"Your Bessonova’s Swan has really improved, Mani."Coach Cynthia said as I slipped on my tracksuit pants over my leotard since it was the end of practice.
"Thank you, Coach."I responded as I slipped on my slides before I grabbed my duffle bag and hoop.
"How's college, sweetie?"she asked as she packed up her equipment.
"Uh great. The work load is very intense though."I said as I helped her with the equipment.
"How's your wrist holding up?"she inquired which made my heart sink.
"Good. It's better."I muttered avoiding her gaze because I already know she could see through my lie.
"Have you told your mom yet?"She continued which made me sigh before I shook my head.
"When will you tell her because you have a grade 3 sprain, Imani."She sternly said as she took the hoop out of my hand and made me look up at her.
"You need to tell your mom or I will and I don't want to do that to you."She continued softening her gaze.
"No, Coach you know she will take me off gymnastics. I am seeing my physiotherapist."I responded as I gently placed the other equipment down.
"Mani, I spoke to your physiotherapist and she told me that you were supposed to be off for weeks now and you've only seen her once."She remarked as she took my hand in hers and pushed the multiple bracelets I had on before she tried to rotate my wrist even the slightest but I winced in pain and weakly pulled my hand away from her.
"This will and can get worse. If you don't go to your physio tomorrow, I'm calling your mom."she warned which made me sigh heavily before I nodded my head and left the dance studio.
I grabbed my headphones and slipped them on before I opened my phone and noticed that I had a couple of messages from Damon, Nathaniel and Keishia.
Damon:
morning baby. <3
you need anything? i have baseball practice and I finish in an hour, maybe we could meet up and just talk.
Nathaniel <3 <3:
hey boo boo. Simone needs you.
Keisha:
hey girl, we have an emergency.
I sighed as I rushed back to my dorm room and when I got there I saw Simone packing.
"Wh-Whats happening?"I asked as I watched them pack up.
"Her parents only paid for her tuition and so she can't stay in her dorm."Keisha explained which made me look at Simone sympathetically.
"Simone I can help you. Maybe let's go to the finance office now and I can pay it for you."I suggested as I tried to stop her from packing her stuff.
"No, Imani it's okay. I don't want to do that to you. I'll go and stay with my auntie for awhile. So you can bring Damon here as much as you want."she joked which made Nathaniel and Keisha look at me in shock.
"Damon? Damon Sims?"Keisha asked in shock as she looked at me with a smug look.
"Simone."I sulked in frustration as I looked at her and placed my duffle bag on my bed.
"Sorry girl. They were going to find out eventually."Simone joked which made me playfully roll my eyes and begin to help her pack up her essentials.
"Fill my cup."Nathaniel remarked in a sing-song tone as she gave me a smirk.
"It's nothing that deep I promise."I nonchalantly said as I shrugged my shoulders.
"Any boy in your life is that deep. We need to have like a catch up session sis."she said as she nudged me with a smirk on her face.
We then heard a knock on the dorm room door and when we looked we saw Damon, Cam and JR preparing to help Simone with her stuff.
"Yall need help?"JR asked as he took the box out of Keisha's hand making Damon take mine with a smirk.
"I can carry it thank you."I stubbornly said as I moved the box away but Nathaniel nudged me which made me give up the box.
"Let's go."Simone said as she lead the way to her aunt's apartment.
When we walking to her aunt's apartment Damon and I were walking behind them the whole time casually talking to each other.
"Listen, after all of this. I want to talk to you."he smoothly said as he looked down at me.
"Tell me now."I muttered shrugging my shoulders as I looked up at him.
"No, no I need to tell you this when it's just us. In my room." he said which made me look up at him like he was crazy.
"You must think I am a damn fool if you think you can just call me to your room to hook u--"I snapped as I looked up at him in disbelief.
"Wait, it's not anything like that. I promise."he quickly exclaimed cutting me off before I could finish off my rant.
"I'd never do that to you. I just thought since we barely see each other we could just talk and catch up."he stated which made me feel bad.
"Oh, I'm sorry. D. I'd love that."I said as we made our way to Professor Amara's apartment where she welcome us at the door.
"Hey, Professor Amara."I greeted with a warm smile and embraced her warmly.
"How are you sweetie?"she asked as she gave me a small smile and held my hands, she accidentally brushed my wrist which made me wince and pull my hands away from her.
"You okay?"she asked as she looked down at my wrist in concern.
"Yeah, I just have a minor sprain nothing too bad."I said giving her a small smile but she looked at me in concern.
"I'm good. You need help in the kitchen. It looks like you were starting with dinner."I chimed as I looked at her kitchen with a small smile.
"Girl, you cook?"Simone asked as she gave me a smirk.
"I can assure that I am a girl of many talents."I said as I made my way into the kitchen and grabbed an onion.
"You can relax, professor. I got you."I said as I began to chop the onion on a chopping board.
Simone and Nathaniel helped me out in the kitchen by setting the table and making the salads.
"Well, enjoy."I said as I placed the bowl that had collard greens on the dinner table.
"Let's say grace first."Professor Amara said as she made us all hold hands, she said a short prayer before we began to eat.
"Woah, damn girl."Simone said after she tok a bite of the food.
"Imani this is amazing."Professor Amara beamed as she looked at the plate in amazement.
"You can thank my grandma for that."I joked whilst giggling before I began to eat.
"We should make this a thing. A weekly family dinner."she chimed as she looked around the dinner table.
