Slender Bridge

by Katrina Clemons

  “You see?” She said in a seductive voice. “No roommate. In this room, it is just you and me...all alone.” She smiled and I simply nodded. I didn’t feel so enthusiastic. All the people telling me that I should be playing took all the fun out of me. “What is it?”

  “Nothing.” I shrugged my shoulders. I sat down on the couch. “You got anything to drink?”

  “Yeah, but are you sure that everything is okay?”

  “I’m positive.”

  “I don’t know about that because you seem so different.”

  “I’m alright Simone,” I lied.

  “B-Wood,” She rarely called me by my nickname, so it made me listen. “I think that there is something that you’re not telling me.” I shook my head. “Is this because of what all those people said? Is this because you’re not playing ball?”

  I instantly got quiet. I didn’t want to answer her at all. I was too upset to even talk really. I just grabbed my things and went to the door.

  “Are you seriously leaving?” She asked, but I didn’t say anything. I just left.

  After leaving Simone’s place, I went straight to where I felt safe; the basketball court. I threw on some old sweats and started playing ball. I first started out doing my free throws. I kept going until I sunk 200 shots back to back. When I messed up, I went back at it again. I started it all over again and didn’t stop until I got my 200 shots in. It took some time, but I finally did it.

  When I was through with that, I didn’t stop. I started running up and down the court dribbling the ball. I was getting my endurance up. Just because I wasn’t playing anymore, it didn’t mean that I was going to slack up. I had to be in the best shape. I can no longer wait for the day that my coach was going to put me back in the game, I had to do it for myself. I can’t let myself get out of shape. Somehow someway, I was going to get into the NBA. If everybody thinks I should be playing, I was going to be in the best shape until then.

  Finishing up running up and down the court, I was tired, but I took a deep breath. I just jogged to the water fountain and took a drink. I splashed the water on my face and got back to my workout. I started doing jump shots. I ran up to the hoop, found a spot and made a shot. I kept going until I made 100. I usually did 200 but I was tired.

  “That’s all you got, superstar?” Simone asked, watching me from the stands. She had her phone out and it looked like she was recording me.

  “How long have you been standing here?”

  “Since you got out here in those ratty sweats.” She cringed. “I’m all for guys being just about the sports, but you’re dating a fashion goddess. Since you are dating me, you have to get some new sweats.”

  “Were you filming me?” I asked after I saw her put her phone away.

  “Yes.” She told me flat out.

  “For what?”

  “You let me worry about that.” She had a slick smile on her face.

  “What is going on?”

  “You trust me?”

  “I do but–”

  “Then leave it all in my hands.”

  I just stared at her. Despite the fact that I left her room, she still came after me.

  “I’m real lucky,” I said slowly.

  “Oh yeah? Why is that?”

  “Because I was being to myself and you still came after me.”

  “I’m guessing that the girls you dealt with before didn’t really treat you right.” She crossed her arms. “I’m not into bullshit and I know you were going through something so I came to check up on you.”

  “But how did you know I was going to be here?”

  “All you talk about is basketball, it would make sense that you would come back here. This is like your other home.”

  I walked up to her and tried to hug her, but she moved away.

  “What’s up?”

  “I get that you’re trying to be sweet, but you stink.” She laughed and pinched her nose. “So how about you take a shower, and then we go back to my dorm?”

  I smiled and headed towards the showers.

  “I’m going to design you some new basketball gear!” She yelled in the background and I just shook my head.

  Chapter 13

  The basketball game was intense. It was another playoff game and my team was losing badly. I couldn't bear to watch it. It was not only hard to see them losing, but to know that I couldn't help them, made me feel worse. I saw Coach on the sidelines looking like he was about to lose his mind. He was yelling and screaming at the team, but they were lagging. They were so tired. Looking at them I could tell that Coach had been riding them hard during practice. He must want to get to the finals badly, but this was a bad look; especially since ESPN was covering the game.

  "What are you doing?!" He screamed. "Pick up the pace." He was running alongside the court, but the team was wiped out. Even Aaron looked like he was going to pass out.

  "Wow, they look sick out there," Simone commented. I wanted to say something in their defense, but I knew she was right. The team was not playing their best. There was no excuse, they had to play harder. We had come too far to get knocked out of the playoffs.

  Finally, Aaron got the ball and called a much-needed timeout. Without hesitation, I got up from my seat and went towards the ball players. Some people in the stands started cheering. They must have thought that maybe Coach would see me and just stop this whole suspension thing. The thought did cross my mind, but I know that Coach is set in his ways. Once he says something is going to happen, that was it. It was like his word is his bond.

  "What's going on out there guys?" I asked sitting behind them. They looked at me exhausted. "I know you not about to go out to no punks like them?" I gestured to the other team who was clearly celebrating on the other side. "Look at them, they already think they got the game in the bag and it's only the top of the second quarter. We can't let it go on like this."

  "B-Wood, it's easy for you to say because you ain't out there, but we tired." One of my teammates told me.

