[cseagles]

PART III

It was a scorcher that day, about 95 degrees. We got in as fast as possible, neglecting to put on sunscreen. It didn’t really matter to us at the time because we were teenagers and thought we were invincible. Anyway, we ran up the latter (he has an above-ground pool) and jumped right in. The water was shockingly cold and I immediately began to shiver. Brendon wasn’t cold, however. After about 20 minutes of playing “tips” and racing back and forth from end to end, we decided to get out. It was 5:45, we had plenty of time to get some more fun into the day.
“Hey, do you want to shoot some hoops?” Brendon asked.
“Yeah, sounds good to me.”

We stayed in our swimsuits, which were still a little bit damp, but we didn’t mind. His basketball hoop is in his driveway because he lives on a pretty busy street and his parents are kind of strict. We picked out which basketballs we were going to use and got to it. We lowered the rim so we could dunk. We went back and forth, seeing who had the best moves. I usually did because I was taller than he was. After about 30 minutes of playing around, Brendon spoke up.

“Do you wanna maybe play a game of 1 on 1?”
“Sure, but I don’t wanna hurt you too bad,” I said jokingly.
“You’re on. We’ll go up to 21. Threes are worth 2, and everything else is worth 1.”

He drew an imaginary three point line with his foot and placed a stick where it should be so we wouldn’t forget.

I beat him the first time, 21 to 11.

“Best out of three,” he declared.
“Let’s do it big boy,” I mocked.

I won again, but only by 1.

“Good game,” he said.
“You too,” I replied.

It was 7:45, and I had to get home. I told him I have to go, and he invited me back to sleep over after I was done eating dinner. I readily agreed and told him I’d be back in an hour.

TO BE CONTINUED…