“Let’s go where?”
“To get something to eat.”
We went to the pizza place. Back home I didn’t eat much junk food, but the pizza here reminded me of back home. I use to love going to get pizza with my mom and dad. My mom didn’t leave the house much and my dad and I always spent time together. So sometimes after a game, they would take me out for pizza. We would just sit there and swap stories.
“Hey, how can I assist you?” The waitress would ask me and my parents. My mother would start bragging about how many shots I made that game. My father would then go on and on of how he taught me about the game and that he was the one responsible for it all. Then I would just jump in and tell the waitress to get us one large pizza. One half with pepperoni and the other half with Canadian bacon and pineapple. She’d bring a huge pitcher of juice for all of us and then we’d just laugh. We’d get the pizza and laugh. When I get lonely out here, I just think back to that. If I concentrate hard enough, I can still hear the laughter.
The pizza place was packed. There were people still there celebrating the win of the game. A lot of the people recognized me. Before we could even get seated, all types of people ran up to me.
“Dude!” one really drunk student came up to me. “You were so fucking awesome tonight!” He congratulated me. “All those shots you made. You’re like LeBron James!”
“He’s better than LeBron James.” His friend added. “You got to take a picture with us. I want to have this when you’re famous and in the NBA.” He was holding up his cell phone.
“Hell fucking yeah.” The original guy said. “Let’s get into this fucking picture dude. This picture will be worth fucking millions one day. When you’re in the NBA…” He went on but I started to drown him out.
I used the trick that I use to drown out fans at the basketball games. I needed to escape. Everyone kept bringing up the NBA and all I could think of is how I was supposed to be drafted tonight. I was supposed to be the one that the NBA scout called into the room. I should be signing contracts in the morning, not Dwayne. I didn’t want to feel anything. I didn’t want to even think about it, but these drunk fans wouldn’t let up. They just kept bringing up the NBA and I can’t get around it no more. I can’t pretend that I’m fine forever. If only I could get through this night.
“Thanks!” The drunk fan patting me on the back brought me back to reality. I gave a smile to the rest of the people coming up to us. I turned to Simone.
“There’s no way that we are going to get any alone time tonight. It’s going to be nothing but people coming up to us.” I sighed, “Believe me, I’m talking from experience. I’ve won games before and I couldn’t even go to campus.”
“Where do you go?”
“Sometimes I go off campus and stay at a friend’s house. But I have another place to crash.”
“Where is that?”
“I crash at the motel.”
Her eyes open wide.
“I don’t like staying here around the games because I never get peace. Sometimes, I just want to be alone.”
“Is this one of those times?” She asked. Her eyes were soft and she was just so beautiful.
“I do want to be alone... but with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’d like to hang out with you.”
“On campus.”
“No, at the motel off campus.”
Her eyes looked away. I could tell that she was freaking out. She was trying to practice abstinence and here I was offering a motel room with us alone. I just didn’t want to be on campus. I didn’t want to be here while everyone was going to come up and congratulate me. If they kept going on and on, I was just going to be constantly reminded that I wasn’t picked by the NBA scout.
“I’m sorry,” I found myself apologizing. “I don’t want you to think that I am trying anything. I just can’t deal with all this noise but at the same time, I don’t want to end this date with you.”
“Is this a date?” she had her joking on. “I must be a cheap date.” She laughed. “Just pizza and that’s it?”
“What are you talking about? I am getting you soda too.” We both laughed. “But I just need to be away from the noise. If you want to come and crash in the motel room along with me, then that’s cool. But if you don’t, I will understand that if you don’t want to.”
“You’re so admirable,” she kissed my cheek. “I’d love to go hang out at some motel with you.”
When we got to the motel room, I sensed that she wasn’t impressed. I couldn’t blame her, though. The motel that I chose wasn’t the fanciest place but it was the closest. It was those typical rundown motels that you would see on those TV shows. You know the type. It was the type that the criminals went to go hide out in. When I first saw it, I liked it for that fact. I could just come here and hide out, if only for a night.
“So this place isn’t the Ritz,” she commented taking off her jacket. “But at least the room is clean” She looked around and sat down.
“Yeah it’s not the best place in the world but it’s so quiet. I may have a full scholarship but I can’t afford a nice hotel. Plus all those hotels are too far. I need to be close to campus just in case I need to get back to class.”
“So you just come here by yourself?”
“Is this your way of asking me if I have brought other girls here?” She slightly nodded. “No.” I truthfully told her. “I don’t really mess with a lot of girls, but I never brought anyone here. This is honestly my place I come to be alone.”
“Then, why am I here?”
Instead of answering her question, I placed the pizza box on the desk. I walked over to her and kissed her. She was surprised, but she still wrapped her arms around me. She pulled me in close. With one big sweep, I picked her up. I placed her on the bed and began kissing on her neck. She didn’t say anything. She just would moan in pleasure and dig her nails into my back.
