AN: I'm back to updating this story so review please! My goal is to get twenty reivews! =)

Four

The only downside to getting completely wasted is waking up the next morning.

The sound of someone trying to kick my door in at five in the morning on a Saturday morning was like a drill pounding repeatedly though my skull. I held up my aching head with one hand and made a loud caveman like howl as I threw an abandoned sneaker at the door. The pounding stopped and Melanie's voice came through.

"Dean, can you please come downstairs now?" she gave my door another hard kick for emphasis.

"Dude, it's barely five o'clock in the morning, dammit. Give me thirty more minutes…" I groaned and slid further into the covers.

There was silence for a few minutes and I hoped that Melanie might have given up but my hopes were crushed when the locked door suddenly swung open and my sister came in.

"Aww…can't you just give me a fucking break?!" I poked my head out of the covers and blinked at the two evil demons standing in the doorway. Justin was fiddling with a paper clip and I groaned, profanities slipping out of my mouth as I sat up.

He had on a bright yellow sweater and tight black jeans with blue shoes, basically a colorful train wreck. I ignored his flat stare and slipped out of bed, my boxers hanging loosely on my hips. His blue eyes skimmed slowly over my bare chest and settled on the boxers. I flipped him off and scratched my head sleepily.

"What do you guys want?" I asked as I tried to find a clean shirt from the stack of laundry needed to be washed. Melanie wrinkled her nose as I sniffed at one and threw the shirt over my shoulder.

"Well, as you probably know, Justin is applying for a scholarship to Yale. The requirements say he needs to be in a major sports team for at least five months and the basketball tryouts for this semester is on Monday afternoon so I wanted you to help him out…you know, since you're the captain, you could cut him some slack…" she shrugged and I blinked at them.

"Major teams?"

"Basketball, football, basketball or volleyball and baseball…"

I slipped the shirt on and faced them again, my hair slipping in front of my eyes. I stared at Justin and he stared back. He was tall and didn't have too much muscle. He was more of a chopstick kind of guy. I sighed and rubbed my face. Today was so not going to be a good one.

"I'll see what I can do after we have breakfast…" I finally squeezed out of my teeth. "I need a shower and some pain meds…"

After shoving them out of my room, I slid into the bathroom. My reflection scowled back at me. I leaned a bit closer and stared at my face. There was a small cut on my lower lip. How in the world did that happen?

I shrugged to myself and took the shirt off and froze.

There were three large red marks scattered over my neck and upper chest. I fingered the one on my neck and blinked. What the hell happened yesterday?!

"Honey, you have to remember to use protection, okay? We can't afford for you to get some innocent girl pregnant…" my mother gave me a worried look.

I stared at her in complete mortification. My sister whistled and gave me a small impressed look. There wasn't a single turtleneck shirt in my closet so I was forced to wear a normal one and the hickey on my neck was like a light bulb, attracting my mother's mortifying words like flies. Justin tried to hide his smirk by taking a drink of milk and I kicked him under the table. He choked and I grinned, feeling much better.

"Honestly, I don't remember making out with a girl last night at the concert…" I said the words out loud and turned to face Melanie. She shrugged and gave me a curious look. My mom giggled and smacked my head.

"Promise me you won't do something stupid again..." She set another set of pancakes on my plate.

Justin smirked across the table. I kicked him again.

We ended up going to the closest basketball court. I tried to ignore the graffiti scattered randomly across the dirty brick walls and set my stuff down on a nearby bleacher. Melanie gingerly sat down and handed me a piece of chalk. I nodded my thanks.

"Ok, warm up, five laps." I turned to Justin. He blinked slowly before shrugging off his bright hideous sweater. There was a normal looking wife beater under it and I tried not to feel jealous that even an art student could have six packs.

I ducked my head when he caught me looking and pressed the chalk to the rough ground. While he did the laps, I drew five circles and sat down by my sister. She was busy calling her girlfriends and didn't look up. I had to feel impressed when Justin came back without even breaking a sweat.

