France might've played by different rules. They might've been more aggressive or weaker than our team. Who knows maybe he will be the worst player who try's out, but I don't think that will be the case. I've seen him playing in his driveway and he looks amazing.

He's constantly in his driveway playing basketball. He practices trick shots sometimes too. From what I've seen he looks amazing and any team would be lucky to have him.

I hope he breaks somebody's ankles during tryouts. Not literally of course. I want him to get around whoever guards him in a really clever way that makes them trip over themselves. Then he can score and make the whole team jealous of his awesome skills.

I don't know that much about basketball since I only played back in like seventh grade but I was never that good.

The only reason I tried out is because my brother convinced me I should. He said he would come to every single one of my games and he did. After he died I stopped playing because it just didn't feel the same.

Plus, I'm kind of lazy and was getting tired of playing basketball. I still watch it in my free time. I don't have a favorite team so I just watch whatever's on tv, which is usually re-runs of old NBA games.

Anyways, I'm on my way to the cafeteria right now to meet up with Via. We agreed to get our food and then sit on one of the benches outside to eat. It was getting colder since its November now but today was sunny.

I grabbed a tray once I got to the front of the line and looked at my options. There was the standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich, salad, and pizza. I grabbed a slice of pizza and some cheese fries and grabbed a chocolate milk before paying.

Via was already outside by the time I got there. "Hey," I said as I brushed off the bench and took a seat.

"My brother isn't eating with us. He's practicing in the gym again."

Via got right to the point. How'd she know I was going to ask her if he was eating with us? She probably knew because she thinks I'm obsessed with him.

I already knew that he probably wasn't going to eat with us today. I mean he hasn't the past couple days. He's been skipping lunch to play basketball, which is really dumb if you ask me. Leo needs to eat food to keep his energy up.

For the first half of lunch we sat there talking about whatever popped into our minds. Sometimes we switched topics so much that I got dizzy trying to keep track of everything.

This was a common occurrence. Via's mind was always going a mile a minute which in turn made us switch topics faster than a cheetah. eventually we circled our way back to Leo.