Monday, March 24, 2019
6:15
Jalen's POV-
I began getting dressed for school and I was kinda in my bag. Usually Kennedy would call me when she was getting ready and we would basically help pick out each other's outfits and just talk about school stuff before we actually got there but she didn't call this morning. When I tried calling her it went straight to voicemail.
I really hope nothings wrong because this isn't like her.
"You're father and I are having a date night tonight so I'm going to need you to watch your sister. That means no leaving the house to hang out with Kennedy." My mom smirked.
"Ok mom." I chuckled. "You didn't say that she couldn't hang out here." I yelled as she walked out of my room.
I didn't even know what to wear today. Usually Kennedy helps me or tells me what to put on but now I'm just standing in my closet like a lost puppy.
I decided to just bum since it was Monday and I had practice today but it's not like I would actually be participating.
I put on a white shirt with black pants and all white forces. I threw my white Olive Rogers sweatshirt over my head and grabbed my backpack.
I made my way downstairs and sat at the table with my little sister as my mom was on the phone talking with SLAM. They want me to come out for the Summer Classic Vol. 2.
Vol. 1 was a movie and I got MVP so this time will definitely be a vibe. It's going to feel good linking with my boys again and playing with them. I haven't talked to Sharife, Dior, BJ, JuJu, Rj, Noah, or Cassius ever since the Combine and they'll most likely be at this event.
I talk to Josh almost ever other day. He's like my basketball bestfriend. He ain't touching me and Dejuane's bond but he's definitely top 3 of my bestfriends.
Y'all probably think I feel some type of way towards Sharife because of Kennedy but I really don't. He's still the bro he just needs to not overstep boundaries. Kennedy is mine now and I know how we coming about each other so I'm not worried about anything.
"Hey NeeNee." I said, to my little sister, Journee, as I began devouring the waffles my mom made me. "Mornin' " She chirped which made me smile. "Are you ready for your first day back?" My stepdad asked me.
"Yea but I don't want a bunch attention just because I was in a accident." I said, already knowing what today was most likely going to be like.
Most likely all the nigga were going to try to dickride and be on some buddy buddy type shit and all the females would be all on me trying to flirt and be on some groupie type time.
As of right now, a lot of people don't know about Kennedy and I being together and we're on the low but that doesn't mean I'm going to entertain these little girls and let them disrespect her by being all on me.
"Yea but soon you'll be back to JG4." My stepdad said making me nod.
"Sometimes I don't want to be JG4 I just wanna be Jalen." I mumbled, causing everything to stop.
"What are you trying to say? You don't want to play basketball anymore? You've worked too hard to stop now." My mom stated.
"No ma. That's not what I meant. All I'm saying is that I just want to be a normal kid sometimes. I can't do anything without it getting out to the media or without someone taking pictures. Literally, Kennedy and I were at Starbucks the other day and somehow a tea page had found a picture of us holding hands." I ranted.
"I love my fans and my supporters but sometimes I just want my privacy." I added, putting my plate in the sink.
"Well you gave that up a long time ago son. You have a bright future ahead of you and I promise it'll all pay off." My mom said, kissing my cheek and I nodded.
"Hmm I see." My stepdad said, nudging my shoulder and raising his eyebrows, "This is about Kennedy."
I smiled to myself and began thinking of the love of my life. Him bringing her up made me start worrying about her all over again.
She would've called by now.
"C'mon J, Kennedy seems great but you're the Jalen Green, ESPN's Number 1 player on the country. Do you really want to give that up for some girl?" My stepdad asked me.
"She's not just some girl pops. She's different. You were there when mom said she fought for me in the hospital right? Ok, I don't know any other girl that would do that for me, other than Gabriella, but still." I said, getting frustrated.
"When I'm with Kennedy I don't feel like 5 star Jalen Green. I feel like Jalen, just Jalen. A normal 17 year old."
I heard Dejuane blow the horn from outside and I sighed in relief. I was honestly getting annoyed from this conversation because nobody seemed to understand where I'm coming from.
"I gotta go, love y'all." I said, rushing out of the house.
I limped out of the house and made my way to Dejuane's moms car and hopped in the back seat. Gabriella, Kamden, Daylin, and Devin were already in the car so I assumed we had to drop the twins and Kamden off at their school.
Gabriella decided to finish her sophomore year since it was almost over and then begin home schooling herself. She didn't care about what the kids at school were saying about her being pregnant.
"Hey y'all." I greeted and they all spoke back. "Have yall heard from Kennedy?" I asked Gabriella and Kamden.
"Actually no. I was gonna ask you. Last night her mom came home but neither one of them were there this morning." Gabriella said.
