“Ugh you’re such a brat, Sam!” Emily shouted at her younger brother as he knocked on the bathroom door, “Just leave me alone!”
Sam had tried to let Emily have the bathroom, but she had been in there for an hour and thirty minutes already and he really had to pee. He just knocked more frantically hoping that she would realise that it was urgent. He was about to give up when the door suddenly swung open and the door knob hit him really hard. He yelped in pain and the tears started gathering in his eyes.
“You’re such a crybaby, Sam” She mocked him before leaving and Sam rushed into the bathroom to take care of his business. He lifted up his shirt and noticed the bright red mark on the bottom of his rib cage. He touched it gently and his lip quivered at how tender it felt.
He went downstairs and decided that today he would be good and eat an apple when Emily scoffed at him, “You’re seriously going to eat that, you pig. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t look like you need to eat that apple at all. I’m just looking out for you, I wouldn’t want you to get obese. It’s important to stay healthy”
Sam frowned, looking at the apple with tears in his eyes. He knew that Emily could be harsh with her words, but wasn’t that just how older sisters were. She was only looking out for him, so he guessed he shouldn't eat the apple after all if it was going to make him even fatter. He already weighed so much. He wanted to get down to 97 pounds, but he was such a failure that he could only get down to 100. No wonder Emily felt the need to comment.
He walked to school trying to ignore the growling of his stomach. He kept his head down, trying to keep everyone’s eyes off of him. How could they stand to look at him anyway, he was disgusting.
Sam’s mood remained gloomy for the rest of the day, and it didn’t go unnoticed by his tutor. Treyvon was about to go up to Sammie at school, but he couldn’t seem to find the boy anywhere. He was so excited to give him one of his momma’s famous chocolate cupcakes. Darius kept trying to eat it all day, but Treyvon managed to hold him off with the promise of inviting him to dinner the next night.
Eventually Treyvon caught the shy boy sitting on a bench in front of the school. He almost didn’t notice that it was him as Sammie had crunched up into a ball, but Treyvon would recognize that blonde hair anywhere. Treyvon sat down on the bench next to Sammie who tensed up at the feeling of someone sitting down next to him. He peeked out the side of his arms to see who it was and relaxed at the familiar sight of Treyvon.
“What?” Treyvon was surprised at the grumpy grunt that came from the little ball beside him.
“I’ve been looking for you all day, were you hiding from me?” Treyvon spoke quietly, sensing the other’s bad mood.
“Not you” Sammie spoke quietly.
“Someone else then?” Treyvon pondered out loud.
“Everyone” Sammie answered simply, which surprised Treyvon. Treyvon on an impulse pulled Sammie into a tight hug, which Sammie leaned into. Sammie just sat there allowing himself to enjoy the comfort of Treyvon’s strong arms, and before he knew it he was crying.
“Here, my momma made this for you” Treyvon tried to put the cupcake in Sammie’s vision which only made him cry harder. He didn’t want to be rude, but how could he possibly eat that? Was Treyvon teasing him? “Come on, Sammie. Don’t cry. I had to fight Darius so that he wouldn’t eat your cupcake”
“Not hungry” Sam tried to use that as an excuse, and luckily Treyvin didn’t push him.
“If you say so. Don’t tell my momma I ate this for you, she’ll beat my ass” Treyvon warned Sammie who nodded and watched as Treyvon devoured the delicious looking cupcake.
⯀
Sam was a little embarrassed by his bad mood yesterday and how he acted like a complete baby with Treyvon. Treyvon drove him home last night and they didn’t even tutor. How could he have been so rude? Treyvon probably doesn’t want to be friends with such a big baby.
Sam quickly found Treyvon and weaved his way through the crown until he was right in front of him and his friends. Sam gulped suddenly, panicking. Why did he decide that he had to apologize in front of all of these people? Couldn’t he have just texted him?
“Sammie? Excuse me guys, I ‘ll be right back” Treyvon excused the two of them with expertise, much to Sam’s relief.
“Sorry for yesterday, I was being moody” Treyvon blinked at what he thought were the most words that he had heard from Sammie in one sentence.
“Don’t worry about it, Sammie. We all have our bad days, it’s perfectly normal. I’m just happy that you’re feeling better. We’re still on for our tutoring today right?” Treyvon gave Sam one of his biggest and brightest smiles.
Sammie nodded at him, but smiled meekly before waving and scurrying off. Treyvon chuckled at the sight before heading back to his friends.
“Who was that?” Darius asked, confused.
“Oh that’s Sammie, the guy that I’m tutoring. He’s shy” Treyvon explained, not noticing the giant smile on his face as he talked about the other boy.
⯀
Sam was currently really regretting going home so early. Well it’s not like he could have known that Emily and her boyfriend Nick would be home as well. Both his mom and his step- dad worked the night shift (it’s how they met) meaning that the house was usually still full. His mom would be rushing around to get ready for work, but the house was still full nonetheless. Emily didn’t usually come home until around four, so Sam was a little perplexed and annoyed that she brought Nick home.
Nick wasn’t necessarily evil, but he was a massive jerk to people he felt didn’t deserve to talk to him. Which was pretty much everyone. Nick especially liked reminding Sam of the ways that he could lock him in a locker and no one would ever find out. He had never done it, but the threat still scared Sam.
“Ugh why are you here?” Emily turned up her nose at the sight of her younger brother.
Sam wanted to retaliate that it was also his home and he had a right to be there, but instead he simply ignored her and went into the kitchen to go wash his hands. In the kitchen he spotted an orange, and it seemed like the orange was calling to Sam, but Sam quickly broke eye contact. He’d eat later, he’s not hungry right now.
