Excuse any mistakes or grammatical errors.
Raquel
"Could you please stop looking like that? You're making me feel bad."
I was in a pissy mood because Sloan the creep decided she was ready for Malaya to come back to work today. She got a text yesterday and I've been in my feelings since then. Malaya tried to explain to me that she and Sloan had a deal. Sloan wasn't going to call Malaya back in to work until she "got over her", but I know first hand how wanting Malaya feels. You don't get over that shit. I know Sloan is full of shit, but Malaya doesn't seem to think so.
"Then stop looking at me." I said rolling my eyes. I admit, I was being childish, but so what? Malaya was being naive. There's no way Sloan was done messing with her. This was all part of her plan to steal Malaya away from me.
"How am I supposed to do that? You're way too beautiful not to look at." Malaya said making me scoff.
"Leave being corny to me okay? It doesn't work for you." I said making Malaya chuckle.
"That was mean, but I'll let it slide since you're all pissy. I promise you that you have nothing to worry about. Even if Sloan isn't done messing with me, I don't want her. I'm in love with you and that will never change. Millenniums, Raquel. Remember that."
Malaya kissed my cheek after saying that and it made me want to smile, but I didn't. Nope. I'm still mad.
"I'll see you later." Malaya sighed. "Don't sit in the house all day and pout. I know you don't have classes today, but if you just sit around you're going to think too much and I don't want to come home to you still being mad at me."
"I'm not mad at you." I huffed. "I'm mad at the situation you're putting yourself in."
"Okay, well I'm just gonna go because I know we're both sick of having the same argument."
Malaya grabbed her bag and came back over to me.
"You gonna dodge my kiss this time?" She asked bending down so our faces were only inches apart.
"Not if you kiss my ass." I said in response to her little jab.
"Turn around and bend over. I'd be glad to." She spoke with a smirk on her face and I shook my head before kissing her lips.
"Get out of my house." I joked.
"It's our house and if I remember correctly I asked you to move in, so if anyone's getting out, it's gonna be you." Malaya countered.
"Not until lease do up part, babygirl. My name's on it too, so now what?" I asked and Malaya smiled.
"You're stuck with me. That's what." She said sticking her tongue out like a child.
"I'm totally okay with that." I shrugged.
"Duh because you're so unhealthy in love with me. It's like you're obsessed or something." Malaya feigned disgust.
"Says the girl that won't even let me use the bathroom alone."
"I don't like talking to you through the door." Malaya pouted and I almost forgot that I was supposed to be angry at the moment.
"Don't be late to work. I don't want your creepy ass boss to have any reason to bother you." I spoke seriously.
"Fine, but please don't sit around the house. And if you do, don't sit around overthinking everything."
Malaya gave me another kiss before actually leaving and I instantly got sad when she left.
Yeah, I definitely can't stay in the house today.
Malaya
I didn't know what to expect going into work today. Hopefully things will be different, but I knew better than to get my hopes up.
I opened the door to Sloan's office and she looked up at me with a blank expression.
"Uh, Hey Sloan."'I spoke awkwardly and she frowned.
"Please call me Ms. Carter." She said and I mentally rolled my eyes.
"Sorry. Good Morning, Ms. Carter." I corrected and she nodded her head.
"You have a lot to catch up on so I suggest you get to work. Everything is ready for you in your work area." She dismissed me and I walked to my cubby.
I don't understand why she had to be so rude, but I guess it's better than her flirting with me.
The stack of papers on my desk was ridiculous. Sloan left out this part of the deal. I didn't know she'd let two weeks of paper work pile up. No wonder she still paid me.
It seemed like it was ages before my lunch break came, but when it did, I all but rushed to the break room.
Raquel cooked last night, so I just brought left overs.
I sat and ate my food in silence until one of my coworkers came into the break room.
"Hey, Malaya." Celeste, one of my coworkers, greeted me.
I didn't really interact with any of my coworkers unless I ran into them in here. I didn't really have a reason to. It just so happens that Celeste and I take our lunch break at the same time.
"Hey, Celeste." I greeted her as she joined me at the table.
"I haven't seen you in a while. I thought you got fired honestly." Celeste said making me laugh.
"No, I got pretty sick and had to leave early one day. It just got worse as the days went by, so Sloan gave me time off to get better. She didn't want me giving her whatever I had." I lied.
"Sloan?" Celeste furrowed her eyebrows.
"Dr. Carter." I corrected myself.