"Gabri had to wake me up and everything but usually Kennedy makes sure I'm ready." Kamden chimed in.
"This is weird. I haven't heard from her all morning and when I called her last night she didn't answer." I said, starting to get even more worried than before.
Dejuane was extremely silent. Like he didn't even cough or make not one of his dumbass noises.
He never told me if he had found out anything but something is telling me he did. I glanced back at Kamden and then back at Dejuane and they had the same exact facial expressions.
They even look alike...
Weird as hell...
I decided to relax my mind and take a quick nap before we go to school. I just hoped that Kennedy was already at school or something.
When we arrived it's like all the attention was on me and Gabriella. Gabriella has told me about how she had a lot of attention now over these past two weeks I've been out of school and I understood why but it's still rude to just stare.
"Hey peasantsssss. Y'all staring harder than last Friday. Y'all wanna see the bump?" Dejuane spoke loudly.
He was purposely causing a scene to make everyone feel bad for staring at Gabriella and I thought it was so funny how everyone instantly started looking away and actually minding their business.
"Bitches." She mumbled.
"They annoying as hell." He said, pulling a bag of hot Cheetos from out of his pocket. "Nigga where did you— I don't even care." I said, shaking my head.
"No sign of Kennedy." Gabriella said and I felt her glare on me. "I will punch you in the neck." I said, not looking at her. I heard her laugh and rolled my eyes.
"Maybe she's in the main hallway." Dejaune said, looking extremely hard for her.
I nodded and began making my way to the main entrance but I was interrupted by a few cheerleaders.
"Hey JG." One girl said, batting her eyes.
Here we go...
"Are you ok?" She asked. "Yea I'm good." I said with no emotion at all.
"We heard about your accident and we wanted to give you a special welcome back." Another one of them said.
"Yea." The first girl added, touching all over my chest and stuff
"Nah I'm good ma." I said, taking her hands off of my shirt and going to walk around them but came face to face with Kenley.
"Baby are you ok?" She said, squeezing her arms around me. "Nigga what?" I asked, practically fighting her arms off of me.
"I heard about the car accident." She said and I mugged her. "Mhm who hasn't." I said.
"Why are you being like that?" She asked raising her voice. I looked around and saw attention attracting to us and I knew what she was doing.
"Stop tryna cause a scene. We not together and haven't been together for months now. Actually almost a year. You need to move on." I said raising my voice as well.
Two can play that game.
"Jalen..." she said, looking like she was about to cry.
"Why are you about to cry?" I asked pinching the brim of my nose.
"Don't cry in front of me because ima deadass laugh at ya ugly ass." Dejuane chimed in from behind me and I laughed to myself at his dumbass.
"I still love you."
I looked behind me at Dejuane and beside me at Gabriella and we all had the same facial expression. Seconds later we all started dying laughing. Dejuane began running around the quad laughing and everyone began laughing at him.
"NEXT CALLLERRRRR. NEXT CALLLERRRRRR. CUZ YEEN TALKING BOUT NOTHING BITCHHHH." We all heard him yell from the other side of the quad.
"Yea miss me with that bullshit." I said to Kenley as Dejuane made his way back to us. We eventually made it in the school after getting stopped by more people and Dejuane could not stop singing King's Dead.
"I took her to my penthouse and I freaked it." He sung, air humping Gabriella.
"Maybe you need to freak my sister and y'all would end up like us and we could have our kids at the same time and then they can grow up to be bestfriends." Dejuane ranted causing me and Gabriella to pause dead in our tracks.
"Your sister?" We both questioned.
"Haha I ain't tell y'all?" He asked, scratching his head. Gabriella and I exchanged looks and shook our heads.
"Well um...." he sighed looking around, "Ayo Ms.Mitchell! Why you drop my grade?" He yelled down the hall at one of our teachers.
"Gotta blast." He said, running down the hall towards her.
"I knew it." Gabriella said as we walked to our lockers. "Knew what?" I asked, playing dumb. To my knowledge, Gabriella knew nothing of Dejuane's suspicions of Kennedy being his sister.
"I saw him looking at her dad's picture all weekend and I've been to his house plenty of times to notice that picture on his mantle." She said.
"Plus I heard y'all talking in the theater." She added, doing her locker combination that was a little ways down from mine, Kennedy's, and Jaina's.
"Where the hell is she?" I asked myself, noticing that Kennedy wasn't at her locker.
"Maybe she's just running late." Gabriella said. I shrugged her off and began worrying even more than I already was.
Where is my baby....
•••
Omniscient
"Ok where the fuck is she? I haven't seen her all day and we have all classes together." Dejuane stressed as he sat down at the lunch table with Jalen, Gabriella, and Bronny.
