“As of right now, I’m just your friend and it’s always afriend'sjob is to push the other one to their highest potential. When you feel like you’ve had enough, or feel like you can’t do something, it’s afriend'sjob to pour that feeling of knowing you can do anything, back into you until you believe it again.”
I noticed the way he put a little extra feeling into the wordfriendwhen he said it.
“As long as you are that to me, I’ll never allow you to get into your own head and believe you can’t do something. You’ll pull these next games off without any doubts.”
This time, my heart sunk into my stomach. I really hoped I had as much confidence as he had for me when I got back out there.
“Zoo.”
“Yea, baby?”
“Do you really have a teddy that you sleep with every night?”
The way he laughed, gave me my answer. “I don’t but I do now.”
“Just like a nigga to lie to get in your bed,” I joked then fell quiet once what he said, hit me.I do now.
I wanted to dig deeper into those words but decided to leave it alone. Some things are made clear to you, and you don’t have to dig for more answers. I was his teddy bear. If I could’ve gotten this warm feeling that he gave me now, nightly, then I’d be his Teddy Ruxpin bear all day, every day.
Zoo kissed my forehead, and his arm tightened around me before slipping down to my back to rub it. The gentle feeling of his touch soon had me nodding off.
“You got this, Pen!”
Zoo’s shouts from courtside had me sinking the free throw that gave my team a two-point lead with eleven seconds left on the clock. LA called a timeout, so they could get their next play together.
“All I need y’all to do is defend the fucking paint!” Bri coached. Her intelligent ass watched so much film that she knew LA’s strategy back and forth. Because they weren’t a good shooting team, they’d no doubt attack the paint. Their three-point average was one of the worst in the league.
“Fallon, no fouls!” Bri barked. “Let them earn every fucking point!” Fallon’s ass was in foul trouble before the second halfeven started. The game was going good for me, but Tony was struggling in the paint without Fallon on the floor.
Tonight’s win was crucial. If we won tonight, we’d have a two-game lead going into LA. The problem was, LA was giving us a run for our fucking money. My minutes played would’ve been ridiculous for this series for the simple fact we couldn’t get a decent lead on LA for shit. Being real, I was worn the fuck out.
The last eleven seconds ticked off with LA having to shoot a deep three that clanked off the rim. Me and my team celebrated while the fans went crazy. Yes, this win was crucial, and celebrating so soon wasn’t in my DNA. Not until a ring was on my finger. Until the season was over, I wouldn’t be satisfied with celebrating.
“You fixed me a bath?” I cooed when I walked into my bathroom a couple hours later.
“Yeah,” Zoo said. “I saw how worn out you were out there. I figured you’d want to actually soak when you made it home instead of the shower you took at the arena.”
Smiling, I church-hugged him. “You figured right.”
Zoo had been staying with me every night since the first night he stayed. It kind of went with him coming to check on me, to us having dinner together, to him staying the night. I wasn’t against it, because again, I was lonely as hell, and his company was appreciated.
“I’ma be in the living room with dinner when you come out,” he informed me.
“Okay,” I uttered to his back as he left my room.
Before I went into the bathroom, I turned my television on and went straight to the sports station. Zoo must have also knownthat I was a little pissed off at the questions being thrown my way during the post-game press interviews.
“Can you expect to go up against a team like Chicago, who has the best defense in women’s basketball, when your team struggled terribly tonight?”
Chicago hadn’t won their semifinals series yet, however, all of basketball was betting on them to take it all.
“You looked a little tired out there. Is your sister’s condition causing you to stumble this series?”
Mimi still hadn’t made a public statement regarding what was going on with her, so many were left to speculate. I was on her side and so was management. Her business was her and Sin’s business, and no one else needed to be involved for the time being.
“Any idea how you’re going to pull off a championship without arguably one of the best players in the league?”
They were talking about Naomi, of course. She and I were a powerful duo, but alone, Naomi could wreck shop. Being compared to her came with the territory. It never bothered me because my game was just as strong as hers. What I lacked, she made up for and vice versa. She was the one who ushered me in to playing street ball and taught me how to run with the best of them. Also, she helped me develop my shot.
