In the Sidelines » Damian Lillard

02.

THE NEXT MORNING I woke up to the sound of my doorbell. It rang again...and again...and again. I groaned and tried to block out the noise, but whoever was brave—or stupid—enough to wake me up decided to keep pressing on the bell.

It was times like this when I really wished my parents were here instead of out on their monthly business trips. Because I was the only one home at the moment, I was forced to roll out of bed and quickly attempt to look like I hadn't been asleep a minute ago—even though I had.

Ready to go off on the idiot who woke me up so early, I yanked the door open and was greeted by a grinning Damian. Once he saw how cranky I was, his smile quickly faded.

I scowled. "Thanks for waking me up so early in the morning."

He furrowed his eyebrows and pulled out his phone to check the time. "Ara, it's 10:47."

"Exactly! Why are you here when you could be getting some quality hours of sleep?" I crossed my arms in annoyance but turned to the side to let him through my doorway. I walked behind him as he made his way into the kitchen. He grabbed an apple from the fridge like he was at home then leaned against the wall.

"Just wanted to say good morning to my loving friend who's always in a good mood." He shrugged, giving a pointed look when I frowned at him in annoyance. "But I might've come at the wrong time." I lightly shoved him but gave a small smile back.

He took a bite from his apple then continued. "Anyways, I was wondering if you wanted to go watch that new movie that's premiering tonight. It'll be us and a few others from my school."

I nodded. "Sure. What time is it at?"

"Nine thirty."

"Alright." I realized what he had said and squinted at him. "If it's at night, how come you came here so early just to invite me?"

Damian smiled sheepishly at me. "I might've felt like annoying you by waking you up two hours before you normally do."

I rolled my eyes at him, not even surprised in the slightest by his actions. "I hate you so much right now."

Brushing off my 'insult', he grinned and gave a quick thumbs-up. "Love ya too, Ara!"

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Hours later, we were on our way to the movie theater in Oakland, where Damian had already bought the tickets. We drove onto the Bay Bridge and I couldn't help but look behind me and marvel at the lights of downtown San Francisco. It had been years since my parents and I first moved into the city when I was starting middle school, but the view never got old for me.

"Ara? You okay?" I mumbled a 'huh?' and turned left to face Damian. He was driving so he kept his eyes directed on the illuminated street. "You haven't been talking. Also, you're being rude and not singing along to the radio with me." I laughed when he pouted at me, but it was true that something had been nagging me the whole day.

When Damian decided to stay at my house until we had to leave, we watched some random shows on tv. One of them happened to be an episode where someone was leaving for college and I realized we would be in that same situation soon.

I decided if I should open up about it or not. I didn't want to kill the happy mood, but Dame was one of those people who wouldn't give up until they got the answer they wanted. Shrugging my shoulders, I decided that it was better to have this conversation earlier than later.

"Have you thought about how a year from now, we won't be here?" His expression became unreadable. "I'll be in some undecided college, and you'll be in Weber State..." I trailed off.

At the start of the school year, Damian had committed to the college in Utah and I had to admit I was sad. None of the colleges I was interested in were even in a state bordering Utah. Of course, I've still been happy for him. After all, he got a scholarship to play the sport he loved.

But it wasn't until now that I realized that soon, our Friday night basketball games would be nonexistent. There would be no such thing as driving to the other person's house just to hang out. The only way we would be able to see each other's faces was through Skype.

Damian pursed his lips. "I have thought about it, but I don't wanna accept it yet. It's too hard to believe we'll be an airplane flight away from each other." In a lighter tone, he joked, "I won't be able to annoy you when you wake up on Saturday mornings."

I reached over and gave him a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder. "Hey now. That's why you have my phone number. I won't mind a few morning wake-up calls from you."

He mumbled under his breath as if talking to himself. "Yeah, morning wake-up calls. We could make those work out." In a clearer voice, he directed towards me, "Do we have a deal?" As we slowed down at a stop light, he extended an arm towards me.

I grinned and gave his hand a shake. "Deal. And I expect you to keep your promise as long as I keep mine."

We continued down the road to the city of Oakland, comforted by the presence of each other and the assurance we would have each other through it all. I leaned my head back and sang along to the radio with Damian as we both made fun of each other's off-tune voices.

These small moments were the kind of things that friends usually take for granted, and this was the kind of mistake I made myself. I wish I had known how easily our friendship would change and how the promise we made would later be forgotten.

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It's been a while since I last updated. Sorry about that.

But can we talk about Lillard's CLUTCH performance against the Spurs?? And in triple overtime too! I was screaming at my tv like it was some kinda playoff game lmao.

Anyways...thanks so much for 100+ reads already. Hope you guys are enjoying this story so far!