by B. , Ivory
She wore a pair of dark denim jean shorts by Arden B, pink fitted tee with the Jordan jump man on the front and a brand-new pair of multicolored pink, turquoise, grey and white J’s on her feet. She added a little shine with a small pair of pink and white diamond earrings with matching diamond bracelet she got from her Aunt as a Christmas present. Topping off her outfit with big framed light tented Prada shades. Casual, cute and event appropriate is the look she was going for and she had accomplished that. The outfits other chicks were wearing screamed they were on the prowl. Lucky personally wasn’t interested in any of the dudes out there, or any dude at the moment. She was still reeling over the failed fling she had with Los. That’s what she had basically reduced their failed budding relationship to, just a summertime fling. Quiet as kept she had to admit that even though things ended the way they had she still had feelings for him, and wasn’t ready to move on with someone else just yet.
The trio was looking official sitting on the bleachers watching the pre-game. Ty and Keema chose to go the sexy route, wearing open toe high heeled sandals with little shorts. All three of them were causing heads to turn, and yes niggaz was still checking for Lucky despite the fact she didn’t have all her goods on display. The park was so crowded that when you stood up from the bleachers all you saw was a sea of people. Meek Mill’s Middle of the Summer song was blasting from the giant speakers in the park. The Dj had the whole park bobbing and rocking back and forth. He himself seemed to be in his own world bopping his head hard with a bright yellow pair of Beats by Dre’s on.
Dudes played in these games for straight bragging rights and money. South Philly, North Philly, North West Philly, Jersey, NY and even teams from CT were competing; people came from near and far to play and rep their teams. Other’s had no interest in the game at all; they were only trying to bag chicks on some exclusive shit or straight to the telly shit. The streets and grass of the park looked like a rap video with nothing but expensive foreign cars. Benz’s, Range Rover’s, Porsche’s, Audi’s Beamer’s etc…
Ty turned towards Lucky and pulled her Marc Jacobs shades to the tip of her nose. “You ready?” Lucky shook her head yes but didn’t answer verbally. “You nervous?” Ty asked picking up on Lucky’s nerves. “Just a lil bit,” Lucky admitted. “Well shake that shit off. Don’t go out there embarrassing me,” Ty said with a chuckle. Lucky smiled and shook her head. “Nah Lucky for real you got this shit in the bag, you know you learned from the best.” “I sure did,” Lucky said as the horn blared signaling the pre-game was over.
Wayne was a coach for one of the West Philly teams; he spotted Lucky and approached with a smile on his face. Wayne and Lucky had known one another since elementary school and he knew something about her that many would soon find out, baby girl had game, and a sick three pointer. Her percentile was probably better than some chicks in the WNBA right now when it came to three pointers. Wayne and Lucky used to play ball together every Friday at the rec center growing up. Lucky was always like the teams secret weapon, she didn’t get much play, but whenever the team was down and needed some points they pulled her off the bench. And she always came through, Lucky would let loose and light niggaz up with them three pointers. Her Uncle Kev was a diehard 76ers fan. Since he didn’t have a son, he tried to pass the love of basketball down to the girls. He succeeded with Lucky, as for Ty she was never into it. When he dragged both of the girls to the courts Ty would be more focused on the boys than learning the game.
“Was’sup pretty girl, you ready?” Wayne asked eyeing Lucky in the little shorts she had on. “Ayo you straight in them lil ass shorts?” Wayne asked. “Yes I’m straight thanks for asking, Lucky said with a playful roll of her eyes. “Their not tight at the bottom so I can move.” “Oh a’ight,” Wayne said almost transfixed on her long, pretty, toned legs that had not one mark or blemish on them, as if she’d never taken a spill a day in her life. He tore his eyes from her legs to her face which was even more of a distraction. He’d always had a thing for Lucky, and had tried numerous times in the past only to be shut down. “Well a’ight it’s almost showtime. You ready right?” “Yeah it’s just mad people out here.” “Hell yeah it is. What you nervous or something?” “A little.” “You up in like two minutes. This all you right here ma, let’s get it!” Wayne said in an attempt to hype Lucky up as she took to the court pulling her long tresses back in a ponytail. Even if Lucky wasn’t confident in herself right now he was. He knew what she was capable of. Plus he really needed her to pull this off he had a lot of money riding on this.