"Oh. Damn girl, you're on a first name basis with her? Her last assistant spoke about her like she was the meanest person on earth, but she seems to like you."
She likes me alright.
"Yeah she's pretty cool." I shrugged.
"Lucky."
Celeste and I talked for the rest of our break and then I headed back to Sloan's office. I was almost through a whole work day and Sloan hadn't so much as looked at me in a way that was inappropriate. I told Raquel she had nothing to worry about.
"Malaya." Sloan spoke just as I walked into her office.
"Ma'am?" I answered and she handed me a flyer.
"There's a mental heath awareness conference in Washington DC in two weeks and we'll be attending it. Some other doctors in the office will be coming as well."
"Wait. We as in who?" I asked and Sloan looked at me like I was dumb.
"We as in, you, some other doctors from this office, whoever they bring, and myself." Sloan said and I frowned.
"Why am I going? I'm not a doctor." I said and Sloan chuckled.
"But you aspire to be. I thought this would be a good experience for you. You'd get to meet other psychologists and hear them speak on issues that you care about. I thought you'd be happy to go." Sloan frowned.
"Is this a trick? There has to be some hidden agenda on your part." I said wanting to know what Sloan was up to.
"I have no hidden agenda. We'll leave in two weeks on Thursday and come back on Sunday. You can get back to work now. We'll speak more about this at a later date." She said dismissing me, but I had more questions.
"Ms. Carter-"
"I'm not discussing this any further. I think I've proven that I can behave myself around you now, so just stop. I'm not going to try anything. This event is really important to me."
I could tell from Sloan's tone that our conversation was over.
I just did as Sloan said and got back to work. No need in pissing her off.
Raquel
Since I didn't want to be at home all day, I went to campus. I texted Raya ahead of time and asked if she needed help with anything and she said she did. She was getting the gear ready to give out to the team. This included, game shoes, workout shoes, book bags, travel bags, travel suits, socks, work out clothes, practice uniforms, and note books. That was one of the perks of being a college athlete. You get so much free gear.
Raya just wanted me to make sure that all the gear was going to the right people. She wanted to double check the sizes and everything.
I still to this day don't understand why Raya doesn't have an assistant coach. We have students that help set up for games and help get us water and stuff at games, but Raya does everything else by herself. I honestly think she drowns herself in her work because she's lonely.
When I got to Raya's office I was surprised to see Gage there. I hadn't seen her since the day we all hung out together.
"Oh Raquel, come on in." Raya said since I was just standing awkwardly in the doorway.
"Well, I need to get going. I'll see you at home, baby." Gage placed a kiss on Raya's lips and then made her way out of the office.
"Nice seeing you again, Raquel." She smiled at me as she walked past me.
"Same." I mumbled, watching her leave and then I turned back to Raya and she was blushing hard as hell.
"When did that happen?" I asked shocked as hell. "I want all the details." I said sitting down and Raya buried her face in her hands.
"A while ago and it's a long story. One I don't feel like explaining." Raya said shutting my nosy ass down.
"Fine." I huffed. "Can I just say that you two make a bomb ass couple. I better be invited to the wedding."
Raya chuckled as she handed me a piece of paper.
"This is the list with everyone's sizes. Everything is already labeled and put together. Just make sure everyone has the right stuff." Raya instructed. "And If there's a wedding at some point in the future. You'll be invited. But I expect an invitation to yours as well."
"I know for sure that there's gonna be a wedding, so you're definitely invited. Make sure you bring Ebony and Nevaeh along too."
"Of course. They'd crash it otherwise."
-
Once I'd finished helping Raya I left out of her office. I saw Jayla and Parker working on drills by themselves.
I went back into Raya's office and she furrowed her eyebrows at me.
"Did you forget something?" She asked and I shook my head.
"No, but I thought their punishment was over. Did they get in trouble again?" I asked and Raya chuckled.
"No. They work on drills together almost everyday on their own. I honestly don't even know which one of them is starting now. They'll be interchangeable. So I'll base it solely off of their performance in practice. They've both improved from helping each other. I'm really proud of them." Raya smiled and I nodded my head.
"Well that's great. We'll finally get to see what Parker's actually capable of because she played so lazy the previous years. Defensively speaking." I said and coach shook her head.
"She doesn't know I know, but she got into a really bad car accident a while back and she still suffers from her injuries. She's obviously okay now, but some pain just never goes away." Coach said and I frowned.
"Why didn't she want you to know. Now I feel bad for talking about her being lazy." I frowned and Coach chuckled.
