Amelia's well aware that not everyone is as drawn into sports as she is, but she's also well aware that 'blowing off steam' as it were, can clear the mind. Toris is not himself today, and all she knows is that he finally told his crush that he liked her. It's as if the switch has been flipped off, and he's lacking light.
"Hey, Tor!" Amelia shouts, moving to get behind her best friend, to finally catch up to him, and when he turns towards her, she sees in his green eyes a kind of sadness that she doesn't really like sitting there.
"Yeah, Ames?" He asks, letting himself fall into their old nicknames for each other, jokes that they'd kept going throughout their whole 'brohood' as they'd long since dubbed it. It had always worked, because Amelia wasn't the dress wearing type or the let's go hit up Sephora and end up with hundreds of dollars of makeup and pretty ourselves up type. Some of her closest friends were, but Amelia had always enjoyed the exertion and exhaustion that pouring all of her energy into sports caused, always enjoyed feeling something powerful float by through her hands, as if a steady reminder that maybe there was something here after all, something to be worked towards.
"Let's go somewhere cool." And she tugs her best friend by the arm as she guides the two of them to the park; it's a steady thirty five minutes from here by foot, but Amelia still has sports equipment in her school bag, just for cases like this, and she may just have a ball or two there as well.
"Where?" Toris looks at her as if he's seeing something in her that has never caught his eye before.
"Somewhere cool." Being sly is way cooler than admitting what he's not ready to think about, and she just knows getting him out on the court might help to cool his head.
"Okay, you lead." Toris lets her drag him away, heading quickly to the park.
"As always." Amelia jokes with a sassy grin, trying to help take his mind out of whatever funk it's in, and she sends him a playful wink.
The court is perfectly empty though the park isn't without stragglers. Kids run through the jungle gym, others swing across the monkey bars, full free and alive, and some young kids goof off with their parents or close friends. It's a noisy kind of peace, one that Amelia's always loved, always been so drawn to.
"The park?" Toris asks, and Amelia sets her bag not far from the court, pulling out a basketball, ready for all kinds of situations.
"No, the court." She corrects with a challenging grin, "Let's go."
"I'm not any good with sports." Toris drops his school bag down, but still doesn't look ready at all.
"It's okay." Amelia grinned, "Sometimes a busy heart lets the body loose." She grinned, "You'll do great."
"A busy heart?" Toris practically whispers the word, and Amelia smiles back at him.
"Somewhat busy, I guess. Or overwhelmed." Amelia isn't entirely sure if she knows the right words or even has them, but she's not a writer, doesn't construct numerous, gorgeous, well thought out sentences at the right time. Sometimes she sort of feels bad for the ones who can, because they'll never know whether they are saying the right thing or what to say when the words don't come.
"Overwhelmed is probably better." Toris sighs, but he stretches slightly, and Amelia smiles back at him. Maybe this game will give him the right frame of mind to deal with it.
Toris is decently quick, though he isn't much taller than Amelia is, but across the field, when he lets his mind really focus on the game, he does better. He's great at dodging away, at keeping the basketball with him, though not so great at making baskets with said ball.
But Amelia doesn't tell him this, even deliberately misses the basket, even though she's half positive that she isn't fooling him. You don't make it as MVP in the women's basketball team at their school by being a not so dependable or hard working player.
Toris must know that she's deliberately keeping their scores somewhat even; it's not a game that she wants to necessarily win, nor one where she wants to lose. She just wants to drag it on, let Toris's mind wander, until he's no longer caught up in whatever Natalya must have told him.
"You know," He begins after he misses the basket once more, "Natalya said something interesting today."
"Yeah?" Amelia questions, "She better not have been a jerk to you, or I'll get her back."
"Nothing bad, just interesting." Toris sighs, watching the ball roll away, letting Amelia grab it, holding it like a gem, holding it at bay, too interested to really shoot, whether to miss or to get a basket.
"Something to think about?" Amelia almost jokes that she wouldn't like to hear something like that, that it's too much work, but she knows even vaguely that this is probably not the moment for humor like that; it's far too serious.
"Yeah." Toris swallows, suddenly nervous, "She said that I don't like her like that, that I'm misplacing my feelings."
"If she's so smart, who do you like then?" Amelia questions, half-sarcastically. Natalya and Toris weren't close; they definitely had barely talked before, and she's claiming to know Toris better than he even knows himself.
