The Boy Next Door

Epilouge #1

"Don't give up your dream just for me. I want you to continue to do what you love. It will be hard not being able to talk to you as much but that's what life is all about. The unexpected happens and sometimes something good does too. We've already talked about how hard it's gonna be and I know that you're gonna try your hardest to stay strong. I love you, remember that," she says.

"Your positive?"

"Yes, do what you love."

"I am so deeply in love with you princess," I say.

"I know and so am I. Now go be an NBA star," she says.

We say our goodbyes and hang up the phone.

"Let me guess you talked to Mia about this whole situation," Blake says.

"Yeah didn't you talk to Alexis?" I give him an eyebrow raise.

"Yeah, this is going to be tough but at least we have each other," Blake says.

Blake got a call for the NBA a couple of weeks before we graduated. Mr. Cash told him that he saw him in Scotland but couldn't get a word with him. The coach came back in and we both gave our final decisions and now we start our journey in the NBA world.

We are in Massachusetts to get a feeling of where we will be practicing and spending most of our time. We will also spend a couple of weeks traveling to attend training camps, a scrimmage, and a combine, then real competitions start. Then we get back to Massachusetts to do more training.

We've got this in the bag

****

Well, I was wrong about this whole situation.

It is fucking tearing me apart. Emotionally, Physically and Mentally.

The past week has been stressful. To think this was going to be somewhat easy it isn't. We are currently in Sydney, Australia.

The first couple of days were just traveling and with all the time differences and trying to get to a certain place at a specific time, I missed 8 calls, a bunch of texts, and two FaceTimes from Mia.

I woke up the next day at 6:00 and got to the court around 7:00. Then we trained and worked until 10:00 at night. It was a day full of exhaustion.

I took a shower even though I was tired as shit and then practically forced myself to contact Mia. I knew she could be either sleeping or working.

Mia
I am sorry about not responding quickly enough. I will call you tomorrow and we can FaceTime with Leah!! I miss you so fucking much!!

Ace, don't feel bad I get that this situation is tough. Stay strong! I love you!!
______________________________

That is what I continued to do. I continued to stay strong and push back the negative thoughts.

"Yo Ace, you good," Blake says.

"Yeah I am fine just go back to bed," I say.

"Okay whatever," Blake says and rolls over on his side to sleep.

It is around 2 am and I cannot sleep. I have all this pilled-up stress and emotions that I can't let out because I don't wanna show my weakness.

I walk over to the bathroom and splash some water on my face. I took a seat on the floor and scrolled on Instagram. I look on Mia's Instagram and I see a photo of her and the girls and Leah. They all have smiles plastered on their faces and are all hugging Mia.

I take a dive deep and scroll through the comments and see that people are wishing Mia Happy Birthday.

I go out of that photo and scroll down to another one of her and Leah. Leah is holding up a trophy. I look at the caption and it says that she won her first gymnastics competition.