"You gonna keep working your body off until it gets tired?"Coach Cynthia asked as I continued to practice on the horizontal bars.
"Yep."
"I know I said take your time to answer your parents but it's been a week, sweetheart."She responded as I continued to move around the horizontal bars and try to mimic the techniques that she taught me today.
"The same way they took their time to tell me this is the same way I'm going to take my time to talk to them."I replied before I swung off the horizontal bar and landed on the mattress.
"Well, Warning. Your mother is in town."She nonchalantly said which made me roll my eyes as I grabbed my towel and wiped my sweat off my face.
"Good for her."I muttered as I grabbed my towel and stuffed it into my duffle bag.
"You're done for the day."Coach Cynthia said as she gave me a small smile and walked out of the gym which made me sigh heavily as I grabbed my duffle bag and left the gym.
"Imani."I sighed heavily and turned around to see Quincy.
"Are you ever going to leave me alone?"I asked as I crossed my arms and watched him walk towards me.
"Imani, I have been trying to apologise because I miss my friend. Just hear me out."he pleaded as he stepped closer.
"Sure."I muttered impatiently as I looked up at him.
"I'm sorry for forcing myself onto you, Imani. Last week I was going to tell you that I'm playing my first match this Friday and I was hoping that you would come."he explained with a small smile which made me feel guilty.
"I'll think about it."I simply said as I gave him a short nod before I turned to walk away.
"Uh, can I walk you to your dorm, please?"he asked as he walked besides me.
"I don't think you'll take no as an answer."I joked as I laughed.
"I was not but its polite to ask otherwise it would look like I'm following you."he muttered as he laughed nervously which made me laugh too before I shrugged and walked with him.
"How have you been? Lemme get that for you."he asked as he gave me a comforting smile before he took my duffle bag which made me sigh heavily.
"Damn, it's crazy how that becomes a loading question as you grow."I admitted as I crossed my arms and looked down at my feet.
"I've got all day."he started as he shrugged his shoulders and looked down at me before he pushed a door open for me.
"Thank you, I just learnt that my parents aren't my parents."I replied as I walked into the building and waited for him to come in too which he eventually did as he looked down at me with confusion.
"So you are adopted?"he asked in confusion which made me laugh at his confused expression.
"Yes and No? I would rather say stolen."I explained which made him widen his eyes in shock before looking down at me in disbelief.
"Okay should I be worried why you are telling me this nonchalantly?"he asked as he scratched the back of his ear with concern.
"I guess it is because I have not let it sink in yet? I don't want to believe someone I met a few months ago."I replied which made him nod his head slowly.
"Damn, that is crazy. I still have questions but I am not going to ask because I am sure you want to ask the same questions."he replied whilst chuckling making me laugh to as we approached my dorm room.
"I will catch up with you later?"he asked as he looked up at my dorm.
"Wait, I still have your Jersey. Take it otherwise I will never bring it back."I muttered as I opened my door to see both my parents sitting on my bed.
"Baby."my mom started which made me shut my door immediately.
"No, no, no."I muttered under my breathe as I held my door handle.
"Your parents?"Quincy asked as he looked down at me and I just nodded in response as I felt my heart thumping against my chest rapidly.
"I need Damon."I muttered as I made my way to his dorm I knocked a couple of times and I did not get a response which made me sigh heavily and I grabbed my phone and texted him.
my parents are here and I don't want to face them alone.
I stood there with my phone for a while waiting for his response and I was just left on delivered.
"I could come with you if you want?"Quincy pitched in with a comforting smile.
"Please?"I pleaded as I looked up at her with a visible shaken look which made him hold my hand and walk me back to my dorm.
Once I opened the dorm and I saw my parents still sitting there which made me look up at them.
"Good morning."Quincy politely greeted before he let go of my hand before he outstretched his hand to shake both my parents hand but my mom just glared at him.
"Your boyfriend?"my dad asked as he looked at Quincy with a small smile.
"Is this why you are both here?"I asked as I looked up at them with a frown.
"Of course not, we just wanted to check up on you."My mom simply said as she took both my hands and held them tightly.
"I'm tired."I responded whilst shrugging my shoulders.
"Baby, you always tell me what's wrong."my mom pleaded as she kissed my hands.
