The shouting gets worse as I pull her away.
“Prank successful!” Sol calls after us. “She’s one of us now!”
Frankie’s still laughing when the locker room door shuts behind us.
“Aww, are you mad?—”
I cut her off. “Against the wall.”
Her eyes grow, “Huh?”
“Against. The. Wall.”
“Don’t be sensitive, Jabari. It was a joke.”
“I ain’t repeating myself.”
Her eyebrow cocks. “Who’s it you feel you talking to? Catch your head and?—”
My hand goes around her neck, squeezing as I back her into the wall myself. “Catch my head and what?”
She just stares up at me.
“Exactly. I don’t play like that so let it be the first and last time I catch you in another man’s shirt.”
“He’s your friend, Bari.”
“I don’t care who he is. It’s a no go for me. Now nod if you understand me.”
A light nod, followed by lip biting.
With that, I let her go, grab a towel and toss it at her, before turning toward the showers. “We’re washing the scent off you.”
I catch her staring at me through the mirror as the steam builds quickly. Water echoes against tile. The noise softens everything.
“Was I too harsh, Jelly?”
“No, no. I just need a moment to let my panties dry.”
Oh my days.
“You’re a real sadist. You know that?”
“Oh come off it. Don’t you try to psychoanalysis me. I’ve been called worse by better.”
“I seriously doubt that, Jelly.”
“You really don’t think people say cruel things to me?”
“No, I just don’t think there is anyone better than me.”
She looks off into the distance, probably looking for an invisible camera and walks past me, getting in the shower. I follow.
After a moment of me watching her scrub that jackarse’s scent off of her, I speak again. “I get it now.”
She looks over. “Get what?”
“Why playing with you today felt familiar.” I scrub my own hands together. “When we were kids. We used to play like that. I remember landing on top of you back then too.”