"We haven't seen her either." Gabriella and Bronny said in unison as Jalen dialed her number once again.
Just like the last 37 times, it went straight to voicemail.
Worried wasn't even the word to describe the group of friends right now.
"This isn't like her." Gabriella said, sounding like she was about to cry.
Gabriella's pregnancy caused her to be extra emotional lately and one thing about Gabriella is that she rarely cries and gets upset like this. She is usually the strong, independent girl who doesn't drop a tear for anyone. But at times like this she couldn't hold back.
"I just hope she's ok." Bronny sighed. "It's Kennedy. She's the smartest one out of all of us. If anything did happen to her she would know what to do." Jalen said.
Jalen was being Jalen. He was trying to keep everyone's emotions calm and stop everyone from panicking by saying that, but deep down he was scared of the fact that she might be possibly in danger.
"That's it. If she doesn't show up or get back to any of us by tonight I'm putting in a missing person rep-" Gabriella was saying but she cut herself off once they all saw Kennedy slowly walk into the cafeteria.
She wore an all black outfit that consisted of black baggy sweatpants, a black and yellow Champion sweatshirt, and classic black and white high top vans. She didn't have any of her jewelry on and her hair was in a messy bun as her curls sprung out everywhere like she hadn't touched her hair at all.
Jalen actually liked the casual look on her and he was really feeling the messy bun but he knew this wasn't who Kennedy was and that it was something really wrong.
Kennedy walked through the cafeteria, catching everyone's attention as usual. Every gave her weird looks because of her outfit but they just shrugged it off and spoke anyway.
As everyone waved and smiled to her she smiled back but only her bestfriends noticed what was actually happening.
"Is it just me or—" Gabriella was saying but Bronny cut her off.
"She's faking her smiles."
"Why is she doing that? She doesn't do that. Why isn't she actually smiling?" Dejuane questioned.
Everyone looked at him and immediately saw the hurt in his eyes.
Dejuane's love for Kennedy elevated a million times once he found out the she was his sister. He knew that he had to play his big brother role a little harder now then before and the fact that his little sister is going through something right now and he doesn't know what it is or how he can help cheer her up.
Crazy thing is, he hasn't even told Kennedy that they were siblings yet....
Everyone knows except for her and Dejuane wanted to make sure that he was the one to tell her.
Kennedy eventually made it to the table and sat down in between Jalen and Bronny. She but her book bag down them rested her head on it with out saying a word to anyone.
"Hey...Kenn..." Bronny said, breaking the awkward silence. "Where ya been boo?" Gabriella asked, trying to make the situation less awkward but Kennedy didn't budge.
"Are you ok?"
When Kennedy heard Jalen ask her that question she felt the tears she had been holding back start to flood out of her eyes.
She looked up and everyone's heart broke at the sight of Kennedy's puffy bloodshot red eyes that watered second by second.
Kennedy was a mess and nobody knew what to do or how to go about it because they had never seen her like this. Kennedy was the happy, goofy, outgoing girl that everyone adored but right now she didn't portray any of those traits.
Nobody has ever seen Kennedy like this except for Bronny and that was when her father passed away. He was the only one who knew about her breakdowns and this was one of them.
She would lock herself away from all of her family and friends, underdress/ not care about her appearance, and pour her eyes out recklessly.
The bad thing about it was that she didn't like people worrying about her so she would bottle up her emotions and act like she was perfectly fine just how she did when she walked into the cafeteria.
"Gazebo." Kennedy said and they all shot up out of their seats and began walking to the gazebo.
You could literally feel the awkwardness in the air. Nobody knew what to say or what was going on so they just remained quiet.
Once they made it to the gazebo they sat down with Kennedy in between Jalen and Dejuane, Gabriella on the other side of Dejuane, and Bronny on the other side of Jalen.
Kennedy wiped a few of her fallen tears away and began explaining everything.
"So last night, my mom came home and said she needed to talk to me. I thought it was going to be about my punishment or something but I noticed how serious she looked." She started, "She was constantly coughing and I had always peeped how weak her body would seem and last night I found out why."
"She's sick. She has lung cancer and..." she paused.
"She's dying. It's nothing the doctors can do about it anymore. They no longer have it under control and now it too strong to fight."
"All this time of thinking she was on business trips when she was really checking herself in and out of hospitals. That's why I was late today and haven't been in touch with anyone. Right after our talk last night, she was in the kitchen and I was in the living room and all of a sudden I heard her coughing up blood. I rushed her to the hospital and we were there all night, that's actually where I'm coming from. They checked her in permanently and she's literally on her deathbed as we speak." Kennedy explained.