“Yes,” she mumbled. I kissed her more and started to take off her clothes slowly. I got her clothes halfway down her body and then kissed her neck and shoulders.
“You taste so good. I bet you taste even better if I go further.” I said and she moaned to that. “Can I just get a little taste?”
“All you are going to do is taste?” I nodded to her question.
I pulled the clothes down to her ankles. She was wearing this red lacy underwear that hugged her big beautiful hips. She kept trying to hide herself.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
“I’m so fat,” She said with one tear rolling down her cheek. “I’m so big.”
“Yes you are big... and you’re so beautiful.” She looked away when I said it. “Look at me, you are so beautiful. You are so gorgeous and I don’t want you to ever doubt yourself for a second. You keep walking around here like the beautiful Queen you are.”
“Kiss me.”
I did as she told me with my body pressed against her. She pushed me off of her.
“We can’t do this,” she whispered.
“Huh?” I was confused. “What’s wrong?”
“I said... I want to wait.” She sat up. “I shouldn’t have come here.”
“No, it’s my fault.” I got up and stood up across the room. “I should have respected your space and your wishes.”
“No, I should not have come here.” She was getting dressed and was already at the door. “I should leave.”
“You can stay. You can trust me, I’m not going to do anything.”
“It’s not you I don’t trust,” she sighed and then left.
Chapter 7
Class was kind of hard to get into. Not only in my head was I dealing with the whole NBA draft thing, but I was also trying to reach out to Simone, but so far got no response. My professor was trying to teach me economics but I couldn’t even pay attention.
“Mr. Wood?” my professor called out to me. She crossed her arms and handed me a worksheet. “Since you have time to daydream, you can have t
ime to do this and hand it to me tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry Ms. Maxen,” I apologized. Just then she dismissed the class.
Luckily it was my last class. I headed to the gym for practice. I was just not into anything. I wanted to be left alone, but I didn’t have that option. I had to get up, shake it off, and get my head back into basketball. After all, basketball was what was going to save me and my whole family. The weight of all my obligations started to push against my shoulder blades. I shook my head trying to free myself of that feeling but it wasn’t easy. I can’t believe I didn’t get drafted, or at least looked at.
“Yo!” Aaron came up behind me. “Where you at? I’ve been calling you for the longest and you just walk past me.”
“My fault,” I sighed. “My head is just all over the place.”
“Why?” He look confused at first but then he rolled his eyes. “Please don’t tell me it’s still over what happened? I know I was pissed off, but I had to let it go. I’m not mad anymore.”
“Come on, I know that I’m not the only one upset. You help me train him too and I know you wanted to get drafted or at least get a meeting. So how fucked up is it that we help that dude out and he’s the one that gets called up. That should have been us. If it was you, I wouldn’t even be feeling this way because I know how well you play, but him? He should have never gotten that. Shit, had I known, I would have never gave him the chance.”
“I know it’s fucked up, but you have to remember that we helped him so that he could help us later in the game. And as messed up as it is, we should be proud that we got him that far.” He tried to make me feel better, but I couldn’t get into it. “This is a waste of time. I’m looking at your face and I can see that you don’t care at all. We’re just going to have to find a way to put this in the past and leave it there.”
“I know.”
“We have to put our head back into the game and that’s it.”
“I don’t know…”
“If you can’t, then sit on the bench. I don’t need you out there with your head not in the game.”
Aaron was right. I had to put this behind me. As much as I hate it, it was done. There is no sense in me going over it again and again. I just have to find a way to let it go.
“You’re right.” I nodded. “Let’s get back into the game.”
“Yes please, because I think if you and me put everything into it, we can get a championship. If we get to the finals, we both know what that means.”
“Scouts.”
“For sure, there will be a scout. Now we were lucky that one came to the game the other night, we were really lucky for that, but that’s not how it usually happens. We have to buckle down, and get into these games, and win them.”
“We? We meaning the whole team right. Remember, it’s not just us,” I reminded him.
“Oh, I know it’s not just us, but look at what we did with Dwayne. We turned him into a great fucking athlete, or at least we made him look good. If we take this mindset to the whole team, do you know what we can do?” He had that smile on his face. Oh shit, that means trouble.
“I’m scared. That smile on your face…” I laughed. “That can only mean that there’s trouble up ahead.”
“No, not really,” he chuckled. “I think that means we can turn this whole team around. We can be that team.”
“90s Bulls?” I made my hand into a fist, waiting for him to bump it.
“90s Chicago Bulls.” He confirmed by bumping his fist into mine.
Practice was a little rocky at first. My head wasn’t into it, but after Aaron shot me a hard look, I forced myself to get back into it. I was running up and the down the court better, passing smoother, and even shooting better.
“My two boys!” The Coach blew his whistle. “You guys are finally playing the way I want you to,” he beamed coming up to Aaron and me. “I guess it’s better late than never. I don’t know what happened that got you into the game, but quite frankly I don’t care. Everyone gather around.” The rest of the players came to us.
