Chapter 2 2

"Austin!" Katie scurried to her brother, throwing him into a big hug. Jeez, standing beside him, her five foot nine self looked way shorter.

He wrapped his arms around her back, tightening the hug.

"Hi, it's been so long. Why haven't you grown taller?" Woah, how was his voice so deep and masculine?

She released him from the hug, playfully smacking his shoulder. "You've still not stopped using your height to intimidate me, huh?"

The side of his lips hitched upwards a little as he let her go, his gaze shifting to me.

I stared at the two siblings and the similarities between them. Apart from the fact she took over her mom's hair color and he took over his dad's, they were similar in every other way (well, except height).

She turned to me, waving me over which I did, staring at her brother in surprise.

My surprise was very much justifiable.

I mean, I'd known Katie for three years and never heard a thing about a brother from her.

If it wasn't for their extreme similarities, I'd have denied they were related.

Not wanting to even imagine how short my five foot seven self would be in front of him, I stopped at a distance.

He offered me an expression devoid of emotions while Katie grabbed my shoulder, pulling me closer.

"Austin, this is my best friend Kim, and Kim, this is Austin, my brother." From the way she said it, there was no one that needed to tell me she was trying to join us both.

But she should know better than to do that, because I certainly wasn't interested in anyone.

Especially not my best friend's brother.

"Hi-"

"I'll be driving to mom and dad's place in an hour," he cut me off, turning to Katie, "I just wanted to greet you before heading there. You think I can rest here for the meantime?"

What? My brows furrowed.

Did he seriously just cut me off? He just acted like I wasn't there.

What the f*ck? Even if he was Katie's brother, I certainly didn't like him at all

"Yeah, I guess," she turned to me, obviously noting how annoyed I must be, "don't you want to say hi to Kim?"

He glanced back to me, his gaze sweeping past me like I was just somebody. "Hey," then walked past me, the strong scent of his cologne dancing around my nose while he just- left.

I glared at Katie who offered an apologetic look. "What a nice brother you have there."

The sarcasm was evident in my tone, as I ensured to be loud enough for him to hear.

I mean, how the heck could someone be so rude to just ignore another person like that. What was wrong with him? "I'm really sorry for his behavior," she rolled her eyes, "that's just how his assh*le self is."

"How come I'm just finding out you have a brother?" My hands flew to my hips, letting her in on how annoyed I was at the moment.

A sigh left her, "I'm sorry I kept it from you, it's just..."

"It's just?" I asked when she trailed off, obviously searching for the right word.

"It's just," she stared at me apologetically, "everytime I tell anyone who my brother is, they always want to befriend me so they can actually meet with him. It's kind of tiring to see my friends always acting extra nice so they don't offend me, because they want to meet Austin, and I guess I just wanted a real friend so I kinda lied to you."

"And you thought I'd be one of those who'd gawk over a celebrity?"

Why would she even think that? Especially a sports celebrity? When I literally knew nothing about sports.

"I know, I'm sorry, I just didn't want to ruin our relationship at all," she took my hands in hers, "come on, don't you think you can just let this roll over your shoulder?"

As much as I'd have wanted to stay annoyed at her for such a lie, I knew she had a sensible reason to (though I was still a little annoyed at why she didn't tell me a year after or even two).

"Okay, I guess I'll just let it slide."

With that, she giggled, throwing me into her arms. "Thanks girl."

"But there's no way I'm dating that brother of us," I said once she'd released me from the hug, "I'm certain he doesn't even like me to want to date me because I want to learn about basketball."

That dude would probably have forgotten about my existence already.

"Still, I think you should consider dating someone this holiday. It might just help you a lot with your book."

I shrugged, "I'll consider it."

***

"Okay, so you can do this Kim," I convinced myself while dropping my laptop on the pillow I'd placed on my lap.

It wasn't going to be that hard.

I mean, all that's needed is determination. And no one is as determined as I was at the moment to learn about basketball. Because I was certain if I could write this book in a very detailed manner, it could end up being the best of all my books.

Turning on my laptop, I went straight to Google, typing 'how to learn about basketball'

Now, it wasn't going to be hard.

It wouldn't.

I clicked on the first website which sent me straight to a YouTube video of an Indian woman telling us about the world's best basketball players.

The first name that popped up on the screen was Austin Hames.

It was weird how he was the world's best basketball player and I'd never heard a thing about him.

The woman continued listing their names, so I had to resist the urge to just fast-forward all her talks, leaning against my pillow.

If I really wanted to write about basketball, I should know about the famous ones and what made them famous.

"Devin Xander," the woman said, wearing a soldier uniform as she stood in front of my mirror, "took two shots and..."

"Hey," a bird flew to me, shaking its head in disappointment, "how do you expect yourself to learn if you don't have the brain to."

Suddenly, I felt the urge to fight for myself by smacking it. "Suzy, you can't tell me what to do."

Suzy rolled her eyes. "Don't you dare bark at me. I'm way better at writing than you are."

"How dare you? I can write and I'm going to write about basketball." I defended myself.

"You can't learn it this way, you moron," she rolled her eyes, "you need someone to teach you."

"I can do that," Austin said, but he looked so much like my sixth grade math teacher, "I'm great at basketball."

"... and Tyrese Haliburton threw the..." the woman's voice caused me to jerk my eyes open.

Did I seriously sleep?

Rubbing my eyes, I checked how long the video had been playing.

Twenty two minutes?!

My eyes widened in surprise.

Did I seriously sleep for that long? And what the heck was that dream about?