"My life is over." She muttered.
"No it's not Kenn. We'll get through this together. I promise." Jalen said, trying to comfort her.
"I lost my dad and now I'm about to lose her and they'll most likely put us in the system as orphans and we'll get separated again." Kennedy said.
"My family is broken and I don't know what to do. You're pregnant and you live with us. How are we gonna pay bills to keep the house? I'll be damned if you move back into that house with your mom. How am I supposed to care for my brother? Even though my mom has been in and out of our lives, she still played a major part in my life and everything I've learned or know has came from her. I haven't lived without her. I can't live without her." She said, completely breaking down.
Tears flooded down her face and she couldn't control them. Her face with red, her body was shaking, and her breath was shaky.
The Pack didn't know whether to give her her space and let her get all of this emotion out or try to comfort her and calm her down.
Dejuane took the initiative and pulled her into his arms. Kennedy snuggled into his chest and let it all out. He felt his sweatshirt dampen with her tears as she cried but he didn't care.
"Kenn you have to calm down. You're gonna get sick." Jalen said, rubbing her back.
Dejuane kissed her forehead and swayed her from side to side and she began to calm down.
"How am I gonna tell Kam? He's only lived with us for a short amount of time but that still his mom too. Why would she put that on me?" Kennedy questioned with her voice quivering.
"I think all three of you should have a talk. You can get all the closure you need but you're gonna have to stop crying and be a big girl or else it'll be too late." Gabriella said, sitting in between Jalen and Kennedy and holding her as well.
"I know Gabriella but I don't want him to see her like that. Especially with her being in that condition." Kennedy said, getting herself together.
"You have to let him see her. He should be able to talk to her at least one last time before she possibly goes away." Dejuane said.
"I'm going back to the hospital after school. Do you guys mind coming with us." Kennedy asked, drying her eyes.
"Of course Kenn." I said, rubbing her back.
"Come on. Lunch is almost over and you missed half of your classes so we could at least try to get you to this one on time." Gabriella sighed causing Kennedy to lightly giggle.
"You wanna go get ice cream? I know cookies and cream is your favorite and I think it would cheer you up." Dejuane said, causing all of Kennedy's attention to land on him.
She didn't say anything but hugged him tightly. She loved how hard he was trying to comfort her and cheer her up and he was what she needed right now.
"It's fine Juanny. Thank you for trying to cheer me up though. I love you bestie." She said as they swayed back and forth.
Dejuane closed his eyes and when he reopened them he saw Bronny, Gabriella, and Jalen smiling at them all hard.
"Let's go Pookie." Dejuane said.
Kennedy gave him a weird look because that's what her mom, her father, and herself called Kamden and sometimes herself.
"Yea lets go." She said, shrugging it off.
Dejuane and Gabriella went ahead and left the gazebo with Dejuane's arm draped around her and her small arm wrapped around him.
"We'll catch up. I gotta talk to Kennedy really quick" Bronny spoke up, as Jalen stood up to leave the gazebo.
Jalen looked between the two and saw the desperate look on Bronny's face, "Yea y'all should talk. It seems like you guys need to handle some things." Jalen said sending an understanding smile to them both.
"So what's up?" Kennedy asked scooting closet to him and pulling her knees up to her chin.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for treating you a certain way when you got here and then switching up a few days later. That's not me and you know it. I just got jealous and thought I was losing my bestfriend to Mikey and Jalen." Bronny said, getting right to it, "Hearing you call them bestie and seeing you spend all that time with them just didn't sit right with me and I shouldn't have taken it out on you."
"I forgive you B. I know that that wasn't my Bronny who switched up on me. We both know that our bond was too strong to break because we both got new friends." Kennedy chuckled.
"I love you Kenn."
"I love you too B." Kennedy said, leaning her head on his shoulder.
"And don't you ever say we're not friends again." Bronny said, causing Kennedy to laugh but she soon cut herself off.
She felt herself beginning to cry all over again.
"Hey, stop. We'll get through this. You still have all of us and Kamden. You even have Dejuane's siblings, Gabriella's siblings, Jalen's family, and my family. All of us are behind you and I promise we'll help with anything you or Kamden need." Bronny assured, tilting her head up to look at him.
They locked eyes as he wiped one of her tears away with his thumb. Bronny blinked and his eyes landed on her lips for a few seconds then he looked back up at her eyes.
The two began slowly leaning in as their faces were inches apart.
Just as their lips were about to connect, it started pouring raining and thundering.
"W-we should go..." Kennedy quivered, hopping up.
"Yea lets go..." Bronny said and the two ran off in the rain towards the school.
