Love at First Bet

chapter 4: live bet

"I should have known that nothing is easy in this world. From the very start of the bet, I should have known that the sweet taste of victory would turn into a bitter defeat in the end,"



>> Kyler's POV

"You're late, Kyler," their coach exclaims as soon as he stepped inside the gym.

His tone had his usual annoyance twinge in it and Kyler knew that their coach will not turn a blind eye to tardiness. Even if you're the best player or not, everyone has to get the punishment when they're one step late from their calltime.

His coach nods at him, a firm look on his face, "Twenty burpees for you,"

Sighing in defeat, Kyler only nods at the punishment and places his duffel bag in the corner. It seems like the team has just finished their stretching and is about to practice. The first-years are setting up the net and pushing the carts of volleyballs from the storage. He needs to finish his punishment so he can join practice.

"I see with my pretty eyes that our little Kyler is late."

Kyler rolls his eyes as soon as he hears the voice. He ignores the person and continues his punishment, wanting to finish it to join for practice.

At his fifteenth burpee, Claude's irritating face shows up at his side, grinning mischieviously at him.

"You're always on time for practice," Claude persists. "Yet, this is the first time you're late, Ky. Is there a reason why you're late?"

Kyler regards him with an indifferent look. Claude is the vice-captain of the volleyball team. He's a good spiker. When his back is in the corner, Kyler usually passes the ball to him and the vice-captain delivers. He is a good vice-captain, always listening to his juniors' problems and happily teaches the first-years with their receives and passes. Yet, he tends to piss Kyler with him always meddling in his affairs and teasing him with his sickening sweet voice.

He once called Kyler a robot and the setter hated him for that. It was the first-time for Claude to receive such look of animosity from the nonchalant setter. This blatantly amuses the vice-captain, who decides to add it to his everyday task to annoy him.

"It's none of your business, Claude," Kyler says as soon as he stands up for his eighteenth burpee.

Claude, already used by Kyler's harsh words and spurs of annoyance, just hums while he rocks on his heels. There is a look of amusement on his face and Kyler knew that he had something in his sleeve.

"It's my business if it involves the money I stake on the bet," the vice-captain muses. Kyler throws him an odd look, still puzzled by his words and Claude is happy to answer the question on his face. "You have a guest," he says before pointing a finger at the entrance of their gym door.

Kyler turns his head and finds Tatie standing before the gym doors with a sheepish smile. When she notices that she caught Kyler's eyes, she waves hesitantly at him. Behind him, he could hear the exact second the team stops at what they were doing. All their eyes are at Tatie, the subject of their bet.

"Isn't that--" Jake exclaims when he recognizes their uninvited visitor. He proceeds to turn to Kyler with eyes that are about to bulge. "Holy s**t! Did you just--"

Before the team could erupt to chaos, Kyler quickly finishes his twentieth burpee and once he noticed that their coach had left the gym for a call, strides to the entrance gymaway from the jeers and cheers of his team. He gently grabs Tatie from the vicinity of his team and pulls her to a secluded area.

Once he is sure that the team will not be able to eavesdrop, he turns to Tatie with a disapproving look.

"We did not agree on this," he says.

Tatie has the audacity to feign cluelessness, "Really? That's a shame," she didn't speak for a couple of seconds. But, Kyler toasts her with his glare that had her sighing in defeat. "Okay. First of all, the line is blurry. I don't have a clue what's okay to do or not. And--"

Her dialogue gets cut off when Kyler waves a hand tiredly at her. He pinches the bridge of his nose as if he's pinching his outburst of patience.

"The practice will continue in ten minutes and I don't have the time to talk to you right now," he pauses. "What do you need, Tatie?"

He watches the girl twists her fingers unconsciously and Kyler can pinpoint her worry to continue.

"You see, I ran into a problem. Our landlord just messaged us about our two-month delay rent and yada yada. He basically threatened us that we will be evicted tomorrow morning," her voice gradually turns quiet. Kyler closes his eyes, already guessing her next words. "I need the money now."

