Chapter 48
Blake’s diary.
"I’m not going" I snickered, scrolling on phone as DJ stood in front of me with his arms crossed.
"Blake- BLAKE" he snatched my phone out my hands leaving me to no other choice but to listen to his voice. "Okay you have my full attention: what itches you’re balls to tell me"
He rolled his eyes at me as Ryan and Mateo laughed in the back ground. “You told Jalisti you’d go out tonight”
"I know" I nodded, hoping he’d go away. "And-"
"And you gave her you’re word. Lets go"
Truth was, DJ has a crush on my deviled cousin, Jalisti and he promised her that I would keep my promise and go to the club like I said I would. But after a loss to the Atlanta hawks by 10 and having to play all of the fourth quarter, my rookie legs were exhausted.
"Ok- but I’m tired, I want to catch up on episodes of "30 rock" and plus Jalisti is a hustle. Imagine being with her at a club"
"Imagine her in a dress at the club" DJ whispered. I did my best impression of his eye roll.
"Blake common, you never see Jalisti. Ever. She’s family: you’ve got to see her"
I was tempted to tell DJ off but he can keep Jalisti accompanying and I can go somewhere.
"Sure" he sighed. "The hell"
"You won’t regret it" DJ replied.
Atlanta was cold especially in January. But the good thing about the cold was I got to wear more jackets and hoodies so people wouldn’t recognize me. Ever since my dunk over mozgov in November, I’ve been getting a lot more attention than I want. Sometimes I like it but in nights like this not so much but no ones stopped me yet and asked for a picture or autograph.
The cold seemed to be bothering my teammates more than me. Shivering and wining as we waited to get into club X and when we finally got in, everyone scattered except DJ.
"Where’s Jalisti??" Were the first words DJ said as we entered the club. Strobe lights, smoke, and a lot of pretty girls were inside the building but I wasn’t as excited as I thought I would.
DJ walked around as I followed behind. “My hands are cold” I mumbled but I couldn’t hear myself talk due to the loud music. “Where’s the bathroom?” I groaned.
"You always had the smallest bladder growing up" I turned around to see my childhood enemy and family, jalistis.
"Yeah well-" I falsely smiled and gave her a hug. Her tiny curls flopping me upside the head as her strong perfume drowned me.
"How you been?" She asked.
After growing up in Oklahoma together, Jalisti never asked me that question or ever hugged me unless it was Christmas. I couldn’t decide whether it was weird or sad that we never had a good relationship.
She laughed “good- great actually”
"Good good" I replied. I started rocking back and forward on my toes after a long awkward silence with Ke$ha "tik-tok" playing in the background. I guess I was feeling sad more than anything. 2 years since seeing each other and we can’t even communicate.
DJ walked up behind her and hugged her. Seemed like a better hug than ours. They chatted amongst themselves, leaving me out of their circle. I picked my phone out of my pocket and kept myself busy. Soon Jalisti left and DJs attention came back to me.
Jalisti came back shortly but was accompanied.
"Guys this is my friend Gia" Jalisti said and pointed to the short girl in a tight neon green dress.
"Hi" both DJ and I unison.
"What’s your name again?" DJ asked.
He nodded and smiled back.
"I’m thirsty" I called out, interrupting what DJ later called "they’re moment"
"So am I" Gia agrees and walks to the bar. She looked over her should "wanna come?"
I nodded and left DJ and Jalisti along as I followed Gia.
Once I got there Gia had already ordered and was waiting for me to order.
"Ummm-" I looked at her hopeless on what to order. She laughed "he’ll take a Bloody Mary if that’s okay with him"
"Yeah that’s fine" I could’ve ordered that myself but I froze.
Gia turned to me and smiled. “Blake right?”
She nodded “I’ve heard so much about you”
I chuckled and sat down “good or bad?”
I gave her a skeptical look “Jalisti’s told me a couple of stories”
"Really?" I sipped my blood Mary "what’s your favorite story about me?"
"The time you, Jalisti, and You’re brother Tyler?-"
"Taylor, were playing in jalistis backyard and you decided to jump off the trampoline and landed on a car toy and needed stitches" Gia said.