  "We've been up all night doing suicides up and down the court. My legs are so dead." Another one complained.

  "I just want to go home and sleep." The teammate closest to me said.

  "So?" I replied.

  "So?" They all snapped back collectively.

  "Yeah, so what? You think you are going to forgive yourselves for losing the playoffs because you're tired? Do you think a week from now when that suck ass team loses to someone else, that you'll feel better? Or will you all feel like bitches for copping out?"

  "Bitches?" Aaron turned towards me with a screwed up face.

  "Straight bitches. You know my girl think you guys are sick? That's how bad you look out there." I shook my head. "Yo, look around." They didn't budge. "Look around!" I urged them. They did and then I continued, "Not only are you playing like shit in front of all of us, but the cameras are watching. I thought some of us wanted to get drafted. Who the heck is going to draft you guys looking like this?"

  The team got quiet. The water boy started handing out refreshments and the equipment manager handed out towels. They were still quiet and just letting my words soak in; at least, I hope they were.

  "Come on, we are better than this. We are going to bring home a win tonight and that's that." I told them.

  "He's right." Aaron got up and stretched. "We got to shake this off because I refuse to lose to them." He looked over at them. "Nah, definitely not. Everyone get up."

  They slowly rose to their feet. I got up and stood behind them.

  "Now, if you feel like you really can't play, we got the subs in here. Sit down now. There is no shame in that. Don't think you're going to let the team down. The only way you're going to let the team down is if you go out there and play like crap when you could have had someone go in for you." I advised them. Two players sat down and right away their subs got up. "Anyone else?" They shook their heads 'no'. "Okay, whose house is this?"

  "Our house!" They screamed

  "Whose house?" I yelled
back.

  "Our house!"

  "Are we losing this game?" I shouted.

  "No!" They yelled.

  "I said, are we losing this damn game?!"

  "Hell no!" They screamed.

  "Get out there!" I yelled and the ref blew the whistle to end the timeout.

  I watched my teammates run out. They looked reenergized. As the ball got back into play, Aaron sunk in a three-point shot. The crowd went wild. Nothing but flags and banners were waving in the stands. When the ball changed over to the other team, one of my teammates stole the ball and handed it over. From there it was another two point shot. We were back on the rise. Right now it looked like a whole different team. I knew that they were still tired, but they were not playing like it at all. They wanted to not only get to the finals, but to win them. But there was one thing that they had to do, they had to beat this team in order to get there.

  "Keep it up!" I shouted. Just then Aaron stole the ball again and sunk in another three. I jumped up and cheered. The crowd was going crazy. The game was on the way. By the time we got the fourth quarter, we were leading by three points. It wasn't much but we were in a better place than we were before. Subs were called in for about three minutes and we still maintained the lead. The other team was getting tired. They were probably wondering where all that energy came from. It was like night and day the way the team changed.

  "Final quarter, final minutes," I said to them from behind them. "We are making these guys look bad but it's looking great for us. Look at these cameras seeing how you guys are turning this around." I said proudly. "Look at it. You guys are in beast mode right now." I smiled.

  "Okay, there Coach Jr." Aaron teased and the rest of the team laughed. "We about to go out there and win this." And that is just what they did. Aaron sunk another three-point shot to get the lead. The other team fouled him and that just let him to put in two more shots. By the time the game was finished, we had won the game by a measly five points. The crowd cheered and the team damn near collapsed. I waited for them by the entryway to the locker room.

  "And that's how you win a game." I boasted and then proceeded to give them all high fives.

  Simone waited for me after I got out of the locker room.

  "I swear, this spot right here," She pointed to the ground that she was stepping on. "I should have my name carved in it because this is where I'm always meeting you." She joked. "Even when you're not playing." She walked up to me and kissed my cheek. "That was a good thing that you did out there."

  "You saw that?"

  "Everyone saw that Mr. B-Wood." She took out her phone. "Or at least, everyone will see it soon." She twirled it around in her hands.

  "What is that about again? You never did tell me."

  "I'm not going to." She chuckled. "Now, come on and tell me all about what just happened."

  The next day I was in my film class. They were talking about this movie in which a grief-stricken father plotted and planned the murder of his son's killer. He went through with this elaborate plan with his friend because he just knew that his son's killer was going to get off. We were finally going to watch the movie when there was a knock at the door. The professor walked to the door and talked to the person on the other side.

  "Benjamin..." He called out to me. "You have to go see your coach. Don't worry about the film. Just catch it on Netflix and then give me an essay on your interpretation of it." He told me. "Grab your things."

  Walking towards Coach's office, I felt very confused. I really didn't know what he wanted with me. When I was at the game the other night, he didn't talk to me at all. He barely even looked at me. I was expecting him to tell me that I shouldn't be with my team, but he didn't say that at all. I'm glad he kept quiet, though because my team needed me, and I was going to be there. It didn't matter to me if he approved of that or not.

