extraordinarylove.

8: Serious vs. Curious

The Warriors were off to a quick road trip to Portland for a pre-season game against the Trailblazers. Klay hopped onto their bus, relieved to be out of the cold weather that was aching his face. He made his way to the back, his hood still on to avoid eye contact or conversation. He sat behind Stephen and immediately made himself comfortable.

"Yo." Steph peeked over his seat, his chin resting on the top of the chair. 

"Not now, Stephen. I'm tired."

"Tired of what?"

"You, pretty soon." Klay draped his hood over his face a bit more and propped his legs up onto the seat next to him.

"I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

"Sheri."

"What about her?"

"Come on, man. Don't play dumb." Klay sighed, the irritation building quickly. He lifted up the top of his hoodie to look at Stephen. 

"I'm not doing anything to her."

"I'm about 5 seconds away from knocking your ass out. You're pulling the same shit I did when me and Alyssa were having issues. Don't do it, man. Didn't you learn anything from the shit we all went through at the time?"

"Foreel Stephen, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Then how come you keep using me and the boys as your excuse?"

"Maybe I am hanging out with the rest of the team?"

"No the hell you're not. We all know you're not. Ain't nobody seen you besides practice." Klay pulls the hood over his face again and sighs. "So, are you seeing Fatima or not?"

"I've hung out with her a few times."

"A few times?"

"Yes, a few times."

"No it's been more than a few times."

"Where are you even getting all this?"

"Sheri stormed into our house to look at the nursery. And she came at me, thinking you were hanging out with us a lot instead of spending time with her."

"What did you say?"

"I told her I never saw you!"

"Why would you say that?" Klay sighs in frustration.

"Like you told me. I'm not gonna cover up for you when you wanna act dumb."

"Honestly, me and Sheri are just going through it. You won't understand."

"Honestly nothing, Klay. If you really loved that girl, you wouldn't be doing the shit you're doing. I had to learn the hard way. And although I can't stop you from doing what you wanna do, I just hope you don't have to learn the hard way either."

"I know what I'm doing." He says stubbornly. "So please, can you just leave me alone?"

"Whatever. You need to have a talk with your girl." Steph sighs and sits back down in his seat. Klay turns up the music on his phone. He closes his eyes and begins to think about everything that's been happening. Even if he was irritated with Steph, he was listening to what he had to say. So, maybe he hasn't been telling the truth and maybe he was a bit sloppy with his excuses.  He honestly didn't know what was taking over him, besides the fact that he was just being selfish with his happiness. He felt as if he needed a change of scenery or something different to be his reality check. 

He really enjoyed being with Fatima and he was honestly falling out of it with Sheri. Temporary or not, it was still happening. 

Besides it being preseason, Klay could care less about the game because of all the thoughts running through his head.  He really couldn't give a single fuck about it and it was clear to his teammates and Coach Kerr.