100 Ways To Love Her

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The timer is ticking non-stop, ten seconds left, it is now in Josh’s hand if they will win the game or not. Andie is in the crowd watching intently, with her fingers crossed, praying and wishing on her mind. A man way taller than Josh is on his way, the player spread his long arms apart, finding it hard to pass the ball to Mike who is a few steps from him. Is he going to shoot the ball, or pass it on to his teammate? Josh stares at Mike at first, yet he turned towards the ring, jumps, raises the ball, and throws it to the ring, seconds before the ball entered, the timer sounds and the last round of the third day of the game has ended, the score is only two points apart from the enemy. Josh closes his eyes, smacks his palm against his forehead out of frustration, he then looked at his coach shaking his head while his eyes follow his players. 

After the game and the awarding ceremony. Josh walks towards the crowd’s seat finding his water bottle in his bag, someone suddenly seats beside him, 

“Andie!”, 

“Why are you so surprised to see me?”, Andie giggles, 

“Has the class ended early?”, he asked, 

“Yeah, don’t worry about it, I got some notes, for you to study”, she then hands a notebook to Josh. He smiles at her, as he reaches it, he accidentally touches Andie’s hand for a few seconds, but still he straight away opens the notebook and reads it. Andie didn’t react, he just looks at him turning the pages of the notebook, “This is so many” he sighs, “I will help you study, ok”, she pats his shoulder and comes a few closer to him, “You did great at the game”, she uttered.

 Josh keeps reading, “I don’t want to talk about the game”, his face suddenly turned straight, then he closes the notebook and places it on her lap, “Let’s go now”, he stands up, and walks away. Andie looks at him, as he was getting farther and farther pondering if her compliments were inconsiderate but she only wanted to say the truth and to make her happy.

 “Wait!”, she quickly gets up and runs towards him. 

When they are outside the campus, they saw Mike walking on their way, “Is there any assignment?”, Josh suddenly asks

“Yep, but all of them are easy”, she uttered. 

Mike is now an inch away from him, then out of nowhere, their shoulders bumped against each other causing Mike’s bag and jacket to fall to the ground. “Watch out looser!”, he shouted at him

“I am so sorry”, Josh picks up his things and handed them to him, 

 “It’s not nice”, Andie told Mike 

“I don’t care, he is the reason why we lose the game”, he scoffed, 

“It’s up to each one of you, not on Josh alone”, she said. 

Mike chuckles, “No wonder, you and Josh are friends both nerdy, and a looser, that’s why no one would be friends with you two”, he then spits on the ground and walks away.

“Why is he so rude to you?”, Andie wondered,

“I don’t know”, he uttered. 

Out of nowhere a blue car stops in front of them, “Josh!”, Daniella waves at him, 

“Mom?”, he uttered,

 “Hi kiddo!”, Kam waves also from the driver seat, 

“Dad?”, he immediately runs towards them, 

“You two are here?”, he grins from ear to ear, 

“Of course honey, I am sorry we didn’t watch the game”, his mother holds his hand from the window, Josh’s head bows down a little “It’s fine we only landed in second place”, he said in a soft and low voice, “Congrats honey, that’s great”,

“No!, it’s not”, he sighs, “Let’s just go home”, 

“See you tomorrow”, he told Andie, before he goes right away inside the backseat of the car

“Bye, Andie, Have a good day”, Daniella smiles at her, later the car starts and left, leaving Andie there still standing.

As they reached home, Kam and Daniella, whispers, and mumbles at each other, then they both looked at Josh at the back, “Dear, why are you so quiet?”, Daniella asked. Josh didn’t say a single word instead, he opens the car door and gets out of the car. He went straight away inside the house towards his room and locks the door. 

After a few hours, his parents didn’t approach him or even knock on his door, they want him to calm down first and let go of all of his emotion, but as time passes they get more and more anxious about him so Kam and Daniella go upstairs, “Josh, you still won the game don’t pressure yourself too much wanting to achieve the greatest, we must learn how to accept..”, Daniella suddenly, smacks his arm, “Ouch”, he grunted, 

“Do you think he would feel better by what you just said”, she told him, 

“then what would I say”, he shrugs his shoulder, Daniella knocks again on the door “Josh, if you need someone to talk to we are here, ready to listen, we...will...not..judge..you”, she gave Kam a sharp look, Kam rolls his eyes and goes downstairs, 

“Leave me alone, please!”, Josh shouted, 

“All right, but if you need us just remember, we are here for you”.

The next day, when Daniella was mopping the floor, someone suddenly knocks at the door and she opens it, “Andie!”, she hugs her for a moment, 

“Come, come, I am so glad you make it here”, 

Andie walks towards inside, “No worries Mrs. Hawkins “, she said to her, 

Daniella closes the door, “Josh has locked himself since yesterday he got here”, Daniella told her, “Really?”, she looks up the stairs “Let me see what I can do”, Andie walks up towards Josh’s room. 