"That's exactly why. She doesn't want anyone feeling bad for her. Her parents told me her freshman year because they wanted me to make sure she didn't over work herself trying to prove a point. But she's really good when she isn't letting anything hold her back. Her defense now compared to what she usually did is like night and day. Jayla's a pretty good teacher. They work really well together. Too bad I can't have them on the floor at the same time."
"Neither of them can play the two?" I asked and coach straight faced me.
"Now you know Dani would flip out if I started making either of them work at the two position. She's been working her ass off too. That ankle injury really got to her head."
"It was actually a break up that made her go a little crazy for a while, but they're back together now, so she'll be fine."
"Are you sure? She limps off the court every practice. I know she's in pain, but I don't know if it's pride or what. I would sit her out, but when she's on the court, she plays like it's nothing wrong. I don't want to sit her out for no reason." Raya said and I frowned.
"She's just a sophomore. If she keeps playing on her ankle and something goes wrong, she could permanently damage it. Aren't you the one that kept me out of the gym after my ankle injury?" I asked.
"And aren't you the one that still had your ass in the gym when I specifically told you to rest? You know damn well if I tell Dani to sit out, she'll find another way to play. Besides, you know how she gets. If I sit her out, she'll shut down. I don't want her doing anything stupid and lashing out at the wrong people." Raya said and I was surprised that she even knew Dani that well.
"I get all that, but we're talking about her feelings versus her health. She'll lash out even more if she messes her ankle up permanently. Dani loves basketball, you think she wouldn't go crazy if she could never play again?" I asked and Raya sighed.
"I understand your concern, but Fuller is strong. She plays through pain and she knows her limits. I always keep a close eye on her and the trainer has been taking good care of her. She'll be fine. If I felt like she was really doing damage, I'd sit her out. You were the same way." Raya pointed out and I gave up on the conversation because she was right. Besides if Dani knew I in was in here talking to coach about her sitting out, she'd be mad as hell.
It's not that I want her to sit out. I just don't want her to get hurt. This team needs her and having her ruin her career due to her own failure to properly recover from her injury would be tragic.
But that's not really my call. I just care about her little stupid ass is all.
"You're right. But I'm gonna get going." I said preparing to leave Raya's office again.
"Okay, enjoy the rest of your day and don't be late to practice in the morning."
"I'm never late." I scoffed.
"True, but I'm a coach. It just felt appropriate to say."
"Understandable." I chuckled. "I'll see you in the morning."
"See ya."
And now to go home and wait for Malaya to get off of work.
Jayla
"I think you might have done yourself a disservice by helping me."
"Fuck you." I glared at Parker.
She was feeling herself because she finally beat me one on one.
"I let you win." I lied and Parker frowned.
"What? Really? Why would you do that? I thought I was actually getting better."
I instantly felt bad for breaking her spirits.
"I didn't let you win. You beat me, but stop bragging and shit. It's annoying." I groaned and she laughed.
"You're just a sore loser."
"You're a sore winner. That's worse. Humble yourself because I promise you, the next time we play, I'm gonna beat you." I spoke seriously.
"Fine. I'm sorry for bragging. I'm just happy to be improving so much. I feel unstoppable. I'd never felt like that before you started helping me."
"If you say thank you again, I'm gonna karate chop you in your throat. You've been helping me too you know?"
If you can't already tell. Parker and I have been spending a lot of time together. We already spend a lot of time together because of basketball, but we spend time together outside of basketball as well.
Aniya still spends a lot of time with AJ and I'm okay with that because Dani told me Niya never had any close friends before. We spend time together as well, so it's not that bad.
"I guess, but you're better than me at everything. That's like putting water on a dead flame. How am I even helping you?" Parker asked.
"Parker, you have to consider that you were never bad at anything. You just held back. Now that you're not holding back, you look like a completely different player. I'm not better than you at everything. Your knees affect a lot in basketball. It affects defense, your shot, running, jumping. Those are literally the main things in basketball not counting the mental. You've improved in all those areas. I bet coach is gonna have trouble choosing between us now. That's how good you are."
"Don't hit me, but thank you." Parker said putting a hand over her throat.
"I'll do it when you least expect it." I smiled and Parker's face fell.
"Don't hit me, Jayla. You're always threatening me." Parker whined and I laughed because that was true.
That was the only way to get her to listen sometimes. It's not like I'd ever actually hit her again. I'm counting the time I punched her in the face. I still don't feel bad for that.
