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Kendall
We were finally backon track.
After dropping three games in a row,and then having to hear all types of shit about it from everybody with a mouth and a mic, my squad had finally gotten a much-needed road win against a team no one had expected us to beat, my teammates hyped as if we’d just won the damn championship instead of the ordinary, regular-season game that it was. But I suppose after an almost month-long drought, it made sense that they wanted to celebrate, our head coach even joining in on the fun when he came into the locker room hittin’ the griddy like his old ass wasn’t a few months away from needing a knee replacement.
The attempt was enough to make me laugh. But after that, I was all business as I sat in my locker spot playing random moments from the game back in my head while my teammates transformed the locker room into a damn rap video, almost every one of them with their phones out recording themselves and each other as they went bar for bar to whatever was playing over the loudspeaker.
Even though that wasn’t necessarily my kind of vibe, I wasn’t about to knock their game, completely focused on my own shit until Hawk approached me asking, “Yo, you good, Snoop?”
“Yeah, I’m straight. Just tryin’ not to let this one win take me too high,” I answered, my response making Hawk chuckle as he grumbled,“Forever the humble one.”
“It’s not even that,” I told him. “I just know there’s still a lot of season left to go. A lot of work for us to do. And a helluva lot left for me to prove.”
“And I get that,” he replied with a nod. “But you can’t worry about all that shit tomorrow, man?”
I knew he wasn’t really asking me to be any less focused or driven. He was just asking me to have a little fun with them. And since I never wanted to come off like I was above that, I rose from my seat and told him, “You right. Let’s turn up.”
“There we go,” Hawk responded as he threw his arm around my shoulder so that he could pull me into the fold. And while I still mostly stayed low and in the background, there was one Lil’ Baby song in particular that had me rapping the lyrics just as loud as my teammates, Hunter taking notice as he turned his front camera my way and shouted, “Sing that shit, Snoop!”
According to his screen, he was on Instagram Live with thousands of people already watching, practically making the shit a concert when I started rapping for his viewers. And with Hunter hyping me up, I got the second half of a verse off before he pulled the phone closer to his face and said, “This nigga ‘bouta trade the field for a damn Trap Karaoke stage.”
“Ay, man,” I laughed, shoving him in the arm before I returned to my locker to grab my own phone. And when I checked my notifications, I couldn’t help but grin once I found two very different texts from my girl sent twenty minutes apart.
“LET’S FUCKIN’ GO! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU, SNOOPY!” - Shakira
“Not gonna lie. Seeing you rappin’ on Hunter’s Instagram Live just now made me feel some things *drooling emoji*.” - Shakira
Chuckling, I typed out,“I could read the back of a damn cereal box and make you feel some things, Shake.”
“Wow. Drag me lol” - Shakira
Because duty called in the form of media obligations, I quickly responded to her text with the laughing reaction before I went to handle business. And it was about an hour or so later that I finally got to resume our conversation during the short ride to the airport, sending Shakira a text that said,“We still on for dinner with your pops tonight?”
When Shakira had first mentioned wanting me to get to know her dad, I’d honestly agreed with the expectation of that shit happening when the season was over. But thanks to my sister, the timeline had gotten bumped up in amajorway that had me anxious and had Shakira tickled according to herresponse.
“You want me to tell you you’re off the hook so bad *laughing emoji*” - Shakira
“Yes, we’re still on. My Auntie Iris is coming now too.” - Shakira
“Aw hell,” I groaned, the memory of Shakira’s handsy ass auntie making me shake my head as I typed out,“Idk if that makes things better or worse for me.”
“LOL don’t be like that. We’re gonna have a good time.” - Shakira
“I’ma pray on it during my flight.” - Kendall
“Safe travels, my love <3” - Shakira
After holding down her message to give it a “heart” reaction, I took a second to check my other notifications, which included a text from Bryn about possibly shooting an episode of Beyond the Bench with Bleu Taylor in two weeks.
Timing-wise, I knew it would be the perfect opportunity since I was already planning on traveling back to Nashville during our bye week to catch a Trojans game, do some work in the community, and then spend Thanksgiving with my family. But there was still one piece of the equation that I wanted to solidify before giving Bryn a firm yes. And since being on my best behavior at dinner tonight upped the chances of that part going my way, I was a little more motivated to attend by the time I got back to Houston, even putting some pep in my step on the walk to my truck that got interrupted when Hawk called out, “Ayo, Snoop.”
Once I turned around, I found both him and Big G heading my way, Hawk waiting until they were a little closer to me before he mentioned, “Gerald and Hunter are about to come to my crib and have a drink. You tryna slide too?”
“I wish I could, man,” I sighed. “But I already got plans.”
“Welp. I know what that means,” Gerald muttered, an amused smirk on his face when he raised his voice a notch to say, “Post-game pussy must already be preheated.”
Breathing a chuckle through my nose, I told them, “Nah, not this time. We’re actually having dinner with her…familytonight.”