The whistle blew for a second time signaling the three point shootout was about to began. Taking a deep breath Lucky stepped forward as the announcer called the competition was about to began. Niggaz who didn’t read the line-up started scurrying to make last minute bets once they noticed a female take the court. Many of the bets were against Lucky; it wasn’t anything personal they just didn’t see how a bitch could out shoot a nigga. The staff wheeled out racks of balls for the competition as Lucky eyed the colored arrows on the basketball court indicating each spot she would shoot from. Damn near the whole park was watching now. Lucky could hear laughter of doubt and see awestruck looks as her and her opponent a 6 foot something dude stood back to back on opposite sides of the court. “C’mon Luuucky!” Ty screamed from the bleachers. Wayne gave her a reassuring smirk as he stood beside the rack of balls ready to throw them to her as needed. The whistle blew, Lucky put her nerves aside as she caught a hard throw from Wayne dribbled twice before lining the ball with the rim and threw it down, Swoosh! Nothing but net. The park went crazy, seeing her hit that three pointer so effortlessly.
Los and his team were waiting in a large group for the main game to start; his team had made it as one of the last two teams. He was pumped and ready to win this whole shit for bragging rights. He had some of the best players from Philly, Jersey and snatched up some boys who played for UConn on his team. They were all rocking new J’s that ain’t even hit the stores yet, with Grize Roc on the back of their basketball jerseys. Grize Roc was the record label both he and Nice owned, another legal front. They did have a few artists that were really good including Jah but they were all shelved basically. There wasn’t any music coming out of the company besides a few mix tapes that had been released, for the benefit of not drawing suspicion to the company. Los told himself that once he was settled out of the game he would actually start taking this music business seriously.
Los looked towards the court when the park seemed to go crazy. At first glance he thought he was seeing things, but that was his baby on the basketball court nailing three points one after another. He was shocked as all shit, who would’ve thought. Los, Jah and Nice moved closer to the sideline to get a better look. “Gotdamn baby girl got jumpers for days!” Jah commented astonished and surprised. “Yeah that’s my sister in-law right there!” Nice yelled Los cut Nice a firm look. “Nigga stop frontin you know that’s you,” Nice said before turning his attention back to the court.
The shot clock was timing down fast and Lucky found her hands sweating profusely from the pressure and her nerves. Her opponent was so focused on what she was doing he had already missed two shots while she was flawless. “Shit!” Lucky fussed as she let a shot go and knew it wasn’t going in the moment it left her palms. “It’s nothing ma! You still got this!” Wayne yelled as he watched Lucky squat slightly wiping her wet palms on the front of her shorts. “Hurry up!” Wayne urged not wanting the shot clock to run out and the other team win by getting more balls in. Lucky got it together enough to throw down two more shots before the buzzer. While her opponent missed one more.
“Hell Yeah!” Wayne shouted swinging in the air. Lucky took a sigh of relief despite her heart beating wildly. The crowd was going nuts, and dudes started talking real reckless and Carlos ain’t like it. “Yo ma we can act out some Love and Basketball scenes, ya heard!” some lame from the crowd yelled. Carlos looked across the court trying to find the dude who said that so he could do him
bodily harm but it was way too crowded. The dude that was competing against Lucky couldn’t catch a break; niggaz was goin in. “Damn! How you gon let honey dip do you like that on the court? Got niggaz out here losing money,” some OG pimp looking nigga said. “Pull ya thong up mufucka you should be playin for the WNBA!” someone else yelled.
A dude from Wayne’s team scooped Lucky up off her feet and spun her around. You could’ve literally fried an egg on Los’s head he was that heated. There wasn’t anything sexual about it, but Los found himself get real tight. He was actually surprised at how angry he got. His eyes zoomed in on Lucky like a hawk as she made her way off the court. Just as she was about to walk off a tall dude from the opposing team Los was about to play stepped in front of her and whispered something in her ear. That was bad enough but then the nigga had to go and touch the side of her face. Carlos watched as Lucky said something, and then shook her head no before walking off the court. Carlos was officially seeing red at this point. The dude who had tried to spit game to Lucky stepped on the court with his team and Los took to the court with his.