"You know I won't actually do it, so stop whining." I said throwing my arm over her shoulder as we walked to my car.
Parker didn't say anything else as we walked to my car and once I got there I opened her door for her and waited for her to get in before closing it like I usually did. I was just being polite. I always tried doing it for Nadia when we were together, but she hated it and Aniya doesn't like it either. Then again, she swears she's Daddy so. You know how that goes. She sort of is Daddy though. We both are at times. Fuck. She better not be busy.
I got into the car and Parker looked over at me before looking away. She always does this, so I paid no mind to it.
"You got any other plans for today?" She asked once I pulled out of the gym parking lot.
"I hope so. I'm gonna go see what Aniya's doing after I shower." I said glancing over at Parker and I could see the disappointment on her face.
"Stop pouting. You know I can't spend all of my time with you. I barely spend time with Niya as it is." I said and Parker sighed.
"I know. And I'm not pouting. I always look like this."
"Well you look ugly, so stop." I joked and Parker raised her eye brows.
"You're a damn lie." She said giving me a pointed look.
Like I said before, Parker is really pretty. She's fine, bad, whatever you want to call her. She was right. Calling her ugly is a damn lie.
"Maybe so, but no matter how good you look, you're gonna be lonely tonight." I teased and she went back to pouting.
"Hurry up and drop me off, bitch."
"With pleasure." I said pulling up in front of the apartments.
I parked my car and got out. I went to Parker's side and opened her door and she got out of the car still pouting like a child.
"Fix your face man. You can't seriously be salty because I'm trying to spend time with my girlfriend." I chuckled and Parker rolled her eyes.
"Don't say it like that. You're making it seem like I'm jealous or something. I have no issue with you spending time with your girlfriend. You're supposed to spend time with her. I'm just gonna be bored." She sighed.
"Why won't you stop being so antisocial and make some other friends? You really want to spend your senior year with a little sophomore?" I asked jokingly.
"You're not some little sophomore. I honestly forget you're a sophomore sometimes. And yes I do. You're the only person I'll really get along with. Everyone thinks I'm stuck up or mean."
"Well, you give off that vibe. I had to be forced to be around you to see you differently. How do you expect other people to see you differently if you don't put in any effort? You seem unapproachable, so you have to initiate social contact with other human beings that are not me. Otherwise you'll be lonely and bored all the time. Unless I'm free of course."
Parker just rolled her eyes before walking past me and towards her apartment.
"You're only pissy because you know I'm right." I called after her and she stuck up her middle finger without turning around.
I chuckled to myself before closing the passenger door and going back to mine. She'll be aight.
I went to the dorms and headed to my room. Of course Dani wasn't there. She and Nadia have been attached at the hip just like they were during the summer. I'm glad though. Dani's actually happy and I'd rather her be annoyingly happy than heartbroken.
I showered and threw on some jogger shorts, a white wife beater and some Nike slides before heading to Aniya's room. I knocked on the door and waited for someone to come to it. Eventually Aniya came to the door looking like she'd just woken up.
"Aw, I woke you up." I frowned and Aniya straight faced me.
"No shit sexy." She said and I laughed.
"It's no shit Sherlock." I corrected her and she rolled her eyes.
"I obviously know that, but you look sexy. What did I tell you about walking around like that?" She said looking me up and down.
"I'm in a wife beater and shorts. What do you want me to do?" I asked and she just stepped aside, so I could come into her room.
"Right now I want you to let me go back to sleep." She spoke through a yawn and I smiled because she looked all cute and sleepy.
"Fine." I said acting like I was going to leave, and Aniya grabbed me.
"Nooo baby, I want you to stay while I sleep. You know. Hold me and all that cute shit. If you leave, I'll beat your ass." She said going from cute to threatening in seconds.
"Calm your violent ass down." I said turning around and lifting Aniya up. She wrapped her legs around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder.
"You're such a baby." I said walking her to her bed.
"And you're such a daddy." She said once I sat her down on her bed. She scooted into her bed and got under the covers and I joined her. I pulled her into my arms and she cuddled up to me with her eyes closed.
"I know I am." I said kissing her forehead. I just lied there as Aniya's breathing slowed down. She fell asleep pretty fast and it wasn't long before I got sleepy too.
-
I felt lips on my neck, my jaw, and then my lips. I opened my eyes and Aniya was straddling me.
"I'm sorry for waking you up, but I was bored." She smiled down at me and I closed my eyes again. "Baby, wake up."