  "You wanted to see me Coach?" I asked as I opened the door a little bit. "They told me to come straight to your office. Is there something wrong?"

  "Have a seat." He pointed to the chair that was across from him. I did and he got up and closed the door.

  "I want to say that I'm very proud of you." He said it very slowly like he was thinking up the words as he was going along. "You came to the rescue of your teammates without even thinking of yourself. You could have easily used that time to convince me to put you on the team, but you didn't do that. The whole time that you were there, you were only thinking of your team. That's exactly what I needed to see. I needed to see you think about the whole team for once.

  “When you got into the fight, you didn't think about how your actions could have affected them. Let's say that during that fight you really injured yourself and you couldn't play. Or what if you really hurt the other guy and he sued you? Or worse, what if he died from the injuries you put on him? That can happen and you didn't think about any of that. You let him get the best of you. Who cares what he said about you? Or even about your girlfriend? Who cares if he puts his hands on you? What you're supposed to do is walk away. You just walk away because none of that is worth your career."

  He stopped and sat back at his desk. He pulled out a binder and opened it. He turned some pages and finally stopped.

  "You're one of the best players that I've ever seen. You have tremendous potential but you just don't focus on yourself, you have to focus on the team. You did it a little earlier, but it was really for you. But the other night, you were really about your team. Do you know what would happen if you continued to be about yourself? You would just be the nicest player on the losing team. Do you think that anybody is going to look at you if you're the nicest player on the losing team? No one is going to care, but being on a good team...that's when people notice. Basketball players may make millions of dollars for themselves, but at the end of the day, basketball is a team sport."

  I listened to all that he said. Here I thought that Coach had something out for me when in reality he was teaching me a lesson.

  "You're right. I had to go through this to see that." I admitted.

  "Believe it or not, but by you watching, you became a better player." He told me with a smile." I saw you out there at every game just watching and I could see you just looking at how the game is played. Do you get it now?"

  "I get it. I had to sit it out. I thought it would hurt me so bad to not play but in actuality, it hurt me worse to see my team suffering. Now that I think about it, if they would have had me out there that night, it might not have been that bad. But that's not on you Coach, that's on me. You told me before I left you to stay out of trouble. I should have stayed at the hotel and we all just order room service. There's so many things I wish I could have done differently that night. I wish I could take so much of it back."

  The Coach nodded and then took out his pen. He wrote something down in the binder that he opened earlier.

  "So, I'm putting you back on the team."

  "Thank you!"

  "Don't get too excited, you're only going to be on the bench. You have to earn your spot back at the starting five." He warned me. "That's going to take a lot of hard work."

  "I don't mind, Coach. I am just glad to be back." I smiled.

  "Get out of here and get ready for practice."

  Being back on the team made me so excited that I didn't know what to do with myself. The first person I contacted was Simone. She was so happy at first, but then I went on about how Coach saw that I understood teamwork, she got a little quiet.

  "I think I just did something wrong." She whispered quietly. "Please don't be mad at me."

  "What did you do?"

  "Well...."

  "Simone, what did you do?"

  "Remember when you caught me recording you?"

  "Yeah…"

  "And you know how I'm big on using the power of social media to help you."

  "I don't see where you're getting at."

  "I posted a short video clip about you online."

  "Oh," My heart dropped. "That's all. You made m
e almost get a heart attack. I don't think the Coach is going to care."

  "But it's gone viral."

  Chapter 14

  Simone was right. The clip of me was everywhere. What started just on the school's website, now was on sports blogs and sports sites everywhere. People were beginning to ask why I wasn't in the game or they were saying if I was the next big thing that will hit the NBA. It was flattering of course, but also nerve wrecking. Coach was just telling me that I understood the power of the team and that I wasn't thinking about myself anymore, and now this vid of me solo went out. I just hoped that if the Coach does see it, he didn’t take it out on me.

  But there is some good that has happened because of the clip. Ever since it's been out, I've been getting a lot of buzz. All these sports agents have been reaching out to me. I don't even know how they found me, but every once in a while, if I was walking out of campus, all of the sudden, there was a guy in a suit coming up to me. Coach told us a long time ago to beware of sports agents, so I never gave them the time of day. I would just take their card and as soon as I was out of sight, I'd throw it away. I wasn't interested, but it was nice to know that they were interested in me.

  Practice was great. We were playing better than ever. We were getting closer and closer to the finals. Every player on the team was excited. We all knew what this meant. If we got to finals and we won, we were all going to be considered by some NBA scout. We were all trying to get drafted. As great as that would be, we also knew that only a few of us, if we were lucky, would be drafted. It was a lot of pressure, but we were trying to look at it as a privilege because a lot of the other teams did not make it this far.

  "So the last game of the playoffs are right around the corner." Coach told us after blowing the whistle. "Right around the corner is our chance to be at Finals."

  "Who do we face when we get to finals?" Aaron asked.

  "We have to finish playoffs first." Coach reminded him.