Ball Busting. (closed)

[Greg Mackenzie]

Of all the ball sports available, Greg hated basketball the most. He couldn’t exactly place why exactly – he’s always said that it’s a number of reasons, not just one – and really, the why wasn’t that important; if he could avoid playing it, he would simple as that. A self-described jock, he’d rather play lacrosse, volleyball, football (or soccer, as them Americans call it; the only thing worse than basketball was American football in the Canadian’s eyes), or even badminton or tennis before he dabbled on some dribbling.

Unfortunately for him, it was an especially cloudy day today and everyone decided it’d be a great day to catch up on all the days they haven’t been exercising and to head to the gymoccupy all the machines the telepath was planning on using.

Well fuck.

He needed to get some cardio going – lifting just wasn’t the same without it – and with all the threadmills and ellipticals in use, he had to resort to some good ‘ol ball shooting. Since he couldn’t exactly play any of his preferred sports alone.

He’d been playing for a good fifteen minutes now, slowly working out a sweat, when he missed a shot, making the ball bounce so hard against the back board that it ‘flew’ all the way across the court and out the door. “Aww shit,” he muttered, groaning as he slowly walked towards the door. Thank goodness there was someone just outside the door, or at least that’s what his telepathy told him. “Hey! Would you mind handing that ball to-oh fuck. Not you.”

Today just wasn’t his day really.

[Lucas Blacke]

It was all about keeping calm these days. And it was working wonders for Luke, there was no more drive to annoy people. Not as much of a drive, anyway.

He found himself walking through the building aimlessly as he tried to find something to do. There was the self defense club he could be training for, but in their loss the way his ability worked was that his teachers were videos.

''Mind handing that ball to-oh fuck. Not you.''

Luke heard the voice before he even realized there had to be a person behind it. A silhouette emerged and some guy he had never seen before showed himself in the doorway to the gym asking him to do something with a ball.

'A ball?' He thought. He shook his head and slapped himself in the face. 'Right, the ball.' He realized a few seconds too late that a basketball had hit him in the foot, and it seemed that the guy occupying the gym had something to do with the way it was used.

Luke smiled and picked up the ball and spun it around on top of his index finger. He didn't like basketball, but he did play it. And quite perfectly if he did say so himself. ''Missed a shot, did you?'' He said with a grin as he threw the basketball to the boy with a single bounce between the two boys.

''And why exactly did you say 'not me'? Something I did to you?''

[Greg Mackenzie]

Greg replied with a pained grin as Lucas passed the ball back to him with what seemed like a rather friendly and totally neutral rhetoric remark that could also be used as an in for a friendly conversation. Unfortunately for the other boy, the Canadian wasn’t really into friendly conversations, at least not with him. Not after what he did to Dem, and how he made Marnie felt. And while he’s totally on Lucas’ side that Dem calling Marnie names was uncalled for, he still thought that a physical fight shouldn’t have broken out. There were other ways to defend your girlfriend’s honour without reverting to how apes did it in the wild.

Tons of things he wanted to tell Lucas, but for one they really didn’t know each other (he’s heard of the boy; he doubted the same could be true, as Greg did his best not to be a major pain in the ass, attitude-wise) and he wasn’t in the mood. Preachy sermons just weren’t great. Ever. So he opted with a simple, “Yeah. Been rusty.”

He had just finished a 90-degree turn and was about to complete his retreat back to the court when Lucas apparently unfortunately caught the tail end of his little remark and promptly called him out on him. “Oh, it’s nothing,” he replied, insincere smile on his face. He debated whether he should just leave it at that. No fuss. And on most days, he would’ve left it at that. Sadly he woke up without his ‘be the bigger man’ underwear and added, “Not exactly. Remember that winged boy you beat up in the library? He’s a close friend. Oh, and Marnie, remember her? Yeah.”

“Let’s just say your reputation exceeds you and I’d love to be able to tell Marnie ‘I told you so’ but I won’t ‘cause I’m a friend.” At this point Greg dropped all pretense of civility and raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the boy. “Carry on.”

[Lucas Blacke]

Luke was nailed to the ground. Words were being flung at him like baseballs and a few of them hit home. The first ones weren't that bad, a normal neutral reaction to his own initial words, but what he followed up with when he asked about the 'Not you' reaction was a tough one to swallow.

This guy knew the winged guy from the library. Oh how the mere mention of him angered Luke in ways he couldn't even begin to describe. His fists clenched and all sorts of bigger-than-life actions shot through his mind, such as ripping an arm off of Wings, or something worse. He hated the guy, no joke, and was half tempted to assault the guy with the basketball for just knowing the winged boy.

But then he mentioned Marnie, which reeled up the memory that cut short every other thought in his head at the moment. Violent thoughts would not be what she wanted. He'd give a lot to be able to just be friends with Marn at this point, though more than that would be welcome too.

''You know Marnie?'' Luke finally spoke, completely disregarding the other things that were said. ''Has she mentioned me at all, these last few weeks?''

[Greg Mackenzie]

Greg could feel his mental tendrils flexing themselves and itching to latch on Lucas’ mind. There’s just something seemingly delightful about the thought of yanking this boy’s dirty laundry and throwing them right back at his face. The fact that his borderline neutral dislike for the boy turned into full-pledged hatred scared Greg, but at the same time, he wasn’t planning on stopping it from developing further anytime soon.

As much as he hated the idea of it, it was kind of nice having that one person to dump all his anger in the world into.

“Way more than you’ll ever know her,” Greg answered, rolling his eyes. Part of him wanted to just go away and leave the whole thing be; after all, he wasn’t really one for prolonged and unnecessary confrontation. But another part told him he needed this. He didn’t really have the chance to be angry when his own relationship sizzled; unfair as it was, this could be his one chance to find a twisted surrogate to it all.

“She has, but nothing good. I’ve been telling her to get over you; we’re going to this garden party this weekend and I’ve set her up with a good friend of mine.” Well, planning on setting her up. It’s a work in progress still. Not that he needed to know that. “He’s taller, beefier, and prettier. And definitely no psychopathic tendencies. I checked.” He tapped on his forehead in the most smug way as possible then winked, hoping Lucas would get the reference.