Sex, Love, and Basketball *Books 1 and 2* (Slowly Editing)

35. Ghosting

Uh oh.

"Um, this isn't Dani." I spoke into the phone nervously.

"Then who the hell is it and why do you have my baby's phone?" The woman asked and I sighed. If I wanted anything to do with Dani, I was going to have to face her mother eventually.

"This is Jade. I'm the person Dani was on a date with last night. She left her phone in my car." I spoke in a shaky voice. I'm sorry, but Dani's mom scared me.

"So you're the one that made my baby break her ankle?" She asked and I nodded, but realized she couldn't see it.

"Y-Yes ma'am." I admitted. "But I'm really sorry about that and I've apologized to Dani already. That was a really messed up thing for me to do to her and I don't have an excuse for it, but I really like her. So I'm begging you not to make her cut me off. Granted, we'll see each other no matter what because we'll be roommates next year, but I don't just want to be her roommate. I'm not saying I want to rush into anything, but-"

"Jade." Dani's mom cut me off. "Sweetheart, you're talking a mile a minute."

My nerves got a little bit better when she laughed.

"I'm sorry." I laughed awkwardly.

"It's fine. But since we're already talking, tell me about yourself. If Dani agreed to go out with you even after what you did to her, she must like you at least a little bit. I know my daughter and she doesn't do dates for no reason."

I ended up telling Dani's mom a lot more than I intended to. I didn't mean to, but she's really easy to talk to and everything just came out. It wasn't too bad though. It's not like I had anything to hide.

"I'm sorry that happened to you, but if your parents couldn't love you for you, you're better off with Keri. They're supposed to love you unconditionally not under certain conditions. That's not how parenting works. Hell, that's not how love works."

See? She's great.

"Thank you. I'm glad I'm with my aunt though. She's always been there for me even before I got kicked out. I could never talk to my mom the way I can talk to her. I can't even talk to my mom how I'm talking to you right now. It's like she never really liked me or something." I admitted.

"She probably doesn't like herself. People do that sometimes. They take all their internal shit out on their kids. But that has nothing to do with who you are and everything to do with who she is. There is nothing wrong with you. Well, other than you getting caught up in your competitiveness and injuring people, but that's something you can and are willing to work on."

I laughed at that last part.

I talked to Ms. Fuller the whole way to Dani's campus. Once I got there I had to call my aunt to come let me in. I didn't actually go to school there yet, so I didn't have a keycard to get into Dani's dorm building.

"You're on this campus more than you're on your own." My aunt teased me once she let me in.

"I'm just here to give Dani back her phone. She left it in my car last night." I explained.

"I can give it to her." My aunt held her hand out and I held on to Dani's phone a little tighter.

"N-No I got it." I stuttered which made my aunt laugh.

"I was only kidding. Go on up and give it to her." She said laughing to herself as she walked away from me.

I went to the elevator and waited impatiently for it to arrive.

Once it did, I mentally cursed because of who was inside. Just great.

"What are you doing here?" Jayla asked stepping off of the elevator and giving me a look that I was sure would kill me any second now.