Chapter 8 Asking Out

• Two weeks flew by much faster than she had anticipated. When the doctors said that Winter needed a change of environment, she only scoffed, but now she truly believed it was working. She had been so busy over the last few weeks, she did not have the time to mourn and be depressed.
• As soon as she reached home, she would fall asleep right away after completing her homework and wake up at five in the morning. The nightmares were yet to stop, though.
• As she was walking in the hallway, she realized that the couples making out or the smell of smoke didn't bother her as much as it did before. It was becoming a part of her routine now. Even so, something was new that day. Everyone was hyped. She clearly saw a few girls with pompoms walking around, dressed up in skimpy cheerleading uniforms.
• Winter took off her earphones and tried to listen in on the gossip as she did not make any new friends whom she could ask about it.
• "I'm so excited for the basketball match this Friday," chirped a girl.
• "It's the first match of the season, after all," replied another girl.
• Oh, it's just a basketball match, Winter thought and went about her daily routine. She was not interested in any sorts of sports, neither was she athletic. She would rather stay at home and study on her off-day on Friday.
• After her classes were over for the day, she walked out of her campus to find Zane waiting for her with his bike.
• "Hey, how was your day?" he inquired like always.
• "Normal. And yours?" She hopped on the backseat.
• "Tiring."
• "Why?" she asked as he took off.
• "Everyone kept asking about the upcoming basketball match," he replied.
• "Your school also has a match on Friday? Is it against our school team?" she asked, and he nodded. "Wait, are you a team member?"
• "I'm the team captain, Winter, didn't you know?" He chuckled.
• Her mouth fell agape at the new piece of information. "You never told me."
• "You never asked."
• "Oh, that's why you have been coming late to work." She nodded her head as if she solved the biggest puzzle of her life. After all, she could not comprehend why Zane was running late to work every day. She almost thought he got a new girlfriend. Now that she thought about it, he never told her if he was seeing anyone or not.
• "Wow, I didn't think you noticed," he mumbled. He was very upset over the fact that Winter did not care about the time he arrived at work. She would always talk to him as usual without inquiring about his late arrival. "So are you coming to the match? It's going to be held at our school gym court."
• "I don't know who to support." She was a student of Primrose, though her two closest friends were from McWinner. She was unsure who to root for.
• "Isn't that obvious? For me." Her heart skipped a beat at his flirty tone. "And Leon," he added with an eye roll.
• "Wait, Leon is a part of your team?"
• Zane nodded. "You must come and cheer for us."
• Winter smiled and wrapped her arm around his waist as a confirmation. "Definitely. I never watched a basketball match."
• "What, really?"
• "Yep. I'm really good at cricket, though. I love batting. I even watched a cricket match at the national stadium with my best friend," she chirped enthusiastically.
• "You have got to teach me that someday since I'm not very good at cricket."
• The two of them talked over silly stuff on their way to work. They especially loved Wednesday as it was the only day they could talk to each other without anyone's interruptions.
• °°°°
• Finally, it was Friday. Thankfully, none of the three had work shifts that day. Winter was dressed up in a beautiful dark blue top along with white skinny jeans and brown boots.
• The game was going to start at 4 pm, yet people were starting to fill up the bleachers right after lunch, skipping classes.
• Winter was walking around the campus of her rival school. The garden was well-decorated, clearly showing the efforts of the students. It would be nice if she had a chocolate shake with her; too bad she was broke.
• "Welcome to our school, sis," Leon greeted and pulled her in a side hug. By now, she was used to Leon being overly affectionate.
• "Hey, Winter," Zane greeted her with a high five.
• "You're rooting for us, right?" Leon asked, and she nodded. "Yes, scream our name with all your might."
• "Perfect idea to make her whole school hate her with a burning passion." Zane rolled his eyes.
• Leon chuckled sheepishly and whispered, "Then cheer for us silently, okay?"
• "Okay."
• "Let me show you around the school, Winter." Zane took a hold of her hand and guided her inside. It was only during the sports event that the students were allowed to freely roam in the other school's campus, otherwise, they wouldn't even glance at the other campus.
• As Zane was showing her around the gym, Winter noticed how sweaty his hands were getting. "Are you nervous, Zane?"
• "Kinda," he replied. "It's been a while since we played a real match. I'm afraid some of the players might have gotten rusty."
• "So you aren't nervous about yourself?"
