Chapter Thirteen
GJ
Despite my last game being a good one, I went into practice cautious. I didn’t want to overestimate myself and believe that the season was really about to turn around, but it had felt really fucking good to feel like myself again. It was a feeling I wanted to hold onto.
It also didn’t hurt having my family around—or Leah—even just for a little bit.
As supportive as my family had always been, it was from a distance for most of the season.
Theo had always been my go-to whenever I needed someone to talk some sense into me or congratulate me on doing a good job.
I’d forgotten how good it felt to have someone who could be there for me immediately after a game and help take my mind off things.
My mom always talked about the importance of a village and community, and I was seeing that now.
Theo used to be basically my entire village at Lakeside Green, but I’d been forced to find something new to keep me going.
And the fact that Leah was part of that definitely didn’t hurt.
It’d taken every ounce of willpower I had not to bother her for the rest of the weekend.
Part of that was enjoying the limited amount of time I had with my family, but I also didn’t want it to feel too intense and too sudden.
It was a lot for her to have so suddenly and accidentally met my family, and it was new territory for me.
I didn’t know the exact protocol, but I couldn’t think of anything more mortifying than deciding immediately after meeting my family was the time to get clingy and weird with her.
Despite the good mood I was in—an extremely fragile one, but one either way—I could always count on Mags to ruin it in about half a second.
“What’s up your ass?” I asked as I opened my locker to drop my stuff off for practice.
She was sitting on the bench, her foot up so she could tie her shoe.
She rolled her eyes, and I could think of about a million things it might be—including her just feeling like being an asshole.
She liked to make it everyone’s problem when she was having a bad day.
“Good talk,” I said when she didn’t respond.
As we all went out to the practice court to stretch before practice, Nia walked over to me and sat down on the ground to work on her hamstrings. “Nice work at the last game, Mitchell.”
“Someone has to carry the rest of you to the finish line,” I joked.
“I’d ask if you’re feeling okay after that article, but it seems like you’re just fine.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she moved to stretch her other leg. “I’m sorry about that reporter, though. That was fucked up.”
“It’s alright. Someone’s always saying something.”
“That was profound.”
“Here for you if you need some philosophical guidance.”
Coach Darlene then walked out with the other coaching staff, their steps echoing through the gym.
“Alright, huddle up,” she said, waving us all in.
“We played a good game, but I don’t want to see you all getting cocky.
Our defense needs work, rebounds especially.
And I need to see more conversation on the court; there’s a lot of dancing around each other, and we can’t afford to make mistakes. ”
After getting a general overview from our coaches, we broke out into groups for passing drills. As I crossed the court, Mags shoulder checked me so hard that it knocked my body forward. Nia glanced over at me, and I shrugged. It was about what I’d expect from her.
We took our positions on the court for a criss-cross drill. Just to be an asshole, I stood across from Mags, knowing she’d hate having to be partners for this.
“Can anyone else do this, please?” Mags asked, rolling her eyes.
I bounced my basketball, unfazed. “You’re stuck with me, partner.”
“Whatever,” she muttered. She rolled her ball between her hands and bounced it a few times, looking down the line in Gemma’s direction. Gemma was too busy chatting with Anna to notice.
Our offensive coach blew the whistle, and we started. The drill wasn’t anything particularly complex—we stood in two lines facing each other, all of us with our own balls. I never minded the dribbling and passing exercises because it was something I’d always been good at as a point guard.
In unison, Mags and I bounced our individual basketballs twice and then tossed them to each other.
But Mags tossed the ball hard in my direction—really hard.
It was subtle enough that anyone watching would just assume Mags was super focused on the drill, but I knew better. She was clearly pissed at me.
“You good?” I asked, looking back toward her. She just scoffed and rolled her eyes. Even though this wasn’t new behavior for her, something about this felt different. Intentional.
It seemed like more than just being in a bad mood; it seemed like she might actually be mad at me. Realistically, that could be about anything since Mags was always on one—she didn’t like a decision I’d made during the game, she thought a joke I told was annoying.
But I had a gut feeling that I knew what it was about.
I wasn’t sure enough to say something, and there was always a chance I was just paranoid, but something told me that it had to be her sister. I’d played on the same team as Mags long enough to know her different attitudes, and this one was a new one.
But it didn’t make any sense why she’d know something—or even just think that she knew something.
I’d seen her and Gemma leave the arena after the last game, and Leah and I were intentional about not hanging out otherwise.
We were dumb, and I didn’t give a single fuck about Mags’s feelings, but we weren’t that dumb or that malicious to rub it in her face.
But I would just have to wait until someone said something, because I wasn’t about to accidentally expose myself if Mags was mad at me about something else.
We ran through the drill until the whistle blew again and we transitioned to shooting. As we broke out into different parts of the court depending on where we were assigned, I turned to Mags. “You got something to say?” I asked.