"Ok, I'm going to say this only once, so listen closely." I held up a ball and moved to stand in one of the small circles. "Since I'm the captain, I know what the tryouts will be like. There will be five identical circles like these; you will have to get the ball into the hoops from all five spots. You will get ten shots, each will be five points. The best result is to get all fifty points but if you can't, and then al least forty to forty five is acceptable."

I handed the ball to him and he stepped into the first circle to my right.

"This is it? There's nothing else?" Justin looked a bit surprised. I shook my head and crossed my arms in annoyance.

"Of course that's not all. But don't you think we should get one thing over with before trying out something else?"

He nodded slowly and stared at the ball for a few seconds before letting it go. I stared in credulously as the ball sailed neatly into the hoop without touching the rim. Mechanically, I passed him another ball. Again, it went in without so much as touching the rim.

"How's that?" Justin turned to me with a faint smile. I narrowed my eyes at him and glared. He just rubbed his head awkwardly. Melanie cheered happily from her bleacher.

"Don't be so cocky asshole; you have to get ten in." I growled and passed him another ball. Justin smiled again and to my annoyance, he kept up the amazing three pointers.

"Guys, I promised to go to the mall with Maggie and Angie, so I have to go." Melanie called from the bleachers and interrupted our glaring match. She walked over and sighed. "Don't start a fight please and if you must punch each other to express your fury, remember 'not in the face' ok?"

I rolled my eyes and watched her leave. Justin scratched his head again and stared off into space.

"Ok, fine. You're good at this, so on to the next part," I picked up a ball and turned to him. "You will be put into groups of fives. There will be a mini match between two groups. You will need to be able to work with others and be accurate at the same time. Ok, now pretend I'm your opponent. Come on."

I dribbled to ball past him and made a shot. Justin just stood there, his face blank. I groaned and smacked my face. Why in the world did he have to be such a thick head?!

"Come on! You're suppose to try to get the ball from me!" I shouted at him and made another shot. Justin moved over with a hint of uncertainty. In conclusion, he was awful at stealing the ball. My sister wasn't kidding when she said he was a gentleman. It was like playing basketball with a wooden pole. He just stood there with a strange look in his eye.

"Ok, I quit." I tossed the ball at him and glared. Sweat was pouring down my face and I was the only one actually moving. He blinked slowly and caught the ball I tossed at him. I trudged over to the bleachers and picked out a bottle of water. Justin watched me chug down the whole thing without saying anything.

"Here," I tossed him a bottle of water and sat down. He gingerly took a sip and sat down next to me. I noticed the way his eyes kept flickering to the red mark on my neck and felt my face burn. I turned away from him and coughed, feeling awkward. He stared off into space and heaved a great sigh.

Just as we were about to leave, a group of teens entered. I recognized the guy in the front. Paul looked terrible. His jaw was swollen and he had a prominent black eye. I felt Justin stiffen next to me but his expression didn't change visibly. Paul saw us and jerked his head toward Justin.

"You think you can get away with hitting me, ya little prick?" Paul snarled like a wounded bear and made a grab for Justin. The bronze hared boy next to me unscrewed the cap of his water bottle and jerked the bottle. Paul choked as he got a face full of water. My mouth dropped open in amazement and didn't struggle as Justin grabbed my hand and dragged me to my feet.

"Let's go…" he kicked a basketball at the nearest teen. The boy didn't dodge fast enough and the ball caught him in the stomach. Justin swung his fist and caught another by the jaw. I kicked the one to my right and jerked out of the way when Justin kicked the one next to me. Considering he was my sister's boyfriend, I was on his side of course.

I grinned excitedly. I hadn't been in a fight for so long that I almost forgot the euphoria rushing though my veins after landing a few good punches. I was so caught up in old memories that I didn't see the kid with the small pocket knife until it was too late.

The sun glinted off the sharp steel edge of the knife as he rushed at me.

Note: Justin isn't a basketball genius, he's good at physics, just like one of my friends. *sigh* he's really good at getting the angles right...It actually works...XD