Page 48 of Love & Streetball

“Shake it off, Kane. He’s trying to bate you. He want a reason to pull out his heat,” he mumbled.

I shook Jalen’s hand off me and sauntered back over to Slim who was finally standing back up, but holding her butt bone.

“You need to go to the hospital?” Martin, one of the guys playing us asked her.

Slim shook her head. “We need to win this game.”

I snorted. “You can’t play hurting like that,” I told her.

“I’m okay,” she assured me.

I looked away, jaw tight. “He do that shit one more time…”

“We all gone whoop that nigga’s ass,” Jalen spoke.

“Will,” Dex, the other chipped in.

“Break time ova wit’,” a nigga on the other team called out. “Y’all goin’ home or what?”

“Fuck no,” Jalen responded, spitting on the concrete.

“Let’s go,” Slim added.

The fool who pushed her, smirked and wagged his fingers at us. “Oh, y’all got heart for real.”

I smacked my lips. Slim walked over to me and slapped me on the chest.

“We got this, Kane. I’m good,” she said, slowly nodding her head. “I’ll be better once we win.”

The game started back up. them niggas continued trying to get under our skin, but there wasn’t any more of that rough, shoving shit. I still wanted to punch that nigga down. I had to listen to Slim and Jalen. We were in Dreamview and these niggas here didn’t give a damn about a murder charge.

We were up by two after Slim and I both hit a three. They had the ball. Their point guard moved to the basket, doing moves that were uncalled for. Moves that had Jalen easily reaching in and stealing. He attempted to pass to me but it was an ugly one. The big nigga on the team snatched it up and before Slim could react, he sunk it in.

The big dude started clapping slowly and loudly, his eyes on Slim. He was taunting her.

“That’s fucked up!” she hollered. Her chest was rising and falling quickly. I was already walking toward Slim when she launched toward him. Swiftly, I intervened and picked her up with one arm. “Put me down, Kane! That was three thousand on the line!” she continued to holler.

Like bad sports, we left without saying another word to the other team. Big dude wasn’t doing shit but taunting and it wasn’t going to end good if we stayed another minute.

“They won, Slim. Chill out,” I told her.

I was trying to breathe. Not because she was heavy because she wasn’t. It was because her body was pressed against mine. My hand was right across her ass.

“Put me theeeee fuck down, Kane! Damn!” she screamed, now beating on my back. The licks hurt, but I was eating them up until we reached my car and I popped the doors and pushed Slim inside. She folded her arms aggressively over her chest, pissed.

The rest of us piled in the car. I blasted the AC as soon as I sat behind the wheel.

“I needed that money,” Slim fussed softly. “They were playing foul the whole time!”

“I can get you the…”

“I don’t want your money, Kane,” she cried out in a high pitched voice.

“We’re not goin’ to win every damn game, Slim,” Jalen sighed.

“We put fifteen hundred up!” she screamed back.

I just peered at Jalen in the rearview mirror. Our eyes met and I silently told him to let it go. He blew out a raspberry and leaned back into the seat, closing his eyes.