Lucky sat back down on the bleacher between Ty and Keema. “Giiirrl that shit was too funny, did you see ole boy face when he lost to you?” Ty exclaimed through laughter. Lucky was glad she was only playing for 4 minutes because she wasn’t sweating and her hair was still looking spectacular. Lucky was trying to suppress a laugh as she gulped her bottled water with one hand and pulled her hair tie from her hair with the other to let her hair down.
Ty handed Lucky back her Prada frames and pointed towards the court. Lucky looked up to see Los and Jah on the court in the starting five for the South Philly team. She just about fainted, Carlos was looking too good. He even had swag when he played ball, it was crazy. His basketball shorts were sagging slightly in the back and there were no words for the way his body was looking. Lucky absent mindedly started fanning herself with her hand as she stared at him like she was a starving refugee and he was a rotisserie chicken. “Bitch yo ass wasn’t even on the court long enough to be hot,” Keema accused with a knowing smile. “Oh it ain’t from playing ball, oh my god, Ty look at him.” Ty screwed her face up at her cousin acting as if she were in heat. “Well I see what you mean. He is a sexy chocolate mutha…” “Shut yo mouth!” Keema interjected. Lucky tore her eyes from the court, looking back and forth from Keema and Ty before all three of them busted out laughing.
The game was intense, both teams were really good. Surprisingly both Los and Jah were good, as in really good. To the extent that maybe if they had focused their time and energy in school and tried to get recruited they could’ve made it to the NBA. Instead, they focused their energy into another type of game, the street game that is. Nice wasn’t playing at all, but that wasn’t surprising, he really didn’t come off as the athletic type. One would assume he thought he was too gorgeous to sweat. Instead he was on the sideline being the teams hype man and looking fly as hell, as usual, rockin red bottom Louboutin high top sneaks. His crazy ass had the crowd going wild. He had a bottle in one hand celebrating before the game even ended. Who would expect anything else from his cocky ass. And in Nice’s usual fashion he had jokes, going in on the players from the other team. Every time Los made a point Nice was acting as if it were he himself that made the point. “Yeah you see me nigga, I got crazy game!” Lucky and everybody else was cracking up. “Ayo why the fuck is this nigga shorts so tight son?” Nice asked looking at one of the players from the opposing team sideways. The crowd fell out laughing even their coach a dude everybody in the hood knew as Big Tank was laughing.
“Nah, hell nah Nice don’t bring that bullshit over here. Stop tryna be on that funny shit distracting niggaz from they play, cause you know we gone take this whole shit today!” Tank said with a deep boisterous laugh, his voice matching his big size. “Tank c’mon man you talkin real reckless right now. Bet that on all them rugrats you got runnin around this bitch.” Nice’s comment seemed to have the whole park laughing. Big Tank was a classic example of a nigga that needed to be neutered. According to hood gossip ole boy had 16 kids and counting. He would have one or two by each of his baby mama’s then move on to impregnate the next one. Lucky shook her head while laughing, for the life of her she couldn’t understand why any woman would mess with him knowing his situation. Added on to the fact he resembled rapper Rick Ross big belly, titties, beard and all. Big Tank laughed “I got a lot of kids, I can’t help it. I stay baggin these bitches; you know a fat nigga like me keep about three hoes like Santa Clause.” Lucky, Ty and Keema laughed mainly because of the absurdity. What the hell did these chicks see in him besides his money? Which wasn’t even that long. He definitely wasn’t holdin like Los and his crew. “Hold up, you be baggin these bitches?” Nice repeated sarcastically with his face screwed up. It wasn’t what he said, it was his facial expression that had people rollin. “Yeah, you already know. Niggaz know my body count out here.” “Body count?! Man the only thing you need to be counting is ya caloric intake mufucka, nothing else. Stop spending on them racks on them Big Mac’s!” Lucky and everyone else in earshot were rollin. Tank laughed as well taking the joke in stride. “Nice you’s a funny ass dude, but you betta be careful before I add that fine ass baby mama of yours to my list of baby mama’s.” Nice shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “That bitch just might give you a seed,” Nice concluded. If anyone thought Nice would get offended or demand a certain respect from others when talking about his baby momz they obviously didn’t know him that well. How could he demand that type of respect from people when she didn’t respect herself?
