Page 40 of Full Court Press

They may not have said anything else to or about me to my face, but I saw the dirty looks and heard the sidebar conversations. I guess since I was the intruder, they felt as though I was an outsider and didn’t fit the cool kids criteria.

“Piper, I say this with love, my girl: You’re way too pretty to be insecure. Just seeing the way he looks at you, you got that man’s nose open like I-75 freeway. The two years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen him with a chick on his arm. Not even his baby’s mother, and she goes here.”

“I’m not trying to be that way. I guess I still can’t believe he chose me out of all the popular girls around here.”

“That’s just it. It’s what most people would expect from a star athlete and one of the school’s top students. Normally, it’s how it should be according to the rich kids on campus, but obviously Khalil is writing his own story, and you’re the main character in it.” She bumped my hip and smiled at me. “You are in there, missy. Embrace it.”

The knock on the door paused our conversation as Braelyn went to answer it. Gennel and Jessica walked inside and hugged me.

“Y’all ready?” Gennel asked.

“Yeah, let me grab my jacket and switch my purse. I’ll meet y’all out there,” I said, walking over to the closet that was stuffed with clothes.

“Is Khalil coming to the game?” Jessica asked.

“No. His daughter has a cold, but he’s coming to take me to the dance if he can get away.”

“Oh, okay. Well, come on! I don’t want to miss the kickoff. We about to tear them Atlanta Bears the fuck up!”

My phone buzzed on my desk as I grabbed my jacket and walked over to it.

“Y’all, go ahead. I’ll be out in a second,” I told them. They all walked out as I answered Khalil’s FaceTime. When his face popped up on the screen, my heart skipped, and my vagina did a dance. It was a sin how fine this man was.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he greeted while smiling at me.

I blushed. “Hey, handsome. How’s our girl?”

He shook his head. “Fussy as hell and won’t let me put her down. I don’t know if I’ll be able to take you to the party, baby. I’m sorry.”

“No need to be sorry. Kiyanne is the priority. She needs her papa.”

“I know, but I wanted to see you in that dress and walk in there with my baddie on my arm. It’s our last year, so I was looking forward to showing up at all events.”

“I’m sure there’ll be other events for you to show me off at.” I giggled.

“Would you say no if I asked you to skip going to the dance and come be with me?”

I smirked. “No, I wouldn’t say no. Is that what you want?”

“I do. We can have our own dance here.”

I laughed. “You sure it’s going to be okay with Kiy being sick? I don’t want to take your attention away from her.”

“You won’t. She’ll be good and asleep by the time you get here.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

I laughed. “Yeah, boy! I’ll be there after the game.”

“A’ight, baby. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay.” I blew him a kiss and ended the call. I knew that questioning the relationship with Khalil was just me being afraid of walking into whatever this was with us. Over the past month, Khalil had shown me more attention than my father ever had in my lifetime. It wasn’t easy for me to trust, but I was slowly opening up to the possibility that this relationship with Khalil would be good after all.

We arrived at the football field twenty minutes later. The crowd was hype, and the band was doing their thing. I couldn’t help but notice Sabrina leading the dance squad. Their posture and performance were precise and neat. One couldn’t deny that Sabrina was beautiful. Her smooth, caramel skin tone; soft, brown eyes; full, pink lips; and Coke-bottle figure made her desirable. But her attitude and mean-girl spirit were what the old folks would call “ugly.”

I wasn’t a hater, so I could give props where they were due, but I still didn’t fuck with that bitch and secretly hoped she broke a leg out on the field . . . maybe even both.