Aniya shook me and I groaned.
"Leave me alone. You're the one that wanted to sleep." I argued.
"That was six hours ago." She pointed out and I shrugged.
"Let me sleep then. I let you sleep."
"Fine. And to think I cancelled my plans with AJ so we could spend time together." Aniya got off of me and I reluctantly opened my eyes. She had her phone in her hands and I frowned.
"Who are you texting?" I asked sitting up and she just ignored me.
I got up from the bed and snatched Aniya's phone away from her and put it behind my back.
"Stop playing with me. Go back to sleep." She said trying to get her phone, but I kept it out of her reach.
"Nah, you wanted me to get up and now I'm up. You better not had been texting AJ. Just because I'm sleep doesn't mean you leave. I stayed while you slept." I pointed out.
"You slept too!" Aniya argued and I took her phone from behind my back and turned around so I could read whatever she was texting.
She just texted AJ that I wouldn't wake up so she could hangout with her tonight.
"Hmm." I said handing her her phone back and she snatched it out of my hand.
"Don't snatch my shit from me like that anymore. I don't do that to you." Aniya said sitting her phone on her night stand.
"I'm up now, so text her and tell her you can't hangout." I said picking up Aniya's phone and trying to give it to her.
"No fuck that. You got me tight." She said refusing to take the phone.
"Fine then I'll text her." I said doing just that. I sat Aniya's phone down when I was done and she was giving me the meanest look ever.
"I want to hit you so bad right now, but last time I did that I couldn't kiss you for weeks."
"You hit me if you want to. I'm gonna beat your ass. I didn't last time because your dumbass punched a wall and broke your hand. It wouldn't have been fair for me to knock your ass out like that." I chuckled and Aniya scoffed.
"Jayla, I'll beat the fuck out of you. Stop playing. I hit you once and had your shit leaking."
"Yeah, I'm just gonna go because you're just talking shit now. You really think you'll beat me up? I don't get beat up. I beat bitches up and if you weren't my girl I would show you." I said making Aniya laugh.
"Jayla, that's cute and all, but let's stop before we end up fighting for real. Us fighting leads to us not being able to do freaky stuff and I like doing freaky stuff with you."
"True." I nodded my head in agreement. "But on a completely serious note, if you want to hang out with AJ, I'm cool with it."
"Are you sure? Just a while ago you told me you felt like I wasn't making enough time for you." Aniya pointed out.
"We live together. When we're at school, it's not really fair for me to try to take up all of your time. I can see that you and AJ are pretty close, so I'm really cool with you hanging with her. It's not like we had any actual plans anyway." I shrugged.
"You're being oddly cool about this. So what are you gonna do for the rest of the day?" Aniya asked with her eyes narrowed.
"Parker asked me to-"
"So that's why you're trying to pass me off to AJ." Aniya cut me off and I frowned.
"What? I'm not trying to pass you off to anyone. You obviously want to hangout with her, so I'm not going to keep you from doing so, but I'm also not gonna sit around and be bored while you two hangout." I scoffed.
"Then let's hangout. You're up now."
I honestly didn't see what the big deal was. Aniya obviously wanted to hang with AJ. It's not like we had anything to do. We were either gonna sleep, fuck, or fight like we're doing now. That's all our relationship has been lately.
"I honestly don't want to." I said feeling like shit at the look that came across Aniya's face when I said that. "I didn't mean-"
"That's fine." She interrupted me, putting on a pretty convincing smile. She grabbed her phone off of the night stand and started texting AJ, I'm assuming.
"Niya, that came out wrong. It's just that-"
"You're still here?" She asked turning to me with her eyebrows furrowed.
"Aniya-"
"Stop trying to take back what you said. You said it the way you meant it and that's cool. Go hang out with parking ticket." Aniya said patting my cheek.
"You're being petty." I said straight facing Aniya and she smiled an evil smile at me.
"No, I'm being passive. If you want petty Aniya, I'll gladly retrieve her for you."
My girlfriend is crazy.
"I'm okay with passive Aniya." I said forcing a smile and Aniya patted my cheek again and said "Smart choice," before walking towards her closet.
"Bye Jayla." She said without turning around.
I just stood there staring at the back of Aniya's head for a while before I gave up completely and left. I fucked up.
*************
Oop. 👀
I wanted to go ahead and update because it's been a little while since I last updated. The next chapter will be more eventful. 😈
Any predictions? 🤔