Money is a tight issue to him, as well. He never came from a wealthy family like some of his team members. In fact, he was scouted by the university with an offer for athlete scholarship and his parents were more than happy to let their only son move to a different city to pursue his dreams without worrying about their finance.

Here he is, standing infront of a girl who he just met an hour ago, listening to her schemes and plans, and yet, there is this compelling urge to help her out and protect her.

Weird, he thought. He has always been a prude when it comes to money.

He tries to reach for his wallet. Before he can pull some bills from it, a hand covers it. Kyler lifted his gaze to find Tatie giving him an offended look.

"What?" he asks.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping you," Kyler answers after a pause.

Tatie raises a brow at him. "Why? You just met me."

It was Kyler's turn to stare at her, seemingly puzzled that he can't read her. He blinks away the confusion when Tatie sighs helplessly at him. She continues to push his wallet back to him and crosses her arms at him.

"You don't have to help me with your own money. I'll never do that to a partner," Tatie proclaims. "What I'm trying to tell you is that we need to win the money from the bet. Since we already had an agreement, I think we should not prolong the bet anymore and instead, proclaim ourself the winner."

Kyler considers her plan. He carefully sideglances at the gym doors and not to his surprise, the whole team is watching them in their own subtle way from the gym's door.

"Fine," he murmurs to the both of them. He turns to Tatie and flashes her his most charismatic smile (according to Jake). "Will you go out with me, Miss Tatie?" he asks with a loud tone that he is sure that his teammates could hear it.

He vaguely registers the silent squeals and gasps from his team but he ignores it in favor of waiting for Tatie's reply. He was hoping that Tatie could end his misery of listening to his teammates's teenage outbursts with an answer but, the girl is taking her time answering.

She then proceeds to smile back at him.

"There's a new Marvel movie. We could watch that on Saturday," Tatie exclaims.

Kyler stays silent. If he protests that he is not a fan of Marvel, their whole plan will collapse.

"Okay," he answers.

"We could get some burgers and milkshakes after, too. I know a good place."

"Okay,"

Seriously, where is this going?

He watches Tatie plucked her phone from her hoodie and presents it to Kyler.

"Why don't you put your number and I could message you the details after," Tatie says in a tone that could be heard. She then leans toward Kyler and whispers, "I also forgot to get your number. So, this whole visiting-the-gym thing is like killing two birds with one stone."

Mind still buzzing from obliviousness, Kyler just nods and types in his number. When he returns the phone back to Tatie, he felt his phone vibrates from his pocket.

"That's me," Tatie says with a smile. "I will not keep you from practice. See you on Saturday!" she waves at him before running off to where she came from.

Kyler watches her for a minute before he feels a heavy slap on his back.

"Well, well, well. Look who just got a date!" Jake exclaims. He proceeds to ruffle his hair in a playful manner, not minding Kyler wincing at the pain of his slap.

His team comes after shouting praises at him for getting a date out of a girl. Kyler tries to retaliate but his mouth closes when he finds Claude watching him from a distance.

"What now?" he barks.

At the attention, Claude grins menacingly at him and Kyler felt shivers down his spine.

"It just shocks me that we just had the bet this morning. Come by evening, you already got a 'yes' from the girl," he explains.

Kyler tries to play it cool, "I need the money and I need all of you out of my back," he offers as an explanation.

Claude just scoffs at his answer. He was about to open his mouth yet, Jake interrupts him by slinging his arm on Kyler's neck. Seriously, is this guy made of rock? He was goddamn heavy.

"Hey now, Claude! This just means that Kyler could be charismatic when he wants, too. He's not the stuck-up dude with a stick on his ass like you always call him."

Kyler throws Claude a dirty glare after hearing the insult yet, the team vice-captain just waves a hand at Jake's revelation and their setter's fury.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," he continues to walk towards Kyler and offers him a smile. "Congratulations then, Kyler. You just won your first bet."

He won.

Yes, he had just won a bet with a stake of five-hundred dollars, a credit card for a day and a blank check.

Yet, he felt dread crawling to his neck as the words enter his ears and echo in his mind.

You just won your first bet.

He watches Claude's lips stretched into a smirk as if telling him, there's more to come.