Page 11 of Love & Streetball

“Stone with another threeeeee!”

The gym thundered, but we were just getting started.

I didn’t even wait to change because I knew they’d be gone before the coach ended his speech. With my jersey sticking to my back, I jogged to Vani and Slim. They were on their way out of the exit, Vani walking a little slower, because he knew. He knew what it was. We had that talk the night he made sure I wouldn’t be fucked with, leaving out the projects.

“Fuck you want wit’ Slim?” he queried, firing up his blunt.

“Man, it ain’t even like,” I told him with a chortle. “We just share the same love for the game.”

Vani stared as if he didn’t believe me.

“Let me have her number. I want to link up for some streetball.”

“We play every weekend,” Vani snorted.

“Aight, but let me have it.”

Vani’s eyes narrowed. He took a pull from his blunt and began calling out Slim’s number.

I jogged toward them, slipping past a cluster of cheerleaders and parents trying to get pictures.

“Aye, Slim!” I called out. She half-turned.

I held my hand out to Vani. He slapped it, and we snapped our fingers.

“You cold as fuck,” Vani told me. “We definitely need to run that money up on the West.”

“I’m down,” I replied, at the same time Slim said, “We don’t need him.”

“Yo, Slim…you trippin’,” argued Vani. “Hard.”

“He don’t need the money,” she shot back.

“Yeah, but we do.” They went back and forth like they were siblings, and as if I wasn’t standing there.

Vani walked away huffing, telling Slim he’d meet her silly ass at the car. Slim attempted to follow behind him, but I tugged her hoodie gently to pull her back. She eyed my hand, and I let it drop. People moved around us.

“It doesn’t matter if I need the money or not, Slim. I can still help y’all get the bag. We win, y’all eat.” I huffed out a quiet laugh. She was so difficult. So damn stubborn.

Slim shifted her weight, the toe of her sneaker dragging across the gym floor like she was irritated with my presence. That had my brows furrowing just a little. Her brown eyes lifted to mine.

“Good game,” she admitted reluctantly. “But you don’t know what losing will cost us.”

“Let me help. If shit goes left, which it won’t…I’ll back off.” My name was yelled out, and I began backing away from Slim. I was gon have to hear the coach’s mouth for me not coming to the locker room and having them all wait. “Unblock me!” I called out to Slim. She turned and disappeared through the doors.

The weekend was here again. The cleaning company was here when I made it downstairs after my shower. Shirtless and in ball shirts, I sauntered to the kitchen for breakfast. JaMika Stone was in the kitchen, pulling biscuits from the oven. As much money as they had to afford a cook, I had to give it to her. She didn’t clean; she left it up to the cleaning company twice a week, but Mama got in the kitchen on the days we didn’t go eat out as a family. Sometimes, I would stay home and let them go enjoy dinner with just the two of them. I wasn’t a small kid that they had to keep an eye on twenty-four seven.

I kissed my mama on the cheek, maneuvered to the fridge for a bottle of orange juice, then sat at the island on a stool.

“Where’s Dad?” I asked, opening the juice and taking a swig.

“Golf course with the guys,” she responded.

Mama was pushing forty, but you couldn’t tell. She kept herself up with her monthly spa visits for facials, trips to the beauty parlor for her hair that she kept in a bob to her chin, and always a middle part. Mama was always dripping in designer. Like now, she wore her pink Versace robe with the matching slippers. I had a black one, one that matched my dad’s, but I never really wore it.

Mama had her lashes done and lips already glossed. She had a heart-shaped face with tight eyes, which I get from her. Mama was a realtor with her own successful company, Stone Realty. She wasn’t home a lot either, so when Slim claimed we had nothing in common, that was a lie. Just because I had more money than she did, I can still relate to her a lot.

“He’ll be home for dinner. I was thinking about going to an Italian restaurant tonight. What do you think?”