William

XL.

LEAH

"Here we go Bruins, here we go! Here we go Bruins, here we go!" The cheerleaders and I chanted as we cheered for our basketball team. We were facing another rival of ours, Ravenwood High.

It was the 2nd quarter and the game was close. The lead changes were back and forth. The score was 23-25 with Ravenwood upfront. We were home and the crowd was going crazy.

Ravenwood had the ball. Their point guard dribbled it up the court and Will was guarding him like his life depended on it.

"Defense! Defense!" The crowd chanted.

Ravenwood's point guard passed it to another player with Brayden guarding him. Suddenly, the ball was picked off and Brayden was running down the court.

He passed it to Will, who ran to the basket and dunked the ball in. The crowd erupted into cheers.

"Go, Will!" I shouted.

He looked in my direction and winked at me. I smiled at the gesture. The score was now tied with one minute left on the clock. Ravenwood had the possession. Once again, their point guard dribbled the ball up the court.

You could tell he was trying to play the clock. Will was playing good defense. He had his man cornered. It was 10 seconds left on the clock. The guy went for a 3 pointer, but Will blocked his shot.

The crowd went nuts. Will got the ball and dribbled down the court. 5 seconds left on the clock. He stopped behind the 3 point line and shot the ball. The gym grew quiet as the ball flew in the air. The buzzer sounded off just ass it went in the basket.

Claps and cheers bounced off the gym's walls. The guys praised Will for his tremendous effort. Even I jumped for joy. We were up by 3 now. I noticed people from the crowd walking out, probably to get food or go to the restroom during halftime. Ravenwood had already went to the locker room as well as some of Liberty.

I took some time out to chat with the girls before the game started again.

"Yo, Leah." A familiar voice called out.

I turned and came face to face with Andre. I mentally rolled my eyes. What does he want.

"Yes?"

"You looked good out there." He looked me up and down.

"Thanks." I said, dryly.

"So, after the game I was thinking we-"

"What don't you get Andre? I don't want to hang with you. Hell, I don't even want to talk to you, so, leave me alone." I stated, annoyed.

Before he could reply I was already walking away. I didn't get far, when I felt a strong grip on my arm. I looked back and it was him. I snatched my arm back and looked at him like he was crazy.

"Don't touch me!" I shouted.

"Yo, I'm just tryna talk to you." He said, grabbing on me.

"Get off me!" I yelled.

We were getting looks.

WILL

Walking to the locker room after my amazing shot, I heard some type of altercation behind me. I turned around to see Andre grabbing on Leah. She was trying to push him away, but he was very persistent.

She yelled, telling him to get off her, but he wasn't listening. In that moment, my body filled with rage. I already wanted to fight him for the whole Kani situation and for all the slick shit he'd say to me about Leah, but watching him manhandle her like that, crossed the line.

I quickly ran over to them and pushed that nigga Andre off of Leah. He fell to the floor hard.

"Yo! What the fuck?!" He shouted.

"Leah, you good? Did he hurt you? I asked in a panic as I looked for any marks or bruises on her.

"No, he didn't." She said a little shaken up.

I turned my attention back to that nigga, who had just got back off the floor.

"Ohh, look who came to the rescue. We were just talking, relax." He dusted himself off.

"That's not what it looked like to me. Just stay away from her and we won't have any problems." I turned back towards Leah.

"You're not going to do shit if I don't." He smirked.

"What the fuck you say to me?" I got in his face.

Leah tried to pull me back, but I wouldn't budge.

"You heard me." He pushed me back.

My only reaction was to punch this dude dead in the face, so that's what I did.

I cocked back my right fist and laid a right hook across his face. He hit the floor holding his nose. As he laid there with blood pouring from his nose, I had the urge to jump on him and punch him until the bones in my hands were broken.

I went to punch him again until I felt soft hands holding back my fists.

"Will, don't. You can't get in trouble right now, please stop." Leah begged.

"If he says anything to you, even look in your direction, I'm going to kill him Leah and I mean it." I said in a pissed off tone.

Andre got back off the floor and charged at me, however, before he could get to me, some other guys from the team stopped him.

"Get off me!" He yelled.

"No, dawg save it for after the game. Coach will kick y'all both out if he catch y'all fighting." One of Andre's friends said.

"I don't give a fuck about no damn game!" He continued to shout.

"We do and we're not losing because you two got problems." Another player said.

"Fine! I'll catch his ass after the game. I'll see you later beautiful." He winked at Leah.

I tried to lunge at him, but Brayden held me back. Andre and his boys walked into the locker room as I stood there with Leah and Brayden.

"Brayden make sure they keep their distance in that locker room." Leah told him.

" I got you." Brayden said.

"Are you really okay? Cause I will end his life if he hurt you." I said in a serious tone.

"Will, I'm okay. If there was something wrong I'd tell you."

"Ight, fine." I walked towards the locker room with Brayden.

"Hey, Will!" Leah shouted as she ran up to me.

"Thank you." She smiled small as she hugged me tight.

"Like I said, I'll do anything for you." I replied, hugging her back.

"Okay, now go before you get in trouble"

Brayden and I, then jogged back to the locker room. This night was just getting started.