“Hey dipshit, grab me one of those beers” The hairs on the back of Sam’s neck bristled in concern and wariness. The beers in the fridge belonged to his Step-Dad who he always seemed to annoy with just his mere presence. Sam shuddered at the thought of what he would do to Sam if he stole one of his beers, “I know you’re a freak, but are you deaf as well. I said get me a fucking beer”
“Sam stop being such a pussy. Just grab it. Tim won’t find out anyway, unless you tattle, and he’ll be more mad at you than us” Emily’s voice rang out. Sam grabbed the beer and quickly deposited it in Nick’s lap. Not really wanting to deal with them today, Sam rushed back out the front door. Maybe he would just wait for Treyvon at school rather than having him go out of his way to pick him up from his house. Treyvon already wasted so much gas on him, maybe he should pay him back?
Sam enjoyed his peaceful walk into the school. He was going to wait on the bench that he sat on yesterday, but it seemed like every bench near the front of the gym was taken. Maybe he could sit on the bleachers inside the gym and get a glimpse of Treyvon practicing. It’s not like they would notice him, and he’d promise to be really quiet.
He picked one of the middle rows to the side to sit on. It was obvious, but it would have been obvious no matter where he sat. Hopefully he wasn’t being a distraction to the other players. Sam pulled out his English homework, and tried to finish reading the disturbing book that was “Night” by Elie Wiesel. It was a good book, but definitely not one that was going to get a Disney remake any time soon. Which made sense considering it was a book about the holocaust. It wasn’t exactly a magical place that resembled fairy tales.
“Sammie!” Sam’s head whipped up at the sound of his name being called. The only one who ever called him that was Treyvon so he wasn’t surprised to see the giant heading his way. It seemed like the whole team was on a water break.
“What are you doing here? Came to spy on me?” Treyvon joked with his usual warm smile.
Sam shook his head, “No, I’m waiting here. Didn’t want to be home”
Treyvon nodded in understanding, “Okay well I don’t think I’ll be done any time soon, hopefully you’re not too bored. I got to go, the break’s over”
Treyvon was called by one of his teammates. He was tall, probably around 6’0 but he still looked tiny compared to Treyvon. Then again, Treyvon made everyone look like an ant. He had these cool cornrows or at least Sam thought they were cornrows. He felt a little embarrassed by his lack of knowledge. He didn’t really know anything about hairstyles to begin with let alone the intricacies of African American Hair care. Sam only knew how to do a ponytail, and a sloppy braid. That was the extent of his hair knowledge.
He worked on his homework for another hour or so, and finished pretty much everything he could do at the gym. So he decided to watch Treyvon’s practice and see why the older boy loved the sport so much. It didn’t seem that fun, but Sam could admit that the one basket that he had made at the park the other day was extremely rewarding.
The team seemed to be doing a scrimmage at this point. They were wearing these fake jerseys that they just slipped on over their clothes. Sam sat engrossed in watching them play, despite the fact that he had no clue what was going on, he found it interesting how seamlessly such simple movements created such a complex game.
Treyvon was definitely the best player there, and that wasn’t Sam’s bias speaking either, okay well maybe a little bit of bias, but still. Treyvon towered over most of his teammates and was a lot more muscular than them too. If Sam didn’t know just how intelligent and academically diligent he was, Sam would have assumed that Treyvon was one of those guys who ate, slept, and lived at the gym.
Sam always knew that Mr. Boone was scary as he had him for history this year, and even when he wasn’t mad his booming voice would make Sam want to shrivel up in his seat. Coach Boone was even scarier, Sam couldn’t even compute how the players were able to be yelled at by him without melting into a puddle on the spot. Currently one of the scrawnier guys was being yelled at for messing up a play (according to Boone) for the “millionth time”.
He could tell that the players respected Boone and Boone respected them as well. Boone seemed to love teaching and coaching. Basketball and History was a weird combination, but who’s going to have balls big enough to make fun of Boone.
Soon enough the team formed a huddle and did this little shout thing that startled Sam who wasn’t expecting it, signaling the end of their practice. Treyvon jogged over to Sam, sweat dripping all over.
“Hey, I’ll be right out. I just have to take a quick shower, get changed, and we can get out of here” Sam nodded so Treyvon quickly left to go catch up with the rest of his team.
Sam turned around to make sure that he wasn’t forgetting anything, especially not one of his precious pencils, when a deep voice shocked him, “Olsen? What are you doing in my gym?”
“T-t-treyvon. T-t-tutoring today” Sam mustered out weakly, but Boone didn’t flinch or say anything about it.
“Oh yeah, he told me that he had to tutor some kid. Surprised it’s you. I don’t mind if you sit in on practice, but don’t go distracting Treyvon. That boy has the attention span of a golden retriever to begin with, there’s no need to wave a toy in front of him” Sam was very confused by Boone’s words, but the man just turned and left before Sam could even attempt to ask him what he meant.
Sighing in relief at the sight of Treyvon, Sam scurried out of the gym. The two of them began their usual journey to the library.
“How did you like practice? Hopefully it wasn’t too boring” Treyvon gleamed at Sam with a curious smile.
Sam shook his head, "Just did my homework"
"Yeah that's one of the things that sucks about basketball. It takes up all of my time. I love it, but sometimes I wish I had more time to get other things done. Oh well, what am I gonna do about it" Sam wasn't too far off earlier, Treyvon pretty much does live and breathe basketball, “Hopefully all this work pays off in the end”
Sam didn’t know all that much about basketball, but he could see that Treyvon was a natural and he seemed to really enjoy it which was just an added bonus. As the two of them walked into the library, they walked side by side, Sam enjoying the usual soothing sound of Treyvon’s voice. Without either of them noticing their chairs managed to scoot until they were right next to each other, their hands and bodies brushing against each other lightly enjoying the comfort of another person.
Comments (14)
See all