"That was before I found out that you lied to me for years. You couldn't just tell me? I wouldn't have minded if you just told me. Mom or should I say Miss Diane? I don't even know what I can trust or believe you with anymore."I explained as I aggressively pulled my hands out of her grasp.
"Don't call me Miss Diane, I'm mommy baby."She sobbed as she stepped closer to me but I simply walked to my door and opened it wide enough for the both of them to leave.
"I don't know how you both expected me to react. I don't know my parents. Can we try this again tomorrow?"I asked as I tried not to cry and pointed to the door.
"Okay, yeah. If that works. I will pick you up tomorrow."My mom said as she placed a kiss on my cheek before she muttered a bye, my dad did the same before he left which made me close the door behind them.
"You did well."Quincy spoke which made me nod my head slowly as I felt my tears trickle down my face.
"It's okay to cry too."He added as he held out his arms which made me hug him tightly.
"Thank you so much."I muttered against his neck before I pulled away from the hug.
"Anytime. I will leave you so you could have a breather. You coming to my game tomorrow?"he asked whilst chuckling as he walked backwards towards my door.
"Fine, I'll be there now go."I responded whilst giggling as I rolled my eyes at him as he opened the door and I saw Damon.
"Damon."I whispered as I looked at him in shock and I already knew what was going through his head.
"Hey man."Quincy greeted as he dabbed Damon up who surprisingly did as he nodded his head at him.
"What's up."Damon mattered as he looked at Quincy with a frown.
"See you tomorrow, Imani."Quincy said before he left which made Damon walk into my room.
"I came here as fast as I could but I see someone came here before me."he muttered as he pointed towards the door before he placed his laptop bag on the floor.
"It was just an impulse decision nothing deeper than that I promise."I responded as he wrapped his arms around my waist.
"Now kiss me."I commanded him with a smirk and in response he just pecked my lips a couple of times before he turned it into a make out session.
"Mmmh. No I see that you have your books and your laptop. Meaning you have work to do."I muttered against his lips before I pulled away from him fully.
"I can do the work after."Damon responded as he gently grabbed both my arms and made me wrap them around his neck once again.
"When is this due?"I asked as I gave him a small pout.
"Three days."
"You out of your damn mind. Work."I ordered as I joke as I sat on desk before I patted the chair next to me with a smile.
"You did this topic a while ago and I was hoping that you could help me."he said as he handed me the paper that had the assignment instructions.
"Oh, Nature versus Nuture."I stated before I continued to read the assignment.
"I kind of struggled with this because I don't really know since I don't know my biological parents and my mom's says that my dad handled the adoption so he can't really help me because he has Alzheimer."he explained which made me look up at him sympathetically before I pecked his cheek.
"I have an idea, this doesn't necessarily have to be about you but this says that you could do it in a mini-documentary piece so you can ask people a number of questions related to Nature versus Nuture."I suggested which made him nod his head slowly.
"That's a good idea."he said as he gave me a small smile before he wrote it down in his notebook.
"Maybe JR can help you."I suggested as I leaned my hand onto my hand as I looked up at Damon.
"I'll talk to him after we have breakfast, Nate tells me you don't eat and I haven't spoken to my baby in a while."he excitedly said before he placed his things into his bag.
"You spoke to me yesterday, Damon."I replied as I crossed my arms over my chest but he held out his hand for me to hold which made me giggle before I held his hand.
"Let's go then, Mr Sims."I beamed as he opened the door so we could leave and I made sure to close the door behind me before we made our way out.
"You have a game soon? I want to see you playing. I can't believe I haven't seen you play yet."I muttered as I took a sip of my smoothie as I looked up at Damon in disbelief.
"We do have in a few weeks it will be like a showcase for HBCU baseball excellence."he explained excitedly which made me nod my head slowly.
"It will be different to play without JR."he muttered which made me shake my head.
"He will be back trust me. When I was in high school I also tried to stop gymnastics but I didn't and here we are."I explained as I gave him a small smile he was about to respond before he looked down at his phone that lit up.
"Coach Marcus wants us to help set up for the Black Woman in Journalism summit. We all know why."he joked which made me nod my head.
