Mouth slowly made his way down to the River Court. It was a place where he had spent some of his happiest moments but there had been nothing remotely happy about his life as of late. He had been confused and miserable ever since his untimely break up with Shelly and had been unable to clear his head or his heart. So he had decided to take a restless walk to the one place and the one person who could fix everything.

"Mighty Mouth. Ain't seen you around in a minute. 'Sup, man?" Skills asked as he caught his own rebound off the backboard.

"Hey, Skills," Mouth looked around. "Um, have you seen Luke? Karen said he would be here."

Skills used the end of his shirt to wipe the sweat from his brow.

"You just missed him. You know how it is. We were playing some one on one and I was whooping that ass and lucky for him, P. Sawyer rolled up and saved him the embarrassment. They just left not too long ago."

Mouth hung his head, disappointed. He had really needed Lucas' advice.

"Oh."

"You alright, man?"

"Huh? Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

Skills frowned.

"You sure? Because you don't look fine. In fact, you look like you just lost your best friend or somebody ran over your dog."

"I don't have a dog."

"I know but damn. I ain't seen your ass this tore up since you and Gigi…"

Skills halted mid-sentence.

"What rock have you been living under?" Mouth huffed. "You mean, you don't know? Shelly Simon dumped me practically in front of the whole school."

"That's rough, dawg but no I hadn't heard. I'm sorry."

"Yeah," he sighed, starting to walk away. "Me too."

"Mouth, wait…look, I don't know about all this male bonding and shit but you've been one of my homies for a long time. You know I always got your back so if you want to talk about it, then I'm here for you."

He stopped and thought for a minute before taking a seat on the bleachers. Skills followed.

"I don't know what to do, Skills," he began.

"What happened?"

Mouth sighed.

"I wish I knew. I mean, I don't know what happened. Everything between us was good or at least I thought it was. We were so happy. We got along, we had fun and it was great. The other day I went up to her to talk about hanging out after school and she seemed kind of weird."

"Then what?"

"Then she totally blew me off. She freaked out on me. She broke up with me just like that. I asked her what I did and she said that it was her and not me. She said things were moving too fast and that we needed a break. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I didn't buy it so I tried to talk to her about it and…" his voice sadly trailed off.

"And?"

"And you should have seen her. It's not the Shelly I know. She just ended things right there like it didn't matter, like it never mattered at all to her."

Skills took a breath.

"That sucks, man. Look, Shelly is a cool girl and I know you really liked her but things happen. I mean, sometimes people aren't who we think they are. I know it's easier said than done but sometimes no matter how bad it hurts, you just have to move on."

"I don't know if I can."

"Of course you can. You can and you will, dawg. Shoot, remember how tore up you were about Gigi? You got over that."

"This is different."

"It's plenty of fish in the sea, man. That's all I'm saying."

"But I want Shelly."

"I know but…"

"We did it."

"Did what?" Skills raised a curious eyebrow.

Mouth made an exasperated face.

"You know…it."

"It? Oh! Oh. Okay. Damn, playa."

"It wasn't like that. She, she was my first."

Mouth hung his head and Skills gave his friend a sympathetic slap on the back.

"I remember my first. It was four years ago and…

"Four years ago? We were just 13. Jesus, Skills. I was still playing with my G.I. Joe then."

Skills smirked.

"What can I say? Your boy was a fast learner but anyway."

"Did you love her?"

"Who?"

"The girl," he rolled his eyes. "Your first."

"Hell no," he frowned. "I barely knew her last name."

"See what I mean? Look, man, I'm not judging you but you don't get it. All my life I waited for that night. I just wanted my first time to be special with a pretty girl who liked me. I never thought it would happen. I was beginning to think I was gonna die a virgin. Then Shelly came into my life and changed everything. I really cared for her. She's amazing. The sex part just sort of happened. But it was sweet and nice and beautiful and just everything I had ever dreamt about. I couldn't believe I was such a lucky guy. The physical stuff was good but you know what my favorite part was? Holding her and kissing her and looking into her eyes afterwards. That's what mattered most, Skills. You see, it wasn't just sex. Shelly was my first everything. I made love because I was in love."

"I do get that."

"No, you don't."

"Yeah, I do. Maybe the first girl didn't mean a lot but you better believe the last one has. I mean, I ain't one to normally get all emotional and stuff but Bevin? That's my girl. I know exactly how you feel because I'm in love, too. Hearing what you said and stuff is kind of wild because it would suck to lose her."

"What am I gonna do, Skills?"

"I don't know, man. That's a tough one. What do you want to do?"

"I want my girl back."

"Then go get her back."

"But what if you were right? What if I should just move on?"

"Let me ask you something. You said she freaked out on you, like all this stuff just came up out the blue."

"Yeah."

"Then when you tried to talk to her about it, she fronted on you."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Then I'm not buying it."

"What?"

"It has to be something else. I saw y'all together and I could tell old girl was into you. Something must have happened, something she's not telling. Hell, she probably didn't mean all those mean things she said to you. She probably didn't even want to break up in the first place. You said she acted like it didn't matter. It mattered to you, didn't it?"

"It mattered, matters a lot."

"And think about it. When you with her and she looked at you…did it feel real?"

The question gave Mouth goosebumps. Whenever he and Shelly were together it was magic. It was something special and wonderful the way he looked at her and the way she looked back at him.

"It was real."

"There you go."

"How do I get her back?"

Skills shrugged.

"You gotta talk to her, Mouth."

"She won't talk to me. She won't even listen to me."

"Then make her listen. I don't know how but you have to do whatever you need to do in order for her to hear you out."

"But…"

"Do you miss her?"

"Yes."

"You're in love with her, right?"

"Of course."

"There you go, man. That's all you need."

Mouth took a deep breath. He knew his friend was right. He had to get to the truth, whatever that was. That was the only thing that would make his heart stop hurting.

"Thanks, Skills,"

The two bumped fists.

"Sorry, I wasn't more help. Tell you what, when I see Luke again, I'll send him your way."

"It's okay," Mouth said. "I think I figured out what I need to do. Turns out you're not so bad at this whole male bonding thing."

Skills returned his grin.

"Hey Mouth."

"Yeah?"

"You know all that stuff about you said about thinking you'd never find a good girl?"

"Yeah."

Skills nodded.

"Don't worry about it. You're a good dude. You got a big heart. I know Shelly saw that and I hope things work out with her but even if they don't, just, you know, don't ever doubt yourself. One day, whoever she is, that girl will come along."

"Thanks," Mouth smiled.

"Good luck," Skills said as he went back to bouncing and shooting his ball.

Mouth walked away with a little more hope in his heart. With the love he felt for Shelly and hopefully a lot of luck, maybe everything would turn out okay after all.