2) Echoes
Sometimes they stopped fighting. On cool soft nights where one could see a million stars twinkling in the purplish black sky. After basketball practice when it was only the two of them. One still doing basics to catch up, the other practising, always practising.
They sat with their backs against the doors of the gym, one on either end, admiring the stars. One or the other would come back with some cans, they knew what the other liked to drink. Most of the time, they hardly talked just sat in companionable silence enjoying their drinks. After a while, one or the other would get up and mutter a curt goodbye.
One night the brash one asked out of the blue, "Do you have someone you think about at night? Someone you can't seem to get out of your head."
The other who seldom talked, still did not talk.
The taller boy sighed expecting nothing less. He leaned back and started to count the stars just for the heck of it. He was on his sixty-ninth star when the quiet one said, "Yes."
He looked at the pale boy hoping to hear more but it was only the one word that night.
The next night he could not bear it anymore so when the other boy came back with his favourite drink, he wanted to know more.
"How long have you been thinking about this person?"
"Quite a while."
"Someone I know?"
"Possibly."
And that was all the impatient one could get out of the passive one.
A week passed and still the fiery one could not get a satisfactory answer out of the icy one. They even fought over it and their peaceful nights together were no longer peaceful. Finally the cool cat told the hothead that he would only say more if the other had someone he thought about too.
"I never think of anyone anymore, not even that girl who likes only you."
"You hear no more from me till you find someone."
A few days later, the tanned one brought the drinks and sat not on the other side, but next to the fair one.
"Does this person know that you think of ... her?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I didn't tell him."
"Him?"
"Yes."
Next day, the boy with red hair was eager to know more.
"How tall is ... he?"
"Do you have someone yet?"
"Yes."
"You think of him-"
"Every night!"
The blue-eyed one said. "I think of him every single second."
For the next few days the one with the noisy laugh avoided the silent one, going home early instead of staying back to practise. Then one night, it rained heavily and the flame-haired one acting on impulse, went back to the gym with an umbrella. In the gym, the boy with hair black as night kept shooting the ball.
"I brought you an umbrella. I didn't want you to get wet. We can't afford to have you sick."
They both knew very well that spare umbrellas were kept in the locker room.
"You brought only one. Are you going to walk home in the rain?"
"Guess I have to stay until the rain stops."
Later, they were lying supine on the floor in the middle of the basketball court. They lay in a straight line with feet pointing in opposite directions and elbows outstretched with hands supporting their heads, black top almost touching red top.
"Are you thinking about ... him?" said the one called Sakuragi.
"Yes," replied the one called Rukawa.
"He plays basketball, right?"
"Of course."
"What position?"
"Forward."
"Forward?" Sakuragi sat up disappointed. "So it's not m--"
He stood up looking peevish.
"The rain stopped. I am going home."
"Relax idiot, you're not ready to play center yet."
"Die stupid fox!"
So they started fighting again.
