Mama started laughing. “Just think; it’ll be over soon enough. Enjoy the ride, sweet child.”
Sighing, I guess I should’ve listened to my mama. I hugged them both and beamed with joy.
“I’m so happy y’all are here!” I refrained from telling them how bored I’d been and the fact that I’d cried myself to sleep the last two nights. “I hate I can’t stay and feed y’all before I go to the arena.
Mama waved me off. “We wanted to catch you before you left. Besides, we’ve been invited to lunch with Zeus.”
Hiding my surprise, I smiled. “How in the world did that happen?” Zoo couldn’t talk to me but couldinvitemy parents to lunch!
“We’ve kept in communication since everything happened with Naomi,” my daddy explained. “He told me we’d have lunch once we came back into town, so he’s making good on it. He’s a really nice young man.”
Mama pointedly looked at me. My daddy had pretty much just given me his blessing where Zoo was concerned.
“Oh. Okay, well, y’all have fun!” The fakeness in that statement had me gagging. I hoped Zoo choked on whatever food he decided to order.Shit!I took it back the moment I thought it.Regardless of how he was not talking to me, I wouldn’t ever wish bad on my man.
Heart stalling, I wanted to bust out in tears. Zooshould’vebeen my man.
“We’re going to go see Naomi for a little while, then meet Zeus.” My mama kissed my cheek then moved into the living room with my daddy.
“We’ll be in the stands cheering you on,” Daddy added.
A genuine smile graced my face.
“It’ll be loud in there, but you’ll hear your mother over the rest of the crowd.” He chuckled.
My smile faltered. The only voice I wanted to hear over the screaming fans was Zoo’s. Knowing he’d be courtside tonight had me feeling a little better as I donned my shoes, grabbed my duffle bag, and headed out the door, waving bye as I did so.
On my way to the arena, instead of focusing on the game that laid ahead, my thoughts were consumed with Zoo. Normally, I’d be riding shotgun with him behind the wheel. He’d be driving and motivating me at the same time. His words of encouragement had helped me through so many difficult times. Thinking back to how he single-handedly stood by my side through what happened the night Naomi collapsed on the court, caused me to kick myself. My attitude had literally driven away a man, who seemed to really care about me.
Pushing him to the back of my mind as I entered the arena’s parking lot, I parked, cut the engine, then took a deep breath. Playing basketball was my love. Not only did I love the thrill of sinking shots, but I loved the competitiveness. Reaching championship level in any sport was an accomplishment many would be excited just to be a part of. I hadn’t felt excitement once since my sister went down.
Selfishly, I didn’t even consider how Mimi felt about not being able to play. I’d been so concerned about myself that Ihadn’t considered everyone else in my circle. Opening the door to negativity had been hell on my life. I was naïve to think I’d never have an ill thing spoken about me or my game. Of course, everyone had their own opinion. If people could criticize the best male athlete to ever play professional basketball, who was I to think people wouldn’t criticize one of the best female professional basketball players?
No matter how overwhelmed I felt, taking it out on the people who cared about me was a trash ass move, and I had to admit that. I’d allowed the thoughts and opinions of others to become my thoughts about myself. My confidence had never been low, not even on my worse day. I walked into any room and demanded attention that I didn’t even care about getting. On the court, I was double and sometimes triple-teamed for a reason. How I allowed myself to be brought down to such a low state of doubting myself infuriated me.
It was time for me to take a wise man’s advice and show these muthafuckas better than I could tell them. Win or lose, I wasn’t going out like a bitch. My stats spoke for themselves. The only thing I could do was give my team and coach my all. Whether we walked away the victors wasn’t going to stop how I played my game.
With a new zeal, I walked into the locker room, smiling and speaking. A few of my teammates looked at me crazy, but I paid them no mind and went to my locker.
“PJ!” Coach called. She motioned for me to join her in her office. Placing my duffle bag inside the locker, I made my way to Bri’s office. Once she closed the door, she placed her hands on her hips.
“What the fuck is going on with you? You’ve been distant during practice. Mimi said the two of you had a long talk the other day, but you’ve been dodging her since.Then,you ignoredmy messages last night. I started to come over, but I wasn’t sure if Zoo was there or not and didn’t want to interrupt y’all time.”
This wasn’t the place to be discussing me and Zoo, but neither was it the place for me to be allowing what was going on in my life to affect how I was handling my career.
“Everything’s cool now, boo. I’ve had a lot on my mind, but I’m ready for tonight.”
Bri rolled her eyes. “I know it’s more to it, but I won’t pry—not here anyways.” She took a deep breath, then blew it out. “It’s crazy that we’re here…together. Mimi isn’t, but we got each other, Peeg. As your best friend, I trust you to give me everything on that court. It doesn’t matter the outcome. I just want you to play as if it’s just me, you, and Mimi on the court, busting these bitch’s asses together. We have one game in the bag. Whether we need the other four games to walk away with the championship or not, I want us both to show up and give this team our all. Can we promise to do that for each other?”
Smiling, I nodded. “Of course, boo.”
“The pressure is real.” She laughed, then fake screamed with no sound coming out. “Bitch we playin’ for a championship!” she shouted, causing me to cackle.
Like the best friends we were, we joined hands and celebrated like we’d already won. To us, however, being at this levelwasa win. Bri being the youngest head coach to ever compete at this level wasabsolutelya big win. I wasn’t going to take this moment for granted.
Three hours later, I had to eat every word of encouragement I’d spoken over myself. As I jogged onto the court to thunderous applause, my eyes immediately darted to the courtside spot where Zoo, Brooklyn, and Sin normally sat.
Brooklyn stood there sipping a beer. His eyes were on Bri, who looked extra sexy in a pair of black, thigh and ass-hugging ankle slacks, and a black blazer. The pearl shell under her blazer wasclassy but still managed to look sexy. She strutted in her heels, confidence oozing off of her. She smiled at Brooklyn, who blew her a kiss. The gesture was so sweet that I ducked my head to hide the tears in my eyes.