“As you can see, Dwayne is missing. I’m proud to say that he’s meeting with very important people and for now, he’s no longer with us.” Everyone just looked at each other. I was hoping that he wouldn’t bring it up, but I just swallowed my pride once again.
Coach continued, “I’m proud of him but I can’t let that distract us from what is going on. In two days, we meet up with our longtime rivals. I don’t have to tell you how important this game is. It’s not the playoffs or the finals, but it’s a big game for us. They have beaten this university for the past two years. We are going to make damn sure that this year we end that streak. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir!” We all chanted.
“Now get out of here, you guys stink,” he joked and walked away.
After hitting the showers, I got dressed and made my way out of the gym.
“You don’t call. You don’t text. You try to eat me out and yet you don’t keep in contact.” Simone’s sweet and playful voice brought a smile immediately to my face.
“Hey you.”
“Hey, stranger.”
“Stranger? I tried to reach out to you and you didn’t hit me back up.”
“What are you talking about? My phone didn’t ring once or beep once. I got nothing from you all day.”
“Well, I reached out to you.” I dug into my pocket and pulled out my smart phone. I pulled up my call record and showed her all the times I dialed her number. “See?”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” she took out her phone. “Because I haven’t-” She suddenly stopped short. “Oh, my Wi-Fi is off.” She started giggling.
Simone’s energy was so happy and great. She always brought me up. I didn’t want to change the vibe by mentioning what happened before, but I wanted her to know how sorry I was. I wanted her to know that I wasn’t trying to take advantage of her at all.
“Don’t kill me, but I just want to talk to you about what happened the other night.”
“Can we not?” Her face was cringing a little bit. I knew that she was a little bit uncomfortable.
“No, just real quick. When you didn’t take my calls, I thought that you were ignoring me, but now that I see it was an error with your phone, I get it. I just wanted to tell you that I didn’t plan for it to go that far. I didn’t plan for it to go down like that. I don’t want you to think that was the whole reason to why I bought you out to the motel. I really do go out there to be alone.”
“You can save the rest of your speech. I never thought that you did that on purpose. I think we both just got carried away with what was happening. I should have never went with you.”
“Then why did you?”
“I didn’t want the night to end. I was having a really great time with you.”
“Me too.”
“And since the last time we hung out, it was something for you, I’d like for us to do something I like.”
I just looked at her. She was so electric. I just felt so drawn to her. Of course, she was beautiful. Even as she wore simple tights and a long t-shirt, she was still stunning to me. But besides her looks, she was just a warm soul.
“So, what are we going to do?”
“We’re going to make some dresses.”
“Wait, what?”
Simone brought me to this fabric store. I felt like an odd man out, but Simone was so cool. Even though I didn’t know what she was talking about, she would bring me to every piece of fabric and explain it to me.
“Now you see this fabric is gold and soft. I really like it and I think it could make a great skirt.”
“You seem to know a lot about this.”
“Well, I do blog about fashion.”
“Yeah, but the way you go about it, it’s almost as if you should be making clothes too.”
“It’s funny that you say that because that is a dream of mine. I’d love to have my own fashion line. I like to make my own clothes from time to time.”
&n
bsp; “You make your own clothes?”
“Yeah. Remember that jumpsuit, I wore that one time?” I thought back and nodded my head.
“I remember it alright,” I winked. “You made that?”
“Yes, I did. So from time to time I like to make my own clothes. I come here and buy some fabrics to go with some sketches.”
“You sketch too?” I asked and she nodded her head.
Simone was really a breath of fresh air. I'm so used to the girls just wanting to be all about me. They weren’t their own person. It was like they were my trophy girl. You could tell that if I made it to the NBA, all they wanted to do was live the lifestyle and spend my money. With Simone, I don’t think I have to worry about that. She had goals and dreams. She was always working, always moving, just always doing something. She never stood still and that just made me like her more.
“So when I said earlier about us and dresses…”
“Yes, I was a little concerned about that.”
“I bought some fabric a month earlier and I’ll be trying on the dress later today.”
“And why are we here?”
“Because I need more fabric because I want to make other dresses.”
“So you just make a whole bunch of dresses for yourself?”
“Yup. I have dresses for all occasions. I have evening gowns, party dresses, cocktail dresses...”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” We both laughed. “But I do find it crazy that you have all these dresses and nowhere to wear them. I’ll have to change that.”
“What does that mean?”
“I want to take you out on a date to a place where you can show off one of your dresses.”
The smile on her face grew so wide. She immediately got into my arms and hugged me. I was taken back but she really surprised me when she tongued kissed me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and I brought mine around her waist. She smelled so good and felt even better. I was trying not to get carried away but it was hard not to. I wanted her so much but I had to respect her wishes on waiting. She wasn’t making it easy though doing things like this.
“Really?” she asked me. “You’re not just saying that?”
Slender Bridge Page 19
