Chapter 7: Like

Josh Rain Montez

“Nice game, Josh!” Byron greeted me with a smile, tapping my arm.

“You’re really good, Papa Josh!” Ramil chuckled, putting his arm around me as we walked back to our bench.

I sat down exhausted, wiping off my sweat. As usual, we won again in the university basketball tournament. One more victory and we’d reach the finals, where the winner would represent the university in the National Collegiate Basketball Tournament.

As I took a sip from the bottled water handed to me by a teammate, I checked my phone in my bag. I saw an unread text message from Yannie, so I quickly opened it.

From Yannie Ace: Good luck in your game (smiley emoji)

I smiled and promptly replied.

To Yannie Ace: Thank you. Our game just ended, and we won again (wink emoji)

“Josh, who’s the person you’re always texting?” Ramil asked curiously.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed lately that you always have your phone in hand. And you often smile to yourself, like now,” Byron remarked.

I smirked and put my phone