After that day Jessica did nearly exactly what I thought she was going to do. She completely stopped talking to me. No, she completely ignored me. No. She completely shunned my existence.
I barely saw her in my own house and we lived together. I walk out my door and she goes back to her room. I see her in the kitchen, or any room, she just left. The only time I looked at her in her face or heard her talk was the thirty minutes at dinner. That was just because she had to. And she did not talk to me, but just my parents.
In school…well that's self explanatory.
The walk to school even stopped. For a week after that day she walked with Dashaun and I. Soon she began to walk earlier to school. Usually while I was in the shower. Dashaun wondered where she was. I just told him she joined a club that met before school, He believed me for a while. Suddenly, Dashaun stopped walking with me too. He said his mother began to take him. I found that odd. This continued for all of January and past February.
My best friend seemed to not have the time to hangout. All we did was play Xbox occasionally on the weekends Also in school we joked around. Other than that we did not see each other outside of school or practice. He just seemed distant for some reason. Like he was hiding something. Basketball was my safe haven. The team was good. We went undefeated for the season. Alvin lost in the playoffs first round. That was a shock. We did not have to play them. In the playoffs we won our three games and were in the sectional finals.
I soon discovered why my best friend had been avoiding me for basically a month. The day of the Sectional finals.
"Smith takes their last time out. Twenty seconds left in the game."
Here we were. In the section Finals in Rutgers New Brunswick, New Jersey. I've never been here before because of our loss to Alvin last year. This time it was our turn.
It was not looking good. We were down by 2 in the fourth. Twenty seconds left. Smith 75. Norwick 77.
It has been a struggle all game with them. They were really good. We pulled away in the second, but in the third they caught up. They then took the lead late in the third. They've led ever since. Our whole team was exhausted. Norwick were runners. They loved to run. We were struggling with the speed all game. We were fast too, but it felt like we were a step behind in the second half. We stayed in the game though. And here we were. A now or never situation.
"Alright boys. This is what we want." started Coach Jackson. "Big stage, back against the wall. These are the times that show us what we are made of. I got one question. Who are we?"
"BLACK DRAGONS!" the team responded.
"What we do?!"
"BURN BURN BURN! FIRE FIRE FIRE! WIN WIN WIN!"
"THEN GO DO IT!"
Dashaun in bounded me the ball. Those were just words. We had to execute this play.
"Revo! Revo!" I called.
This play was to get Adam the open shot. Personally, I think Dashaun is the better three point shooter, but Adam was going off this game with 38. Dashaun also was struggling a little from three and was 4-9 for the tonight. I was doing decent with 25 and 9 assists. I was not a three point shooter though. It was also Adam's last season. He wants to go out on his own terms.
The play started. Adam set a pick to the left on my guy. I went that way. Dashaun ran across to the left corner. I passed him the ball. 12 seconds.
He passed it into the paint to Dameek. Ricardo set a pick on my guy. 8 seconds.
I ran free and set a pick on the guy guarding Adam. He fought under which was what he wanted. Dameek threw the ball to Adam as he rolled past his defender. He was opened in the right corner. 4 seconds.
He shot the ball. In the movies this ball would be in slow motion as it fell. It bounced on the backboard and on the front rim. After that…
Norwick gets the rebound. That's the game folks. Norwick 77. Smith 75. Norwick is Section 8 Champions.
The Norwick fans exploded. Their players cheered and ran into the crowd. We were left on the floor devastated. We worked so hard to get here. Now we lost. We did not know how to take it.
"Bring it in guys." coach said. He was just as disappointed.
Adam was still sitting on the three line. I went to go pick him up.
"It's alright, man." I said as I lifted him.
"Yo." he said. "Win."
He never was good with words. One word. 'win' was all he said to me. I understood it well.
The bus ride was quiet going back home. Only a few players spoke. Adam was quiet the whole time. He really wanted this. I sat next to Dashaun. We were quiet too. We worked all off season for this game as well as for Alvin. We knew we probably could have done better.
Win. That's what I'm planning to do next year. I don't want to feel like this next year.
We arrived back at the school. The whole community met us there. As we pulled into the school the crowd started to cheer. I still felt bad for losing, but it was a nice welcome. I got off the bus. First thing I saw was my parents. I saw no sign of Jessica.
"Good game. Can't win them all." my dad said.
"It was the finals, Dad. Not some regular game." I told him.
"I know, but did you give it your all?"
"Of course. And my body hurts."
"You guys doing anything after?"
"I don't think so. I'll walk home though."
"Alright. We'll see you home then."
"My mom hugged me and they walked off to the car.
"Where's Jessica?" I called after them.
"She's somewhere around here." my mom said.
I went to go looking for Dashaun. I wanted to see what he wanted to do or if the team had something planned. I doubt it, but I kinda did not want to go home. I figured he was with his mother or something. I looked for a couple of minutes. I saw every member of the team except him. That was weird. Did he leave?
I gave up. I just decided to head to the locker room. As I went around to the doors that's where I saw him. Kissing some girl. Of course the person he was with was pretty damn obvious.
"How long were you expecting to wait before you said something?" I said to him while we headed home.
"I did not know a good time to say it." Dashaun said.
"You guys have been together for a damn month! Not once did you say 'hey, maybe I should tell my best friend'." I was a little pissed. He could have said something.
"Sorry, man I thought you did not want to hear about it. Jessica told me what happened between you two. I thought that was going to piss you off even more. She said not to say anything."
"Oh so you take orders from her now?"
"No need to be smart about it. I thought you would have figured it out honestly."
"I had my suspicion. Especially when you stopped walking with me to school. By the way, that was a real bro thing to do. But since you were my Best Friend I gave you the benefit of the doubt."
"What are you mad about? You had your chance with her."
"I'm not mad about that. It's the fact that you failed to tell me. I would not have cared, but that's some pretty big news to hold from your bro."
"I apologize. It was the wrong thing to do. Can we drop it."
"Fine. I'm happy for you though."
Everything calmed down. At least for a bit.
"She still liked me first." I said. I kept walking. He stopped.
"Why the hell you got to do that?" he said
"What?" I was confused.
"Put down or downgrade things I do?"
"I'm just speaking truth."
"I know that. You don't have to bring it up. Making it sound like you're better than me or something."
Dude, are you really doing this? You're acting like a female right now. God. I was joking, man."
"No you wasn't, Ray. I know you. You said that for a reason."
"Yeah. A joke. Haha."
"No. you're trying to say something. Say what you mean."
"Fine." I was trying to say something. He was right. He might not like what I'm going to say. "She's using you to make me jealous. Classic move. Date the best friend. That night, I saw that she did love me. She's not the type to just go to the next guy."
"I thought I was the cocky one." Dashaun said. "You're full of yourself."
"Believe what you want. I'm going home. Bye."
"Whatever, Ray. The next story I tell you is about us in bed. In full details."
I stopped. Should I respond to that? Obviously he was just talking because he was upset. I figured he thought the same thing.
I turned and looked at him. "Don't count on that." I responded.
"We already planned the date. Saturday, April 3rd."
"Birthday sex? Really, Dashaun." I laughed. "You love clichés. It's not happening."
"It's going to happen."
"Don't gas my son."
"Just get the hell out of here!" He yelled.
"That's what I was planning to do until you called me back with that nonsense." I turned and left.
Lost a game and a best friend over a girl. Great day.