Chapter 33

Cardan arrived at the basketball ball section and discovered how full it was. Most of them were students from his school and other neighbouring schools.

His eyes scanned the whole area to at least find someone he knew. The place was decorated in festive colours red white and blue with others wearing sports wear.There were a lot of beverages and fruits.

His eyes finally found Zaden who was warming up in the middle of the basketball court. He was wearing loose red pants that reached up to his knees. His shirt was baggy and blue.

"Zaden" Cardan cupped his mouth as he called out to his friend who seemed to have quickly recovered. Making his way to Zaden he realised that the reason he hadn't responded was because he was because his eyes were on a certain girl. Mia.

The girl was dressed in knee long white jeans and a white shirt tucked. She was holding towels and water bottles handing them out to players who came to her.

'Is he hesitating going near her or is he just frozen in time" Cardan lifted his eyebrow in thought as he drew nearer to Zaden.

"Why don't you just go talk to her already" Cardan told Zaden as soon as he arrived next to him.

Zaden flinched away in shock "You need to stop doing that!" he exclaimed in a quiet whisper "And aren't you supposed to be busy" Zaden added as his eyes glanced at Mia once every few seconds.

Rolling his eyes Cardan responded "I was but someone took a shift for me" Cardan paused as soon as an image of Austin went threw his head after a seconds of contemplating whether to tell him or not he decided to tell him "I also saw Austin so becareful and watch out for your back"

Zaden paused for a second before nodding "Thanks for the hands up" he replied as he hit Cardan's back for good measure which pushed Cardan to the front a bit.

"That hurt man! plus I didn't come here entirely for you..." Cardan murmured the last bit as he tried to rub his now sore back his eyes moving around the court slightly.

"Is it why you look so fancy today in order to impress Noa" Zaden teased as a smirk made its way to his face. Cardan was quiet for a moment due to how Zaden responded but quickly replied in case Zaden became defensive about it. Maybe this was after he shared what happened he felt more relaxed around him.

"Not fancy but work attire and speaking of Noa do you know where she is?"

"...Do you really like her Cardan?" Zaden instead said after a few moments of silence suddenly becoming serious.

Lifting his eyebrow Cardan replied in an offended way "Of course I do she's super pretty. Her voice is attractive. She's tall and not to mention adorable and cute-"

"Yeah yeah I get the point okay" Zaden interrupted Cardan in disgust "Noa will be here in a few seconds either way she's just changing for now" Zaden said in a dismissive way as he tried to change the topic.

"You don't think I'm serious about my feelings about her" Cardan accused. Although he didn't care about others'opinions, for some reason Zaden not believing him inked him. Maybe it was because he was the brother of his crush.

"Cardan I'm not saying you don't like her you definitely do and you've made it pretty obvious you have a crush on her. When it comes to you loving her -I'm assuming that because you want her to be your future wife and I feel like we're too young to talk about such matters we're barely sixteen. So bring this up again when we were eighteen or in our twenties" Zaden finished in a monotone manner.

"What?!" Zaden exclaimed after catching the serious way Cardan was looking at him.

"No it's just that what you said does make sense

... and it also explains a lot about you"

"About me?"

"Yeah it explains why you don't talk to Mia because you want to be sure you are mature enough to be with her not because you're a dickless wimp." Cardan finished with a smile of understanding.

While Zaden felt like a bullet had shot at him. He felt like strangling Cardan.

"Is something wrong Zaden?" Cardan questioned as he innocently blinked.

Zaden's eyes twitched in aggravation "... Nothing nothing at all"

As he turned around trying to run away from someone he bumped into Noa. "Has the game star- what happened to you" Noa changed her sentence after she saw the aggravated look on Zaden's face as if he had just been defiled.

Soon after Noa noticed the smile on Cardan's face which she gladly returned although slow.