"You." Toris pauses, as if he can't believe the word really left his lips, "She says that I like you, that I'm actually interested in you, and wanted to redirect my feelings on to her, project them, because it's easier that way." Toris is nervous, because he can't stop the overflow of words. It's something that Amelia's well familiar with. Time to tread hopefully carefully, though she knows that she isn't so good at handling things lightly.
"Well, do you?" Slips out, as she remembers the times when she really wishes that he'd turn that green eyed gaze on her, the days that she almost dared him to kiss her, knowing that he'd back out, but she wouldn't if he'd done the same to her. Knowing that sometimes it isn't just friendship that has her watching out for her friend she's known the longest, knowing that sometimes she wishes she could tell him how she felt, but knowing that he wasn't interested in her.
He found a woman who dressed well beautiful, who could tear apart a room with ease and grace, who was strong, though wasn't really an athlete. A woman who was icy and stubborn, but looked more like a queen or a princess than a jock. Amelia knew that; she knew it quite well.
"I mean, do you think she read you well?" Amelia goes for; it's softer, and is a bit easier for her friend to answer.
"Maybe." Toris sighs, "I've known you for forever, and I don't want to lose you." He admits to, though the words must have hurt coming up with the way that he looks down, as if making the passage much easier for the once mere thoughts to become vocalized.
"I don't think you can lose me." Amelia tosses the ball, watching as it lands perfectly in the basket, putting her a few points ahead of him, breaking their long standing tie, that she'd worked to create.
"Probably not." Toris looks at her, "But if we were to date?"
"I wouldn't let you break my heart." Amelia sighs; those sound just awful coming out. They were better inside her head, "I mean, I'm not so weak that I'd let our friendship die if we didn't work out." Amelia almost says that she isn't a cry baby, though she knows that's the wrong word, and that it doesn't fit at all. If there was a right word, she feels that only a writer could possibly know it. If they are that lucky and have as controlled language as she assumes they do.
"But what if it hurts too much?" Toris whispers, and the heartbreak in his voice kills her. She wishes she hadn't gotten the last basket, even though she knows rationally that that didn't mean anything. It wasn't a win or lose game or a game to deliberately tie; it was a chance to blow off steam, the best way she knows how.
"Even so, Toris," She isn't for childish nicknames when this moment she figures would be the worst for it, "You mean the world to me." And she means it. She means every last word; it's not just the longing for a kiss or the hope for a never parted gaze. It's not merely the urge to hold his hand or the desire to pull him close in a never ending hug. It is genuine and sincere, strong and long lasting. Something that could even rival the many years of their friendship that beats in her chest. And three words like clock work come to her lips, but she doesn't voice them.
"I do?" It's as if he's been hurt so many times and so many ways, that he can't quite trust the words. "You mean the world to me too." It's hard to voice, and Amelia knows it.
"You do." Amelia grabs the rolling basketball and picks it up with the ease of a seasoned pro, and throughout of the years this game has held her through, it's natural, it's easy. "I would never lie to you." She hopes that it isn't too cliché, that he hears the meaning and the emotion in her words, and she's never lied to him before. She hasn't confessed how much he's meant to her over the years, but she has never denied it either.
She doesn't let him go without a sincere word, and she's careful to maintain that. The strongest friendships are built up with enough trust that you'd never expect anything less, and the strongest romantic relationships are chock full of it as well. She doesn't want to lose that with Toris, which is why she refuses to lie to him.
"Okay." He is breathless, the nerves mostly gone, but unsure of where to take this.
"If you want to go out," Amelia tries, detesting the words, but knowing that there is no way to go around them or stop them, "Then, we will." It's as close to a yes, I like you, as she's ever gotten, but it's close enough.
"Do you...?" Toris can't even get out the words, amid the nerves inching back and the hope that lights up his voice.
"I do." Amelia takes a deep breath, "I do like you, Toris. And even if we break up, you won't lose me." She's all smiles, pushing the nerves aside. She likes him so much that she can't imagine her trust being crippled or falling apart; she knows that he won't step on her heart, regardless of whatever happens.
"Will you go out with me?" He still asks it, as if he doesn't know the answer, but as she looks up at him, she's grateful for the words.
"Yes." It's a far better answer than more words, and so, like she's done a million times before, she steps closer and wraps him up in a tight hug. They'll get through whatever comes their way, together, like they've always done.