You needed some service hours for school..

So, you became the assistant coach for your school’s basketball team. Nevermind the fact that you hardly knew anything about basketball. You just ran errands for coach, served the water, cleaned, took all the coaches notes, etc. It wasn’t too bad.. hearing the sounds of sneakers squeaking against the gym floor as sweaty boys clambered over each other for a ball.. You told yourself it wasn’t that bad.

Or at least it wouldn’t be, not if the captain of the basketball team didn’t make his personal mission to irk you nonstop. The winks, the sly remarks, the annoying insults. It was so normal for him to come up and bug you for whatever reasons he wanted. It was almost as if he took joy in the fact that you weren’t swooning over him, using it as his motivation to keep pestering you.

You were refilling the water for the team as the practice was coming to a closed and you felt an irritatingly familiar hand ruffling your hair. “You enjoy gawking at me today? Could see you drooling from the court.” Now, you didn’t hate Noah per se. If anyone were to ask, you’d refute that. But, the hate was.. platonic. He was annoying, for sure, but it was partially playful.. partially frustrating.