“Of course, it’s friendly,” I agreed, still looking Nico up and down because I knew he didn’t want no smoke.
“Well, act like it. You’re the one who keeps fouling. Ray, talk to your boy.” He pointed to me like I was a child he was tattling on to the teacher.
Ray didn’t tell me what the fuck to do. That was the point. I knew the game was over. I didn’t want to play in the first place. Not today. Not with Kareem taking up permanent residence in my head.
“Somebody needs to talk to you about all of that crying you’re doing. Y’all finish without me. I’m out.”
“Let me holla at him for a second. I’ll be right back,” I heard Ray tell them, but I had already walked off.
I walked inside my house and into the kitchen to get some water. I tried to keep myself in shape, but basketball shape was totally different from regular shape. I pushed the ice machine’s button to get some ice before filling my glass with water. I downed it before I could even move any further into the kitchen. I was burning up. It may have been cold outside, but my body was on fire.
“Yo, do I need to even ask what that was about?”
I pulled out a stool and sat at the counter. Ray stood on the opposite side, waiting on my answer. I took another swing of my water, still trying to catch my damn breath.
“What waswhatabout? Nico? That was nothing, man. I was just playing ball.” I shrugged my shoulders at Ray.
He was questioning me about something I couldn’t care less about. I had more important shit on my mind.
“No, that man was right. You were playing like you were trying to take his head clean off his shoulders. Nothing that we did required that much physical contact. You must’ve thought we were playing basketball out there?”
“I can’t help that he’s soft.”
“Yeah, whatever, man. You want to tell me what’s up?”
This time, when Ray asked, I pushed the water aside. I figured I may as well tell him what was going on because if I knew Ray, he wouldn’t stop asking. I was usually okay with him asking questions I didn’t want to answer. He was my best friend, but today, the shit was annoying.
“It’s been almost a week since I talked to Karina. She had the nerve to send me a proof-of-life text, but that’s not enough. I need to see her face-to-face.”
I opened my phone, scrolled to my and Karina’s message thread, and showed Ray the picture when I found it. To my surprise, he didn’t make a joke like he usually would. He probably could sense the tension in the air.
“Give it time. She is going to come around. I saw you two together. Trust me. It’s meant to be. This is not the last time that you’re going to see Karina, stalking ass nigga.”
“It’s starting to feel like it may have been the last time. I haven’t reached out to her again since I got the picture. I halfway thought she would reach out to me again, but so much for thinking that dumb ass shit.”
“Kareem, not that long ago, y’all were stuck together like glue for four days straight. The girl probably just needs time to breathe.”
“She’d better hurry and do what she has to do because I hate for that time to breathe to be her last.”
“My sister told me Karina’s having a party for the soft launch of her magazine soon.”
“See what I’m talking about? How do you know that, and I don’t?”
“Because my sister is Karina’s best friend.” Ray looked at me like I wasn’t making any sense. “They talk every day, and Rayla can’t help but give me a play-by-play of her daily life. She thinks I’m one of her fucking homegirls too.”
Ray had a look of disgust on his face. His sister really did treat him like he were one of her friends. I understood it though. They were twins, so their bond was special. He knew he would have a problem if she stopped, so the show he was putting on now was definitely an act.
“Well, I appreciate somebody for keeping me in the loop, man.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t already know. I bet you’ve been stalking that girl’s social media ever since Rayla linked it to your article the other day. It’s been blowing up. Every time somebody tags you and something, they tag her name right beside yours.”
“I may have looked on there a couple of times, but I wouldn’t call it stalking.”
“Yeah, a couple times my ass. I know you’ve been stalking it.”
“Okay, so what?”
“Then just give Karina time. She’s going to come around.”