Mags turned to me, her blue eyes practically burning holes into me. “What are you talking about?”
“Your panties seem extra twisted up today. Just checking in. Captain shit.” It was a dick move to throw in the last part since I knew how badly Mags had wanted to be captain this year.
But if there was anyone else less equipped than me to be the team’s glue, it was her.
I was an asshole on the court, and Coach Darlene wanted to strangle me more often than not, but Mags was a difficult teammate to work with.
It was the kind of thing that was going to catch up with her later if she wasn’t careful.
Mags’s jaw tightened. My stomach knotted when I realized it seemed like she actually did want to say something to me and was just debating whether it was worth it to go there or not.
“I saw you guys. You and Leah. What the fuck is your problem, dude? You finally run out of random girls to fuck on campus, so now you have to go after my sister?” Mags snapped.
There it was. I was definitely playing with fire, engaging with her when she was this mad, but she also definitely didn’t know the full story. If she did, she would’ve thrown a punch by now. “What are you even on—”
“I saw you guys together after the game yesterday.”
I nearly scoffed at her. If she was that worked up over a simple conversation outside in a public setting, she’d be pissed to hear about what went on behind closed doors.
The opportunity to get smart with her was right there, but I wasn’t going to do it.
I liked Leah too much to risk throwing it away like this, all as a way of proving some kind of stupid point to Mags.
Unfortunately—inevitability—our scuffle was catching the attention of our teammates.
It wasn’t unusual for words to be exchanged—as much as we all cared about each other and were teammates, we were athletes first. There was a lot of ego involved in playing a team sport ,whether we wanted there to be or not, and it could get ugly sometimes, bad enough that it could fuck up the chemistry of the entire team on and off the court.
We were fortunate to usually keep our heads on straight enough to play well, but sometimes things got more heated than just some offhand smack talk.
“Mags, it’s fine. None of us would want GJ dating our sister, but she can be trusted to talk to women without it meaning anything,” Nia cut in.
“I’m a little offended by that, but thank you,” I said.
Gemma looked between Mags and me. “Maybe we should stick to focusing on practice.”
Mags still had a look in her eye like she was a dog ready to bite, but I could see her posture visibly relax in response to Gemma. If Mags didn’t realize she was into Gemma, she was even more of an idiot than I’d chalked her up to be, and that was saying something.
“Whatever.” Mags bounced her basketball and headed back to a different side of the court, away from me.
“Can you chill, please?” Nia asked me. “Do not disturb the wild animals, do not tap on the glass.”
I put my hands up defensively. “She started it.”
Nia looked at me for a beat, like she was sizing me up. “Right.”
I brushed off the look—Nia was a straight shooter, so if she really had something to say, she would just say it.
After running through practice and just barely managing to avoid bodily harm at the hands of Mags, I walked over to the army of water bottles on the floor and found mine.
“Mags is kind of on one today, no?” Anna asked and then took a sip of water. She dabbed sweat from her forehead using her shirt.
I was a little surprised Anna was initiating conversation with me, but I wasn’t in the mood to be a dickhead to her. I wasn’t so awful that I was going to brush off someone who’d saved my ass very publicly in front of a bunch of reporters. “She’s always on one.”
“Yeah, so I’ve gathered since transferring here.” She put her water bottle down. “Whatever is going on, I’m on your side.”
I nearly laughed. “Without even knowing what’s happening?”
Anna shrugged. “You’re a loudmouth, but you back up what you say.
I can appreciate that. Even if you were on the wrong side, you’d be loud and wrong.
It doesn’t even seem like you know what you did.
” She rolled out her shoulders. “And anyway, her sister is a grown ass woman. You guys can make your own mistakes.”
The one thing I really didn’t appreciate about Mags bringing everything with Leah up was that now everyone on the team was going to know Leah was on my radar.
And while I normally didn’t mind being associated with girls, the last thing I needed was for everyone to be on high alert if I was anywhere in Leah’s vicinity.
We’d gotten away with slipping away together at a party once, but that was definitely never happening again.
I didn’t want to tell Anna that I actually knew exactly what I did, and it was even worse than Mags was imagining. As far as my teammates and Mags were allowed to know, nothing was actually going on with Leah.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t agree with Anna that Leah was allowed to do her own thing.
Because she was right, Leah should be allowed to date whoever she wanted.
Or even just sleep with whoever she wanted.
My reputation had never been a secret, so it wasn’t like Leah wouldn’t know what she was getting herself into.
Now, if only Mags would just see it that way.
“I really didn’t want to like you,” I admitted.
Anna grinned. “Finally, some confirmation. I’ve been pretty sure since the first day we met at practice. Feels good to finally have you say you’ve had beef.”
I fought off a smile. “Don’t get too soft on me now.”
I was surprised by how much better I felt after letting myself warm up to her. It was almost like being jealous of one of my teammates didn’t actually accomplish anything.
What a corny ass discovery. At least Theo would be proud.