Love and Basketball (LaMelo Ball Story)

~19~

I wake up in an all too familiar hospital room. I swear it was the same exact room from when I OD'd, and it brought back bad memories. And it didn't help that I was in pain now, mentally and physically.

But the weird thing was that no one was in my hospital room. Like, at all. It was extra quiet, and all you could hear were machines beeping annoyingly in my ear. 

"You was right Zo, hospital food is nasty." Melo says, walking into the room. He didn't notice I was awake cause he was too busy looking at Lonzo, who had a smoothie in his hand.

"It wasn't that bad. That one KFC bucket had much worse fried chicken." Zo says. All three of the Ball siblings walk into the room with Nat at their heels. My parents walk in soon after and still NOBODY notices me. I clear my throat extra loud so somebody could finally see me. Like, hello family, it's not like I'm dead or nothing!

"Naiara, you're awake!" My mom says, hugging me. "If only I knew Santiago was doing this. I'm so sorry mija."

"It's fine, mama. I'm okay." But I'm not.

"Are you sure?" She asks.

"Yeah." No.

A bunch of paperwork later, the doctor tells my family that I would have to stay at the hospital overnight. Melo promised to stay with me all day, so everyone else went home.

"You good baby? Like deadass, you good?" Melo asks. I might be a sub-par liar to my mom, but I really can't lie to Melo. Damn, that's sounds terrible when I say it out loud.

"Not really. He... uh. He..." I couldn't even get it out my mouth. Melo held my hand as I started tearing up. He really is a good boyfriend.

"I'm here baby. Don't worry. I'll always be here." He says. Ugh, why'd he have to say that? It's so cute and romantic!

"Two guys were there with him, trying to buy what he stole. Then they saw me and he... let them rape me." I finally manage to get out. Melo's quiet for a second, like he's processing everything I said. A few seconds later I realize he's squeezing my hand extra hard, and his face was slowly going from caring to furious.

"Melo, please calm down." I say, but I didn't mean it. I wanted him to get mad, cause I'm mad. More mad than traumatized. I wanted more than just for that nigga to go to jail. I wanted him to suffer.

"Bae, how am I supposed to calm down when the nigga let two niggas run a train on you?! He let them take your v-card, which I was 'posed to do!" Melo yells, and I try not to laugh. The fact that he really wanted to be the one to take my virginity was funny to me, but this wasn't really a laughing matter.

"Please Melo. I just wanna think about anything else right now. Like, how's my favorite doing?" I ask, placing a smile on my face. Melo's anger made me realize that I wasn't the only one affected by the shit my uncle did. And I have to be strong. For me and my family.

"I'm doing pretty good, better now that you're back. I passed that stupid physics test yesterday, and-"

"Uh, that's cool and everything, but I was talking bout Gelo. Pretty sure we already established that Gelo is my favorite."

"Seriously? I can't be your favorite this one time?" I shrug. 

Melo spent the whole day with me, doing nothing but making me happy. I almost forgot about everything that happened, but it kept coming back to me like a terrible song in the back of my head. It was like Gucci Gang was playing over and over again in my head, which was complete torture, but Melo was making it better.

The next day, I was released. And even though I just came outta the hospital, Dad insisted I keep conditioning for basketball. Tryouts start Friday, and it's Wednesday. In other words, I needed to start working out like yesterday.