The Story Of Us(Original)

13

They beat us by eight points. My friends had fun, even Brielle loosened up and learned the spinning jump shot Fallon used to dominate the game.

I, on the other hand, have always been a sore loser, sitting off to the side and moping.

I was down one hundred and twenty dollars and my pride was wounded but Jerry insisted on making me laugh.

"Hey pouty." He slid beside me as our friends mingled.

"I'm not pouty." I pouted.

"Sure you are, but it's cute," Jeremiah shamelessly flirted.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Fallon watching us. He was standing with the group, drinking his water and facing the next batch of players competing but I could feel his eyes on me.

It annoyed me. "What are you looking at?" I called.

A cocky smile pulled at the sides of Fallon's lips. Swallowing his last sip, not bothering to look at me, he declared, "A loser." And so was born my obsession with beating Fallon Lynch.

Not that I ever did. After two weeks it got so bad he didn't want to play me anymore.

"No." Fallon dragged the word sitting arms spread on the basketball court benches.

"What do you mean, no?" I glared at him.

"Your money's no good here, Kid." Fallon looked off to the side laughing slightly."I'm starting to feel like a bully."

I couldn't accept my loss. Fallon refused to replay us that first day, so I challenged him for the following day; by that second week, the guys had beat us four times in a row and Fallon refused to play anymore.

"Oh, fuck off!" I derided.

"Rue!" Emily laughed, used to me being a girl who said things like chips in place of shit.

Fallon Lynch was obnoxious. He would tease me about anything that came to mind. My light Californian accent, the way I stood on the tips of my toes to make a shot sometimes, tugging gently on my hair before stealing the ball.

"You have a dirty mouth." Fallon grinned, a slight perversion in his smile as he towered above me.

I narrowed my eyes, climbing onto the bench bringing us eye to eye. "And you're an asshole."

Fallon's smile extended, "You're painfully cute," he told me. It threw me off. Made my body hot and my stomach do flips which made me feel guilty.

On the day we met, Fallon hooked up with Deja while Emily and Ben got to know each other in the carnal sense. I noticed some light flirtation the next day when we met at the park for our first rematch but I didn't think about it; and that Monday they skipped school to have sex.

Fallon lost interest after that. When we met for our next match up the following Saturday, he warmly greeted Deja with the rest of the group as though nothing had happened, his focus shifting to me.

He said it was my shorts. It was hot and I was wearing jump shot shorts that displayed my curves better than the sweat suit from the previous weekend.

His mind shifted from Deja to me, Fallon becoming a shameless flirt which was starting to cause tension in my friendship. Within a month it would go up in smoke completely and Deja would happily join the Rue-Bianchi-is-a-conniving-slut-train.

I glanced over to Deja, staring us down from the tables where our friends sat a few feet away. At the time I didn't like Fallon. I found him obnoxious and self centered but she didn't believe anyone could resist his charm.