"He wants professor Amara that's why. I'll come help too."I offered as I shook the smoothie container but once I felt that there was nothing inside I went to the nearest trash can and threw the container away.
"You seriously want to go help?"he asked as he threw his rubbish in the trash before he wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
"Anything that has to do with Black women empowerment, I'm there."I simply said as I held his hand that was around my shoulder.
We spoke to each other until we got to the tennis court and there were people there setting up already, when I spotted Simone and Professor Amara I jogged to them.
"Good morning."I greeted as I hugged them both.
"Hey sweetie. Well done on getting gold last week, I saw everything."Professor Amara said as she gave me a wink.
"Thank you so much, Professor Amara. I heard about the Black Women in Journalism and I had to come help."I explained as I gave her a small smile.
"Thank you so much sweetie. Much appreciated." She said but before she could say anything she was called out by someone which made her excuse herself before she went to whereever they were calling her which just left Simone and I.
"You ready for your match?"I asked as I gave her a small smile.
"Ready? I'm nervous. Thea says the girl I'm going up against is very tough."Simone nervously said as she held onto her tennis bag tightly.
"You're tough too. Nothing different."I simply stated which made her laugh before she shook her head.
"You're always so good at this pep talk."She said as she held my hand which made me hold onto hers tighter.
"You need it that's why. You're a good tennis player, Simone. I don't understand why you can't see it yourself. So go and play like the bad bitch you are girl. If you lose then we get up once again."I explained before I pulled her into a hug which made her hug me tightly nervously.
"Thank you, Imani. I'm sorry I couldn't see you competing. I'm definitely coming next time though."She said before she pulled away which made me wave her off.
"Don't worry about it, babe. Now go so you can warm up and get ready for your match. You got this."I replied as I hugged her tightly once again before we pulled away, she then nodded before she jog away.
"Hey girl let me help you with the chairs."I enthusiastically said to a girl I did not even know who was stacking up the chairs.
"Yeah, sure."She said as she walked me towards the stack of chairs.
After we had set up the chairs I met up with Damon afterwards since he mentioned that he wanted to go see JR at the KEK house.
"I'll wait for you outside. Tell JR I said hi."I muttered before I pecked his lips a couple of times before I gestured for him to go into the busy house.
I grabbed my phone from my pocket and realised that I had a couple of missed calls from my mom and an unknown number.
Which made me sigh heavily as I decided to call my mom back.
"Didn't we say we would talk tomorrow?"I asked as soon as she picked up the phone.
"I know sweetie but I just wanted to check on you."She muttered which made me feel bad before I sighed and nodded my head.
"I'm good, how are you?"I asked in return as I have walked away from the commotion that was coming from the house.
"Good now that I'm talking to you. I was worried. I love you baby."My mom responded which made me sigh heavily as I looked up at the sky.
"I love you too. I'll see you tomorrow."I responded quickly before I hung up the phone.
"When my father passed away, he passed away knowing that I hated him because we did nothing but fight." I looked up at the strange man and gave him a small smile.
"I'm sorry about that."I responded before I placed my phone back into my pocket, he held out his hand which made me hesitantly shake his hand.
"I'm Coach Shaw. You must be Damon's girl. The gymnastics girl."he stated with a smirk which made me nod my head before I pulled my hand out of his grasp.
"Yeah."I simply responded once I heard his name and he was not liked by a lot of people around here which made me want to stop talking to him.
"I was telling you about my dad because I want you to forgive your mom. She's trying very hard."he continued which made me nod my head.
"Thank you, I'll take your words into consideration."I politely said as I gave him a small smile.
"Baby, we can go."Damon said as he glared at Coach Shaw before he held my hand and pulled me so we could walked away from the area together.
"What did JR say?"I asked trying to ignore the strange encounter.
"He just yelled at me and told me to chill since we don't know if we're brothers yet."he explained in anger which made me stop him in his tracks.
"He will come around. In the mean time you can interview me."I offered as I pecked his lips which made him smile before he nodded.
"Let's go get the camera from the office so we could film you."I said as I walked ahead of him.
"You would swear that this is your assignment."he joked as he caught up to me.
"What's mine is yours, Damon."I joked whilst made laughing in which he nodded his head in response before he wrapped his arm around my shoulder before kissing my temple.
