“Is it always this noisy?” Forest asked, looking round anxiously at Cindy, who was following him down the steps to where one of the seniors had told them their seats were.
“No idea!” Cindy laughed giddily, almost tripping forwards into the back of Forest as he paused at the last row.
“I think that’s us,” Forest frowned at two very obviously empty seats amongst the rest of the tightly packed crowd.
“Did the signs saying ‘Forest’ and ‘Cindy’ give it away?” Cindy giggled. Forest’s eyes widened as he noticed the handwritten post its, stuck to the chairs with their names in a dark blue Sharpie.
“Do you think Tide put them there?” Cindy asked, nudging Forest forwards past some seated parents and settling in on their chairs.
“Maybe,” Forest replied, peering out across the court. Tide was already in the centre, along with the rest of the team doing shooting practice. Forest watched as Tide stripped down to his vest, the muscles in his brown arms rippling as he lined himself up perfectly each time to shoot the ball. Forest chewed his lip as he noticed Tide’s stance. He carefully observed which was Tide's balancing hand and which foot he stepped forwards with.
A few minutes later, the team jogged back over to the benches to take swigs of water and rub towels across their faces. They were gearing up for the start of the game.
The rival team had already appeared on the court to an equal amount of cheers and jeers. Forest looked around the gym, he could see a mix of home team colours and the bright orange of the West Peak Tigers.
The lights dimmed and a heavy beat began to play over the speakers. A few loud cries went up from around the audience. Suddenly, the spotlights flicked on, showering a formation of cheerleaders in light as they assembled themselves into a pyramid shape before the smallest girls somersaulted down and threw their heads back seductively.
The music started thumping in earnest as the cheerleader performance really got going. Forest was amazed with how they moved so gracefully and flexibly. He flicked his eyes over to see that the team were all raucously cheering the girls on, some wolf whistling and proudly shouting their girlfriend’s names.
Forest flinched as he noticed Tide, the other boy was taking a drink of water and staring resolutely back at Forest. Forest raised his hand lamely in a wave before he could think better of it. Tide pulled the bottle back from his mouth, which rearranged into a dazzling smile as Tide waved back.
Forest grinned, as in this moment no one else was looking at them, all eyes transfixed on the cheerleaders. In this moment it was just Tide and him smiling at each other.
“You came,” Tide mouthed over the peppy, booming lyrics.
“Yeah,” Forest mouthed back with a nod. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly but Tide had already looked away. The performance was over and the game was about to start.
Forest couldn’t believe how quickly and powerfully the boys on the team moved. He had thought avoiding the lunchtime stampede was hard enough but if he ever got caught in the middle of a basketball game he would probably end up flat on the floor.
He winced as a tall redheaded boy slammed into Tide’s side, body checking him in what Forest could only assume would be categorised as violent physical assault, but to the ref didn’t even seem to be a foul.
“Oh man that’s gonna bruise,” Cindy muttered, passing Forest one of the hot dogs she had just bought. Mustard and ketchup ran down his thumb and he had to awkwardly balance the food on his knee as he sucked his digit into his mouth.
“And down goes Serrano again!” the commentator boomed over the tannoy system. “Completely distracted by something in the stands. You could say…he needs to get his head in the game.”
There was an audible groan from the crowd as the commentator, a senior girl from their school, chuckled smugly to herself.
“Are they going to lose?” Forest frowned anxiously. He looked across to where the scouts were sat with their camcorders out.
“You ask me like I even understand what’s happening,” Cindy snorted.
Forest fidgeted nervously with the cuffs of his sleeves whilst someone called for a time out. He focussed on Tide jogging over to the bench. The other boy lifted up his vest to rub the sweat from his face, exposing chiselled abs and a trail of thick, dark hair leading below his shorts.
“Holy shit on a pissing cow, I am now a massive sports fan!” Cindy choked on her soda as the girls behind Forest started screaming appreciatively, giving him a splitting earache.
Forest bit his lip hard and tried to will himself to look away. Tide probably wouldn’t be impressed if he looked up and saw Forest ogling him like a piece of meat.
Tide wasn’t looking up at the stands however. Instead, he drew out his phone from his bag and began typing something. Forest sighed, glancing over at the big electronic scoreboard. The Stags were well in the lead according to the numbers, but they seemed to change pretty quickly.
Forest jumped as his ass started to vibrate. He reached back to pull his phone out of his pocket and swiped up to see a message from Tide. Forest flushed with excitement, is that what Tide had been doing? Texting him?
- I’m really glad you came. Am I sucking? I feel so nervous with the scouts right there.
Forest felt his chest clench, he wanted to jump over the seat and go comfort Tide but that would probably mortify the other boy. Instead, Forest kept his eyes firmly fixed to his phone as he quickly typed back.
- I’m glad I came too. It’s really fun to see you play properly and not with those rubbish balls in the arcade!
Forest hit send then paused, thinking about what he could add.
- Of course you’re not sucking, the scouts are smiling! I mean…I don’t really understand the rules but you look like you’re doing really well and your team keep getting the ball in the hoop so that’s good right?
Forest chanced looking up to see Tide’s face crease up in a laugh. The other boy didn’t look back at Forest though, his thumb just running over the phone screen before he chucked it back on his bag and the ref called for the game to start up again.
Forest looked down to see one more unread message.
- Yeah, that’s good. You might even say it’s the aim of the game. Thanks for being nice. If we win would you like to come for a celebration milkshake with me at the diner?
Forest bit his lip and looked up to see Tide staring questioningly at him from the middle of the court. Forest nodded shyly as Tide’s face split into a wide grin and the game began again.
Tide played incredibly, he was faster on his feet than any of the guys trying to check him and no one was able to take the ball from him once it was under his fingertips. The numbers on the scoreboard kept going up and up for the Stags.
Forest kept flicking his eyes nervously over to the cluster of scouts, willing them to see Tide as brilliant.
“They’ve done it!” a proud father yelled as Ryan shot the ball in the final second and it rattled effortlessly through the hoop.
Forest felt elated as the gym broke out in resonating, echoing cheers.
“You did it!” Forest mouthed at Tide as the other boy caught his gaze. Tide kept grinning at him until he was mobbed by the rest of his team and dragged down into a messy huddle on the floor.
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