Andie closes her fist as she was about to knock on the door, but something inside her is pulling her not to do it, but she know she has to do it for him, so she knocked three times, “Josh, it’s me, Andie, we have a group work, it needs to be done tomorrow, and I chose you to be my teammate”, the place is still quiet, and Josh didn’t say a single word, yet Andie waited there for a minute, “Josh!”, she knocks again, this time the doorknob moves and the door opens. Andie immediately, wraps her arms around him, “How are you feeling?”, she asked, 

“I am fine”, 

“Let’s go get some ice cream, my treat”, she told him,

 “I thought, we need to do a group assignment?”, 

“uhh, ye..yes, but we can do that later, come on”, she grabs his hand and dragged him gently through outside the house, 

“I don’t feel like going out”, Josh struggles his arm against her grip, 

“Is this because of what Mike told you yesterday? Then you are giving in to what will make him happy”, she said to him, Josh fell silent and thought about it for a second, and walks back, but in their garage, Andie is just looking at him, until he was gone, and sighs deeply. She hops on her bike and pushes the pedal, “Wait!”, Josh shouted and bikes towards her, 

“Come on”, she smiles at her as soon as she saw him.

Andie and he goes to an eatery nearby. “Thank you!”, Andie said to the waiter, after taking their orders, “So what is the group work all about?”, he asked,

 “About that….”, she paused and bites her lips,

 “I am sorry, there are no assignments”, she said, 

“What!”, “I know I lied to you, please don't feel bad, ok, but that’s the only way I know so you will get out from your room”, she told him, 

Josh sighs upon hearing what she said, “Don’t do that again, ok”, he said, Andie nods slowly, “I will”, she uttered, 

“Are you still thinking about the game?”,

“I think everyone is blaming me for the loss, including myself if I made it..”, 

“No! Like what I’ve said, yesterday, it’s not only up to you, if your team will win or not, besides you are the greatest player I saw at the game yesterday,"

 “Really?”, his eyes dazzle when he heard it, 

“Yeah, that’s why don’t make your disappointments ruin your talent, it always happens, use it instead to learn and grow”, she told him, 

Josh smiles widely to her, “You made me feel enlightened. Thank you very much”, he held her hand, “By the way, how about you, is everything all right in your house?”, he asked. 

Andie’s face went straight, “I actually don’t live there anymore”, she said, 

“Wait, what!”, 

“Since my uncle lost his job, we no longer have a source of income and a fund to raise me so the childcare services took me”. At first Josh struggled to find a word after hearing her words, he was so surprised about it,

“Seriously? Then where are you living now?”, 

“there is a kind woman, in the child care services who let me live with her until someone adopts me”, she told him, 

“Wow. Why didn’t you tell me?”, he asked, 

“How would I tell you..”, a phone then suddenly rings, Josh touches his pockets and it is his phone, “Excuse me”, he stands up and goes outside.

 The waiter comes to their table, holding a tray with foods on it, he places the dishes on the table gently, “Enjoy your meal ma’am”, 

“Thank you”, she said, “If you need anything, just let me know”, the waiter then walks away. 

After a minute Josh goes back inside, “I need to go now”, he told her, “Already? How about the food?”, she asked, Josh, paused for a second and stares at the food on the table, “Waiter!”, he raised his hand, a server then comes to him, “I want to take this out”, he uttered, and the waiter gets the plate from his hand, “All right sit”, the waiter goes back to the kitchen.

“Is it really urgent?”, Andie asked, 

“I am really sorry”.

 After a few seconds, the waiter goes back with a paper bag in his hand, 

“Here it is sir”, he handed it to him, 

“See you tomorrow, and thank you” he pats her shoulder, Andie just smiles at her,

“See yeah”., and Josh left.

Not far away from the eatery, Josh went to the park, he wanders around the trees bypassing the playground and the fountains, when he went to the benches covered with different flowers behind, he saw Bethany sitting on one of them. As she saw him, Bethany immediately gets up and embraces him tightly, “Finally, you are feeling ok now”, 

“Yeah, why did you call me by the way?”, he asked, 

“To make you feel better”, she holds both of his hands, Josh blushes as soon as he felt her soft hands, he felt his heart was racing so fast, so he removes his hands from hers,

 “Come on, let’s eat”, Bethany said, 

“I already ate, thank you, and if you are hungry here have this”, he handed to her a paper bag, 

“You shouldn’t have”, Bethany giggles, and opens the paper bag, “Wow thank you”, she hugs him once again, but this time Josh slowly puts his arms around her.