While Tank and Nice continued to go back and forth Keema was being plain ole ridiculous. Every time Jah scored Keema would scream like she was his personal cheerleader. Lucky wanted to crawl under a damn bleacher when that boy dunked. Keema went wild screaming, whistling and jumping up and down. Lucky put her hand to her face and tried desperately to hide behind it. Jah looked up towards the bleachers and blew Keema a kiss causing about 20 chicks to suck their teeth at the same time. “Girl sit ya crazy ass down and stop making a scene,” Ty snapped grabbing Keema’s hand and yanking her to sit down. Keema complied reluctantly with a huge smile on her face as if she were mesmerized. Ty stared at Keema before shaking her head, Keema was so gone over Jah it was ridiculous.
The game was nearly over and Grize Roc was winning by a landslide. Just as the dude who tried to holla at Lucky went to throw down a two pointer Los caught him with an elbow to the face. “Ooohh, damn!” Was the only thing you heard from half the park. The ref blew his whistle immediately and called a flagrant foul on Los. Arrogantly Los shrugged the call off while standing over the dude who was on the ground holding his bloody nose daring him with his eyes to jump up and get brawlic so he could have a reason to thug him out and possibly put two to him. Deep down Los knew he was wrong, but jealousy had gotten a hold of him and it was running through his veins like blood.
Jah stopped right next to Los and fell over laughing as the injured man’s teammates helped him up off the ground. The tension in the air was thicker than a video chick. Jah decided to address the ice grills both him and Los were getting. “What y’all niggaz wanna get it poppin out here?” Jah asked with malice. Nice who was standing on the sidelines quickly reached for his hammer. “Yo, y’all already know what it is, if y’all niggaz got problems we can solve em. All that WWE mean muggin and shit don’t move niggaz, heaters do!” Nice said from the sidelines looking at the dudes on the court, and then towards Tank and the niggaz he had with him. After Nice’s comment the mean mugs on the dude’s faces quickly turned neutral. Everyone knew Nice was anything but all talk. He may have been what some considered a pretty boy, but when it came to that beef shit he was a beast. “Ayo Nice, it ain’t for all that ma nigga. Ain’t no one on no beefin shit, real talk. We just here to play the game. It’s all love, it’s Philly in this bitch!” Tank said trying to reason and defuse a bad situation from getting worst, knowing how trigga happy them young niggaz Los
had on his team were. Nice nodded his head up and down but kept his hand at his side.
Lucky was stretching her neck trying to get a better view of what was going on. All she knew was some drama was popping off. Although she couldn’t hear from where she sat, the game had come to a complete halt. Los suddenly turned his head in her direction, their eyes locked and he smirked before taking a few steps back giving her a clear view of the court. It was at that moment she noticed the dude that was trying to talk to her before the game bleeding profusely from the nose wobbling off the court with help from his teammates. Lucky’s eyes shifted back to Los who was still staring in her direction wearing a ‘yeah I did it look.’ A cold chill ran up her spine before she cut her eyes to the side breaking eye contact with Los. Los’s team took the game by 12 points causing the park to get hyped.
Lucky began to feel bad energy coming from the park. A lot of dudes out there were feeling salty about the results of the tournament. She knew how emotional dudes could get when it came to money, and from the sounds of it, a lot of dudes were out of money. Los and his whole crew started making their way through the thick crowd to the exit gates. Lucky stood up on the benches catching Los pulling his sweaty shirts off. Her treasure box jumped and started beating like someone gave it CPR. She watched as a dude from his team handed him a brand-new wife beater and crisp white Tee. Out of nowhere that little bitch from the diner with the eye problem ran up on him throwing her arms around his neck, hugging him close. Lucky felt like throwing her half empty water bottle at the both of them. She watched as the girl whispered something in his ear making sure she was real sexy with it “Uhh! That bitch miles well suck him off right here in the park. I’m ready to go y’all,” Lucky spat bitterly. “Keema saw the mood Lucky was in and was a little apprehensive to tell her that she and Ty had planned to go to a party Los and em were having after the game. “Umm… Luck, me and Ty were planning to go out.” Lucky stopped in her tracks. She felt some type of way about her girls leaving her when she was feeling so fucked up after seeing Los with another chick. The more she thought about it though; she really did need time to herself. “Fine, just drop me off home first.”
