Page 47 of Love & Streetball

“Can you put on some music or something?” Slim asked.

“Why? You nervous around me or something?” I kidded.

“Boy, please,” countered Slim with a titter.

“Aight,” I said, cutting my eyes to her.

We reached the speaker and gave them our order. My phone had chimed with a text from my mom, asking when will they be able to spend time with me. At first, I wasn’t even gonna tell them that I’d come home. I was going to check into a hotel for the entire week, and tell them I went out of the country or some shit. I just wanted to spend time with Slim and hoop. I sent mama a quick message saying that I’ll be home later and placed my phone back on my lap.

When we received our food, I parked in one of the parking spots and pushed my seat back. Slim handed me my bacon and cheese burger and onion rings.

“You going to prom this year?” I asked her.

Slim snorted and tossed her head back. “You already know the answer to that, Kane. Be for real. I’ll be at home in the bed. You were there at your prom for like twenty minutes.”

“Yeah, because…” We looked at each other and I swallowed the words down.

She looked away and bit into her burger. I unwrapped mine and did the same. I couldn’t bring myself to finish my sentence. Slim knew I left prom to be with her when I got the news about Vani. It didn’t need to be said.

We ate in silence. The rain hitting the car drowned out the rap music I ended up putting on. I finished my burger and onion rings before Slim. I sipped on my root beer while I pulled out of the lot, heading towards her place.

“We’re playing tomorrow at two,” Slim said, crumbling her trash. “Will that work for you?”

I bit down on my lip and nodded without hesitation. Anything to keep her safe. All Slim saw was the money. She didn’t see the trouble. She was naïve. To be from the projects, she was green to a lot of shit….especially danger.

Slim passed the ball to me and I hit a three on a nigga who was a couple of inches taller than me. She smiled briefly and then her game face reappeared. The way she moved on the court was like poetry. It was if she saw plays before they happened, and she wasn’t selfish with the ball. Instead of wanting to take the shot herself, she was going to pass it to whoever she felt would be able to put it in there.

Jalen stole the ball and shot it to Slim. In a flash of motion, her locs a blur, she drove hard to the hoop. I was already moving, setting a screen. The big nigga guarding her lowered his shoulder and put every bit of his weight into pushing Slim. She went down—hard. I could see the pain in her face when she hit the ground.

“Ahh!” Slim hollered, rolling over to her side. I jogged to her and leaned down.

“Zero to ten?” I asked her.

“Eight,” she gritted. “My butt bone hurts.”

I didn’t remember moving. One moment I was beside Slim, the next I was in that nigga’s space. He was maybe two feet taller than me and a couple pounds heavier, but that didn’t faze me.

“Fuck you do that for?” I quizzed, nostrils flaring.

He laughed ugly. “She wanna run wit’ the niggas, she can take a hit like one,” he spat.

Slim called out, “Chill, Kane. I’m good.”

I wasn’t trying to hear that shit. the blood was rushing to my ears at a fast pace. The smirk on this nigga’s face showed how he dismissed the way Slim was in pain irritated me even more. My fists balled up to my sides.

“Say that shit again,” I dared him, my voice low.

The nigga looked at me, his brows furrowing.

“I ain’t stutter, boy. She wanna run with niggas…she can take a hit li⁠—”

“Kane!” Slim screeched. My eyes flew to hers. She shook her head slowly. Her eyes were pleading with me to remember where the fuck we were.

The nigga pointed at me. “You better listen to her. You ain’t from around here, pussy. We know who you are and where you from.”

“I’m far from pussy,” I chuckled obnoxiously.

“Oh yeah?” he asked, taking a step to me. Jalen jumped between us, and pushed me back toward the rest of the crew.