Once we got to his room I helped Damon set up his camera and he was trying to clean up his room so he could have a neater set up. I stood in front of the camera as began to set it up.
"There we go."I muttered as I set it up in a way that it is in line with where Damon wanted the camera to be.
"Baby, you okay?"he suddenly asked which made me look up at him immediately with confusion.
"Yeah, yeah. You?" I asked as I gave him a small smile.
"Of course I'm good but I don't know you only ever work this hard on something when you want to distract yourself. What's going on, baby?"he asked as he strolled towards me before he kissed my forehead.
"I am good, Damon. I promise."I replied looking up at him.
"Okay then, you want to get your interview started?"he asked as he looked over at his notebook to see if he had questions for me.
"Sure."I replied as I sat on the chair opposite the camera.
"Okay, Nature versus Nurture? Which one would you say helped you become the person you are now?"he asked which made me sit there for a while before I decided to respond.
"For the longest time I thought nature was more of what helped me developed and become the person I am but as I have grown up I have realised that it was actually nurture because of what I experienced in life and what I learnt about myself, how I learnt about myself has really taught me how to navigate life. Nurture is definitely is what helped me become the person I am today."I exolained which made him nod his head before he stopped recording.
"Great, baby now I just need to look for everyone else."he replied as he looked down at his notebook.
"I'll come back after you're done, alright?"I answered before I placed my thumb and index on his face and gently made him look up at me.
"Make sure you take breaks."I muttered before I pecked his lips a couple of times and the last peck he made sure to make it smooth but yet the longest.
"I will."he replied as he directly looked at me with a small smirk.
"What?"I asked as I gave him a shy smile.
"Nothing baby. Nothing. I love you."he said not breaking the intense eye contact.
"I love you too."I muttered back before I let go of his chin and left his dorm room.
As I made my way to the café before my phone vibrated in my pocket which made me grab it and look at the caller ID to see that JR was calling me.
"Hey, hey."I greeted as I stood at the queue to order a small snack.
"You busy?"he asked in a sad tone.
"What do you need?"I asked as I stepped forwards in the queue.
"Just to talk."he muttered which made me nod my head before I stepped up to the counter.
"You want anything from the cafe?"I asked before I ordered a chocolate bar.
"Uh? Water?"he asked which made me nod my head.
"Okay, I'll be there in a little while."I muttered before I said bye before I ordered everything I needed before I made my way to the KEK House.
"Hey, Mani."One of JR's friends greeted as I walked into the house.
"Hey, how are you?"I asked politely as I watched them pack up after the event.
"Good, JR is at the back."he said which made me thank him before I went to the back.
"You called."I said as I watched him look up and I tossed his bottle at him before I say on the camp chair next to him.
"Haven't seen you in forever."he muttered before he thanked me and began to drink his water.
"You didn't call me here to say you haven't seen me forever, what's going on?"I asked as I gave him a small smile.
"I regret quitting baseball."he admitted which made me nod my head for him to continue.
"Everyone was even saying that I seem miserable without baseball. I don't even know if my team will accept me. I was their captain and I abandoned them because of my irrational decision."he explained as he looked up at me.
"You do seem miserable."I admitted which made him playfully glare at me.
"Okay, okay. Your team will accept you but I feel like your coach will make it hard for you to come back since you just left with no explanation. If you are as raw as you are with me about what was going on then you can be vulnerable for a few minutes just to tell them what happened."I explained as I gave him a small smile which made him nod his head slowly.
"You have to fight for your spot if you really want it back."I continued as gently punched his shoulder with a small smile.
"Damn. I see why you're doing psychology."he joked which made me laugh before I nodded my head.
"That and I want to use reverse psychology on people, especially your best friend."I added which made him sigh heavily.
"You're too hard on him, JR."I spoke as I gave him a small frown.
"I know, the DNA results are really stressing me out."he said which made me nod my head slowly.
"I get that but he is just as nervous as you. You need to speak to him."I jokingly insisted as I got up and held put my hand so I could help him off his chair.
When I pulled him I pulled him a bit to close to my body which made us look at each other awkwardly and he leaned in for a kiss but I turned my head and moved away from him.
"Imani I'm so--"
"Don't worry. Let's go."