"That is a great idea."Cam said with his mouth full.
"If the food is going to be this good then hell yeah."he continued which made me giggle before rolling my eyes..
"I'll definitely come."I sang as I looked around the table to see that everyone was agreeing.
After we finished up dinner, we cleaned up and left. We all went our separate ways since I wanted to take a shower before I go to Damon's dorm.
Once I had gotten dressed in a simple Bringston Lions hoodie and thigh length biker shorts, socks and slides. I made my way to Damon's dorm which wasn't that far from mine.
I knocked a couple of times and when Damon opened I saw that he had a small smile on his face but I could tell he had a lot on his mind.
"You good?"I asked looking up at him in concern.
"I'm good. Come in."he said leading me into his dorm room.
"Cam isn't around?"I asked as I walked in and tried to look around the dark dorm.
"Nah, he's with Keisha. Win-win for the both of us."he said as he flicked a switch on and there were fairy lights on, accompanied with a couple of other lights round the room. There was a picnic setting on the floor where there were two cushions and a couple of snacks.
"Aw Damon."I beamed in awe as I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck.
"This is beautiful, Damon. I love it."I mumbled in his shoulder before I pulled away.
"Good, that's what I was going for. You deserve it."he said as he gently rubbed my side before he sat me down on the cushion opposite him.
"Thank you, Damon. I needed this."I said as I crossed my legs and looked down at the snacks and realized that they were all my favorite snacks.
"How's baseball?"I asked as I looked up at him.
"Frustrating. The coach has until the end of the season to build a championship team and to be honest that team is kind of shakey at the moment. We played against Coach Shaws team and we lost. Coach is blaming it on me because he said we didn't work together. The coach and I are just butting heads too."he fumed as he aired out his frustration.
"I feel like it's because you aren't used to playing with a team, Damon. You're use to moving from different teams because you basically on your own, you never really formed a bond with your team and I feel like you really should. That bond you have with JR could easily be built with the other team because firstly you are all passionate about baseball and maybe you should have a team get together type of thing and just get to know each other. As for Coach, he just thinks he has a spoilt brat on his hands, trust me I've been through that. They just think since you've been through this championships you will have a big head and want to take charge but don't allow him to do that to you, don't allow prove him right."I explained as I looked up at him with a small smile.
"You are Damon Sims, you can do anything."I said as I placed my hand on his cheek so he could look at me.
"You're right. Thank you, Mani."he said with a small smile.
"I'm not used to airing out my frustration like this. I've never had siblings to vent to and my mom just cares about baseball star Damon Sims not her son Damon Sims. My dad has Alzheimer so he barely remembers stuff. He just calls me by my uncles name and we have to go with it."he sneered in frustration.
"I'm sorry Damon. I'm here for you anytime you need an ear to vent to."I chimed with a smile trying my best to make him feel comfortable.
"What about you, how's gymnastics?"he asked as he handed me a packet of skittles in which I happily accept with a smile.
"Um. Good?"I said with a shrug as I opened the packet of skittles and popped a couple in my mouth.
"That's not a straight answer."he remarked sternly as he looked at me with a frown.
"I haven't really told anyone this but at one of the national tournaments I sprained my wrist, I won so I didn't think much of it and so it's just progressively become worse. I don't want to tell my mom because she's a surgeon and she exaggerates every single injury I have down to a scab so if she notices my grade 3 sprained wrist, she'll take me off gymnastics like she's been telling me she'd do if I don't stop getting injuries."I explained as I looked down at my wrist.
"Imani, you can't ignore your wrist injury, have you tried to see a physiotherapist."he asked in concern looking down at my wrist.
"No, I'm to scared to even know what she's going to tell me."I admitted avoiding eye contact with him.
"We're going tomorrow morning."he demanded taking my wrist in his hand.
"Damo-"
"I'm serious, Imani. We'll go to my physiotherapist and we'll see what she says."he said taking his phone out of his pocket and texted someone, he got a response in minutes.
"9am sharp."he stated which made me laugh a bit before nodding my head.
"Yes sir."I joked whilst laughing as I looked up at him in shock which made him laugh too.
"Imani, I actually didn't call you here to air out my frustration."he mumbled as he gave me a small smile.
"Yeah, you called me here to yell at me."I joked which made him chuckle.
"I called you here because I have to ask you something."he muttered as he reached into his pocket.
"I wanted to asked you if you wanted to be my girlfriend."he said as he finally pulled out a small box.
I looked up at him in disbelief as I watched him open the box and revealed a gold necklace that had a 'D' engraved and another necklace that had my name engraved in gold.
"D for Damon?"I joked as I looked at the necklace with a big smile.
"Yeah and my chain has 'I' for Imani."he said as he slightly pulled his shirt down to reveal his chain that did have an 'I'.
"Damon this is so precious."I said as I smiled down at the necklace in awe.
"You haven't answered my question."he joked which made me giggle.
"You weren't asking you were stating that you were going to ask me."I said in a matter-of-fact tone which made him kiss his teeth.
"Will you be my girlfriend, Imani?"he asked as he looked up at me nervously.
"Of course, Damon."I chimed in excitement.
"let me put it on you."he said as he stood up which made me stand up and I looked down at the necklace as he clipped it on.
"This is beautiful."I said in awe as I took the D in my hand and smiled at it before I turned to face Damon.
"I'm glad you like it."he mumbled as he looked at me and at my lips.
I smiled as I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into a kiss in which he passionately responded to immediately.