•••
Jalen's POV-
They're just bestfriends right? When I heard them say that they loved each other it sounded like they both meant it in a different type of way.
Yes I was standing around the corner but after they said that they loved each other I left them alone to have their privacy. It was obvious that they had to make up and put aside their childish problems for Kennedy's sake and I respect it.
I decided that I was just thinking too hard and that they're just really close. I shrugged it off and caught up with Dejuane and Gabriella.
I eventually made it to my next class which is gym and Bronny and Kennedy were also in that class. Dejuane and I were shooting around, well i was really limping around, when I heard a loud bang of thunder and knew that Kennedy and Bronny would walk through the doors anytime now because Kennedy hates storms, thunderstorms at that.
Like it was on cue, Bronny and Kennedy walked into the gym but the vibe was off. If I wasn't mistaken they just said they loved each other...
"Y'all good?" Dejuane questioned.
"Yea. We're cool now." Kennedy said, plastering a smiled on her face. I know Kennedy and I can tell if she's faking a smile and that's exactly what she's doing. I decided not to press her on it though, she already has a lot on her mind.
"2v2?" I asked them, "I got Kenn."
"Actually I'll just watch this time." She said. Kennedy never really passes up an opportunity to play ball. She's more competitive than all of us.
My baby is really broken...
...
"You ready to go?" I asked Kamden as he came out of his mother's hospital room. We all went in there earlier and she didn't look to good. Before she was a beautiful 42 year old who could pass as 25, now her skin was losing color, she was attached to a bunch of machines, and she had lost a lot of weight.
Seeing her like this kind of reminded me of when I got into my accident and I was in her place.
"Yea..." he whimpered.
"You ok?" Gabriella asked him.
"No Gabri. My mom has less than 3 days left on this earth and I'm just now finding out today. I just moved back in with them and I barely got to spend time with her. If I knew these next three days would be my last time seeing her and the only time I have left to spend with her I would've tried harder. When they sent me away I cried for my mom to keep me but Tevin insisted that I moved away and now because of him my mom has missed out on half of my life and I can't get that missed time back. I couldn't make any memories with her or nothing. She even missed my ring ceremony after I won us the championship, she missed when I got crowned homecoming king, she missed my first dance, she missed my first girlfriend, she missed everything except for my first steps and first words. It's not fair." Kamden stressed as tears constantly fell from his face.
"I'm going to take him to the car. My mom wants to talk to you guys." Kennedy said, grabbing Dejuane's keys from him.
Dejuane, Bronny, Gabriella, and I nodded and waited for them to walk off before we went into her mother's hospital.
"Hi my loves." Her mom said and we all smiled. We greeted her and then down in the chairs that were distributed around the room.
"So all of you must know that I'm running on my last few days of life. Which is why I'm going to need your help." Her mother started, "I'm Kennedy's mother. I know her way too well and when she walked in here and acted like she wasn't bothered by my condition or what the doctor was saying...I just knew it was killing her on the inside."
"Y'all need to be there for her. Now more than ever. I know her and when I pass she's going to lose it. Dejuane, you told me about her breakdown today but that was just the start. You're all going to see a side of Kennedy that you didn't know was in her. You need to stick with her and help her through this. She's going to need all of you, maybe even your parents. I'm her everything and she's going to hurt a lot. Just promise you'll comfort my babygirl and stick by her side." Her mom said, as a smile formed on her face.
"Of course ma..." We all said at the same time.
We all have her our possible last goodbyes then exited the hospital.
"Guys." Gabriella said, causing us to stop in the middle of the parking lot.
"I'm scared." Gabriella paused, "What do you think she meant when she said that we were going to see a different side of Kennedy?"
"I don't know but we need to be there for her. We all have our mother's and we of course we've all lost people but not like this, not a parent. We don't know how she feels but I know it hurts her." I said.
"We have to get everyone back on good terms." Bronny said and we all knew he was referring to the rest of the pack.
We all agreed and got into Dejuane's car. We saw Kamden asleep in Kennedy's arms and figured he cried himself to sleep. Kennedy's head was leaned against the window and her tears trickled down her face.
"You good mamas?" I asked, trying to cheer her up with that word. She didn't answer and continued to silently cry.
"I'm about to lose my mom Jalen..." she said as her voice cracked.
•••
This chapter was ver hard to right😭 I wanted it to show a lot of emotion and reveal some feelings(😅) and I wanted to capture how Kennedy felt and how much her mother's sickness is effecting her.
Opinions on Bronny and Kennedy?
Predictions (Lemme know what y'all think is going to happen)???
COMMENT//VOTE!!
-Taelan/Tae