Page 50 of High Baller

"Don't be too hard on him. I mean he's tried hard to keep it out of the papers. What has it been, five weeks? That's good for someone like him,” Calvin tells me.

I know keeping this quiet from everyone has been hard, and I also know that he’d tell the world today if he could.

"I know. I'm just not ready yet. I need to see if we’d survive with both our schedules, and I also get two certain people out of my life first." My parents are the main reason I don't want the world knowing, but I've also enjoyed our time without our picture taken every second the press get the chance.

“Right, I better get home, unpack, and make sure that my house is still in one piece.” Calvin gives me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“See you tomorrow. Message me what time to meet,” I tell him as he grabs his bag and makes his way out the door.

As I make my way to my Bluetooth speakers, I connect my iPod and hit play on my chilled out playlist, then hit ‘answer' on Trey's call.

“Hey, shorty.” Trey sounds tired. Why is he awake? I’m sure he has training in the morning?

"Bit early for you, is it?" I ask. I smile as Queen starts playing. I do like days like this where I can sit, do nothing and listen to my music. I don't get many of them.

“Derek called me about the pictures, and I wanted to talk to you."

"Calvin already showed me." The way he said pictures, I think he thought I'd ask what pictures? "They don't seem to know who I am," I add as I take a sip of my coffee. That's all I really care about—that my name doesn't get out there.

"No, they're just saying it was a hook-up. Derek and I think it's best leaving it like that." Trey goes quiet, and I wonder if he's going to ask me—ask if we can tell everyone. "Derek and I aren't going to comment. That way, it'll just die down and they'll find something else to talk about."

"You want to tell them?" I ask, grabbing the newspaper again to have a look at what they did write. I skipped over it because I was still thinking about my parents, and not being in the right frame of mind.

"I want you to be happy, I'm ready to tell them when you are," Trey tells me, and even though I'm not there, I can tell he means it.

"I miss you." It's not even been a day, and I already want to see him. I'm so far down the road with Trey King, I need this to work between us. I can't fall from the high I have with him; it’ll hurt way too much.

"Is there any way you can come to LA when you’re in New York?"

"I'm only there for four days. The time difference will kill me for the flight back to England." I take a deep breath. I looked at every way I could to even spend the day there, but it would’ve been too much for me . "It's the same when I go to Chicago," I add before he can ask about that,

"I'm going to ask coach if I can miss a day of training— "

“Trey, you can't do that, you have to go and train—the season’s starting soon. I'm not going to be the reason the press moan that you're playing shit,” I tell him as I start laughing. I can already see them blaming me for it.

"They won't. Did you have a safe flight?"

"I did. Trey, go to sleep, I'm sure you have training in the morning." As the season gets closer, the training sessions are more intense, and he was telling me that all the press interviews will begin as well. He also has that photoshoot of him in his suit this week. Trey said he'd send me a picture of it so I can see what he looks like.

"I’ll call you when I wake up?"

"You bet."

"Shorty, I miss you too," Trey tells me, and I feel all happy inside at his sleepy voice.

"Good night, Trey."

"Good night, shorty." Trey ends the call, and I lie on the couch. Closing my eyes, I picture Trey sleeping in bed as I listen to my music.

Chapter 12

Trey

I walk into my Ma's house, knowing it's time to tell her about Sky. I'm not going to lie, I'm scared to tell her. My Ma has an idea of the girl I should be dating, and Sky isn't her. Upsetting my Ma is the last thing I want to do, but Sky is the woman that I want in my life. So I need my Ma to like her.

"Ma!" I shout as I walk into the house. Today is family dinner day, so I thought I'd get in early to talk to her. I even messaged Jade to see if Sean and her could come early to help me out. They like Sky. Madison still hates her and I can already see her bad-mouthing Sky throughout dinner.

"In the kitchen," she calls.