“Tomorrow is our day off and I was wondering if,”

Justin stood by somewhat surprised to see the nonchalant boy being nervous as he nearly stumbled over his words. Justin was a little surprised to see him in the first place. He hadn’t seen him yesterday but he was here now and Justin couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face.

“If you want to go out. With me, I mean.”

As surprised as Justin was before, it didn’t compare to how utterly flabbergasted he felt now. Josh was asking him out? For a moment Justin couldn’t help but think he was only asking him to take out the competition but Wednesday evening when they’d spend time talking to each other outside on the bench had been wonderful. He’d felt comfortable and at ease around this guy and if he was honest, he knew Josh didn’t see him as competition when they were off the bowling lane. He just saw him as a guy and apparently a guy he liked. Justin didn’t really know what to say and Josh still waited for an answer.

“I thought we could maybe go get something to eat, explore the city and stuff.”

“I um… I don’t know.” Justin finally found an answer. Josh sighed.

“Justin, I told you I’m not trying to take you down, I just like you,” he said, thinking it had to do with Justin’s obvious complex of getting screwed over by the competition.

“No, I know, I mean I think, but it’s my father.”

“Your father?”

“Yeah, I don’t know if he will approve of me wasting a day like that.” Justin spoke before he thought, it was a phrase his father used regularly but Josh looked hurt and didn’t bother to cover it.

“No! I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just what he would think.” Justin said to explain as he saw the hurt on Josh’s face. Justin sighed.

“I would like to go with you. I’ll, I’ll ask him.” He ended and Josh smiled, the hurt in his eyes gone and Justin felt strangely relieved to see it had disappeared.

“Okay.”

Justin smiled in return.

“I’ll see you around then.” Josh said before turning to leave.

“Sure, later.” Justin said before Josh was out of the room. Justin sighed. He knew he wanted to go, now he only had to convince his father to let him.

Justin decided to ask him immediately, better get this over with. He let the door fall shut behind him and found his father laying on the bed watching TV. Here goes nothing.

“Dad?” Justin questioned as he walked over to his own bed and sat down on the edge, facing his father.

“Uh huh?” Randy acknowledged.

“Did you have anything special planned for tomorrow?”

“Nothing special why?”

“Well everyone has a day off tomorrow and I thought I could maybe go check out the city.” Randy turned his full attention on his son then.

“What about training?” Randy questioned knowingly. Justin stared in surprise.

“Nothing special doesn’t mean you’re schedule is free. Having a day off doesn’t mean you can do nothing Justin, you know this.”

“But I thought,”

“No, the answer is no. You have to train and rest, the first quarter finals are on Sunday and you need to be ready.”

They’d heard only a few hours ago, who was gonna be in the quarter finals and on which day. Although both father and son knew Justin was going to the quarter finals, they’d only heard today that his games were all on Sunday.

“But I am ready!” Justin protested, he really wanted to go, why wasn’t his father letting him go?

“I will train in the morning, check out the city in the afternoon and rest in the evening. I swear I will, I would just really like to get out of the hotel for a little while.” Justin realized he was rambling but he didn’t care. There was no reason why he should stay inside, practicing and resting when he could do all that and go out with Josh.

Randy eyed his son a little suspiciously, he was very adamant about going and Randy wondered why that was exactly. But he figured his son needed some free time and he could give him that. Under a few conditions that was.

“Alright,”

“Yes! Thank you,”

“Hold on!” Randy interrupted his cheers of joy.

“We will get up at ten, you will practice until one and then when it’s coming along nicely and I feel you deserve it, you may go. You will be back at eight o’clock and you will rest for the rest of the evening, is this clear?” Justin, although thinking it was not very fair, nodded throughout all the conditions as long as he was able to go.

“Yes.”

“Alright then.” Randy nodded before turning his attention back on the TV and Justin sat back on his bed, a smile plastered across his face as he watched the TV. His mind wasn’t really on the TV though, it was thinking about the day ahead and the hours he would get to spend with Josh.