"Oh yeah- Jalisti never lived that down on me"
Gia giggled and sipped her drink “yeah because of you” she poked my hand and released a rush inside of me that afterwards made me look at her differently “she got grounded”
"Somehow my stupidity is always her fault. That’s why she hates me" I snickered.
"She doesn’t hate you" she chuckled.
"Really she doesn’t" Gia eyes were big and dark. And although I knew I was right that she hated me, Gia made me believe that she didn’t. "You shouldn’t think that way because she loves you even if you don’t believe it"
"No but I can tell. I mean, if she didn’t love you she wouldn’t have told me about how you made her the best homemade presents growing up or how you were the life of the party at Christmas. People don’t just say those things about people they hate"
"Yeah- I suppose I did make the best homemade gifts"
Gia laughed showing her bright white and her dimples. She also had a small nose piercing that looked really small but if you closely look at, it shines when she smiles.
Gia caught me starring at her and chuckled, awkwardly sipping more of her drink.
I looked away and saw a missing text alert.
I locked my screen and set my phone on the counter “no- no girlfriend. You?”
"Uh no I’m single" she nodded.
Ryan walks up and greets Gia than said to me “yo we have to go”
He turns to Gia “curfew” and points to his wrist watch.
Gia laughed “really still?”
"Coach rules" I responded.
"That sucks" Gia disappointedly said.
"Yeah but I had a really good time"
"Me too" I smiled and than she smiled.
The color of her eyes became beautiful even though they weren’t original they were with her smile and the nature she brought.
DJ pulled my arm and told me that we had to go.
Gia followed me out as I told her about Los Angeles and how beautiful it was. I felt as if she only looked at my lips and nodded as if she comprehended it.
We stood outside, near the entrance. I said goodbye to Gia and wished for her number.
She pulled out a pen but didn’t have paper.
"Uh here" I pulled out a napkin from my coat pocket. She chuckled and wrote her number on the napkin.
"Thanks" I said and gave her a hug. She came up to about my abdominal as she tried to wrap her arms around me. "Take care" she said.
I then went to Jalisti and DJ as they talked.
“Jalisti” I called out. She left DJ and came to me.
"Sorry we didn’t get to hang out much"
"It’s cool" she shrugged "I didn’t know you had a curfew but maybe next time"
"Yeah, defiantly" I hugged her for awhile and finally felt a little less resentment and maybe Gia was right. It’s all in my head.
"Bye Jalisti" she waved and I got into the cab and left with the rest of the guys.
I reached into my pocket and put Gia’s number into my phone.
"That’s some deep shit" Jalisti’s face remained the same: nothing. No emotion. Nothing.
I got the crazy idea to go to Jalisti’s house and pursued her to forgive Gia but Jalisti had no mercy. And maybe going with the story about how I met Gia wasn’t the best.
She constantly rolled her eyes and sighed as I told the story.
"What? You came here just to tell me about you’re once upon a time story with Gia? If so than just write a book about and don’t bother me" Jalisti rose to her feet and stomped to the kitchen.
"No I came her to tell you that she’s your best friend" I followed behind.
"Okay- first WAS and second , what does that story have to do with it?" She questioned.
"She helped me realize that you and I needed to be more of a family. Leave the shit behind and be a family. A best friend wouldn’t do that if they didn’t love them"
Jalisti had a soft expression and finally uncrossed her arms. A little of mercy showed.
"Look what she did wasn’t correct but it was a long long long time ago. I let go of it because if I didn’t, I would have had to let go of her. And that’s a more a sin"
"No one understands though" Jalisti said.
"I just can’t understand why she would keep it from me. Why would she not even tell me when it happened?"
"Just like you never told her you had a secret relationship with him?"
She stayed quiet, starring at the wall.
"Just think about it" I told her and kissed her forehead "thanks for introducing me to Gia"
The night was clear and you could clearly see the stars. As I walked out of Jalisti’s house I wanted to look behind me but the present was too clear to look back at the blurry past.
