Under The Stars

Chapter 12

KEITH’S POV

I held her soft hand in mine as we walked into the cabin.

“Hey Keith, you are late man” Jason shouted from one end of the room when he saw me. Everyone seemed to stop what they were doing and shifted their focus on me, on us rather. I could feel Zia tightening her grip on my hand. I knew she wasn’t used to this kind of setting and probably she was scared.

The room was full of most of my teammates and their girlfriends for the weekend. It was not unusual to see different types of girls each weekend. It was how many of us ‘rolled’, as we liked to put it.

“Hey man, Iam here now.” I called out back to Jason.

“Who is the hot stuff?” Jason, who was clearly drunk, asked smiling blatantly at Zia.

“My name is Zia Brown. And I don’t appreciate you referring to me as some hot stuff.” She interjected before I could even say anything to Jason.

“Uuuhh” the boys uttered in unison clearly surprised by her fierceness.

“Yes Jason, this is Zia and I would appreciate if you treated her with respect.” I said hoping that the message was clear to every guy in the room. I did not want anyone thinking that they could mess around her. But I was not to worry; clearly she was a tough one. I liked it.

“Would you like to grab something to drink?” I asked her.

“Yeah sure.” She said and we made our way to the kitchen.

“So, beer or vodka?”

“Actually none. I’d love a glass of juice. That is if there is any.” She said much to my surprise.

“You don’t drink?” I asked clearly shocked.

“Well I do, just nothing alcoholic. You know, water, juice, milk.” She said laughing.

Ooh, she was funny too. Great.

“Do you mind telling me why you don’t drink anything alcoholic.” I asked handing her a glass of orange juice I found in the fridge and opened a bottle of beer for myself.

“I have no particular reason. I just don’t think it’s necessary.”

“Ummh. That makes sense.”

“So tell me, how long have you been playing basketball?” she asked.

“To be honest, for as long as I can remember. When I was a little kid my dad and I used to play at the court in our backyard every evening when he came back from work.” I said as the memories of me as a kid flushed through my mind.

“Aaaw that is cute.”

“It was cute.” I said placing emphasis on the past tense. A lot had changed since then. My relationship with my dad, our family. But one thing remained the same, my love for the game.

“What of you tell me about your family.” I asked trying to get my mind off the memories of me as a kid.

“Well there isn’t much for me to tell. My mum left a while ago, so it’s only me and my dad.” She said, I noticed the sadness that was written on her face when she talked about her mum.

“Ooh, am sorry about that. If it helps, my mum left too. But I was still a little boy, I don’t remember much about her. My dad got married again when I was in high school and our relationship has never been the same since then.”

I couldn’t believe that I had told her all this things about myself. I had never told anyone this part of my story, not even Nicole.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry to hear that.” She said rubbing my shoulder.

I felt a surge of electric current run through my blood. The feeling of her smooth hands on my shoulders was magical.

This had to be some sort of a joke. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt like this. I was used to making girls feel like this, not the other way round.

“Besides it was only a touch on the shoulder, what if...” I thought to myself before chocking on the beer at the thought of it.

“Are you okay?” she asked alarmed.

“Yeah I’m fine. I think I took a big gulp.” I said clearly aware of how stupid I sounded saying that.

“I see” she laughed and continued sipping on her glass of juice.

“I think we should get settled in our room now.” I said after we were done with our drinks.

“Okay sure. Wait what? Our room? We are sharing a room?” she asked, her eyes popping out in surprise.

“Actually yeah, we don’t have as many rooms here, clearly. Some of the guys have to share rooms as well.” I said hoping that she wasn’t going to have a problem with that. But I was wrong.

“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” she asked, I could feel the disappointment in her voice.

“Iam really sorry Zia. I guess it didn’t really cross my mind.” I said, sounding stupid again. What was happening to me?

“Well I need you to know that Iam not comfortable sharing a room with you, let alone a bed!” she said with certainty.

To be honest, all girls would kill to have this chance. I mean, I was Keith Johnson, every girl’s dream. Well most girls.

But this was not most girls, this was Zia. I always knew that there was something different about her from the first time I saw her. She was different. I liked it.

“Well if it makes a difference, we could come to an agreement.” I said.

“What agreement?” She asked.

“We will share the room but not the bed. I could sleep on the couch in the room while you take the bed. Also, we could divide the room into two so each one would have their own sides” I said smiling, hoping that this time round I sounded like a genius.

“Well I guess that agreement could work. Do I get to have the side with the window?” she asked smiling.

“Well if that is what you want.” I said.

“Cool, then we have a deal.” She said stretching hand towards me.

“Deal” I said shaking her hand before pulling her in for a hug. Well I don’t know why I did that but I just did.

“Uh, I think we should go get our bags from the car.” She said trying to make the hug less awkward.

“Yeah, we should.” I said following her out to my car, where the bags were.