• "Nope, I practice almost every day with Leon," he answered. Now it made sense for the hard muscles on his abdomen, which she always felt underneath her fingers during their cycle ride.
• "You are really diligent. I can only dream of being like you," she said in awe.
• "Hey, Zane, the coach is calling you," hollered a guy from far away.
• "Coming!" Zane turned to Winter and told her, "I will be back right away. Wait here for me."
• Winter nodded and sat on one of the chairs in the court. She was looking around the giant gym when a pair of shoes stopped in front of her. She looked up to meet the familiar hazel eyes of her history class benchmate.
• "Hi, Jake." She gave him a small smile.
• Jake returned her smile and bent down in front of her. "I want to ask something of you, Winter." Winter motioned him to go on. "Will you go out with me if I win this game for you?"
• Winter's heart stopped beating at his unexpected proposal. She had never been asked out before, and definitely not like this. One of the most popular boys of her school, also the basketball team captain, was asking her out. It was like a high school fictional story. But the only twist was, she did not feel anything for him. "You know I already have a boyfriend."
• "That's a bluff. Zane Astor isn't dating anyone at the moment." Jake frowned.
• "Really?" She sounded a little too excited than she would like to admit. She could never muster the courage to ask that question, so now that she knew, she didn't know why but her green eyes were sparkling like gems.
• "So will you go out with me if I win this match?" Jake repeated.
• Winter gulped as she didn't know what to reply.
• On the other hand, Zane was making his way to Winter at a fast pace as he noticed Jake sitting in front of her but was blocked by Leon who started to talk about something the coach told him. The only thing Zane managed to hear was the last sentence of Jake asking her out. "This bastard is going down," Zane let out while digging his nails into Leon's left arm.
• "Ah, ah! Bro, stop it!" Leon whimpered which made Zane let go of his hand in an instant. "Have you gone crazy? You almost made my arm bleed—" Leon cut himself off as Zane stormed away. "That ruthless prick." He looked at the moon-shaped marks on his forearm with teary eyes and continued cursing his best friend.
• Winter was still struggling to come up with a reply when Zane pulled her close to him. As a result, her chest collided with his. "You don't need to answer that," Zane told her.
• "Why not?" Jake raised an eyebrow.
• Zane flashed him a sinister smile and said, "Because you won't be winning today's match anyway."
• "You son of a—" Jake restrained himself from cussing out loud in front of Winter. To maintain his dignity, he stated, "I'm looking forward to who wins today."
• Zane had the urge to punch Jake, but since that would be an immature move, he just flashed an obvious fake smile.
• After Jake walked away, Winter stepped away from Zane and said, "I really appreciate you stepping in for me, but what if you don't win?"
• "Then Jake just has to end up in the hospital until the next match." With that, Zane left her there dumbfounded. He wanted to punch something really hard but he did not want her to witness his anger.
• "Dude, why are you even angry?" Leon asked, following Zane inside the locker room.
• "That son of a bitch just asked her out." Zane ran a hand through his dark brown hair.
• "Yeah, so?"
• "How can you be so calm? Weren't you against that douche? Don't you call her your sister? Where's your loyalty?" he snapped.
• "Yeah, she's my sis, and I'm still against him. But at the end of the day, it's her choice," Leon explained.
• "You are never sensible, Leon. Why are you being like this right now?" Zane wanted to bang his head on the wall. He thought his best friend would understand what he was feeling but that goofball could not be more clueless.
• "Wait, are you jealous?"
• Maybe Leon was not that clueless, after all.
• Zane let out an awkward, exaggerated laugh which sounded more like a strained cough. "What are you saying? Why would I be jealous? That's just ridiculous. You are spitting nonsense. Are you sure you aren't high?"
• Leon smirked seeing how nervous his always uptight friend was. Taking this as an opportunity, he tried to tackle Zane onto the ground to tease him further, only to receive an elbow on the face.
• "Shit, sorry. That wasn't intentional. I was just flexing my arms," Zane let out.
• "I hate you," Leon stated.
• "And I hate that Jake, and I'm going to beat him today."
• "You elbowed your best friend on the face, and all you can think about is defeating Jake Bradley," Leon complained.
• Zane completely ignored Leon and stood up. He stretched his arms as if getting ready to engage in a street fight and replied, "How can I not think about it? It's for Winter, after all. I can't let any jerk use our loss as an excuse to date her."
• ★★★★★