3. Akari
Man, to say I was tired was an understatement.
Practice today worked the hell out of me.
I couldn't wait to get home to soak in a tub filled with Epsom salt.
My body needed soothing. It felt like I pulled muscles and all, and I didn't need that to happen.
Not when I had a game coming up in two more days.
Tonight, I plan to relax at home with my phone on DND and my house locked up.
I didn't need or want any company. If anybody wanted me, they could talk to my manager, who was my brother.
He could let them know what was going on.
If he couldn't, oh well. That wasn't my problem until I was out of hibernation.
On the way home, I took a different route that I hadn't taken in a while, but on occasion, I took it for some odd reason.
A girl I used to go to school with used to live in the house.
When I was in elementary school, she and I fought one day, which was the last day I saw her.
Neither my siblings nor I knew what happened to her.
I knew I stayed on her head when we were in school.
She was an easy target since she didn't have much while growing up, and it showed with the way she was dressed and her hair didn't stay done.
I picked at her so badly. Thinking about it now, I feel bad for doing so.
I was a little menace back then. I now use the trash talk only on the court, which always works out in my favor.
Sometimes, the other players wanted to square up, which was funny.
They couldn't take me on or off the court.
As I drove through the neighborhood, nothing changed about it.
It still looked bad. Nobody stayed around here that I knew.
The house I was looking for was the last house on the road.
I was surprised to see a car in the driveway.
I had to blink my eyes several times to ensure they weren't playing tricks on me, but it was no trick.
A car was indeed in the yard. It was the first time I had ever seen a car there.
Curiosity got the best of me, so I went to see who it was.
Hopefully, it was the person I wanted to see there. It had me wondering if she had changed.
I pulled into the driveway and turned my car off. I stepped out of it and pressed forward to the house. The door was open, so I went inside and called out.
"Yo!"
I heard moving around upstairs, but I didn't take a step toward the stairs.
"I'll be down in a minute," a soft voice responded.
It had me wondering if it was her. I stood with my hands buried in my pockets, wondering what was about to happen next. How would she even greet me?
The floor creaked as she made her way down the stairs.
My heart hammered in my chest as I waited to see if it was the girl I bullied twenty years ago.
Did she change, or was she still the same skinny, minny girl who wore baggy clothes and kept her hair nappy?
I got the shock of my life when the woman who stepped down from the staircase looked nothing like the girl I used to tease.
Oh, it was Avani Burton, of course, but damn she had changed. She changed in a major, good way, too.
I gulped as I eyed her up and down. It wasn't the right thing to do, but I couldn't help myself.
This woman who stood in front of me looked sexy as hell.
I couldn't help but lick my lips as my eyes roamed down her body.
She had dark brown skin with a round-shaped face, button nose, full lips, and dark brown almond-shaped eyes.
She was slim-thick with hella curves that made my mouth water. Man, I needed to get a grip.
"Uhhh... hello..." I greeted her.
Avani's eyes widened before they narrowed into slits. Before I could do or say anything else, she marched up to me and slapped fire from my mouth. That was unexpected.
I hissed, wondering what the hell I did to deserve that.
"Owww, fuck. Why the hell did you do that?" I asked, glaring at her. I took one of my hands out of my pockets to rub my jaw.
Avani placed her hands on her hips and glared right back at me. "That's for bullying me when we were younger."
I chuckled, happy that she remembered me. "Oh, so you know who I am?"
She scoffed, removing hair from her face. "How can I not know? My father is a fan of yours, and he makes me watch the game whenever I visit him and my mother."
I nodded, wondering when she met her father. When we were younger, it was a known fact that her father wasn't in her life, and her mother was a sickly woman. Many said that it was cancer, but it was never confirmed.
"What are you doing here?" Avani asked after neither of us said anything for a while. "I would offer you a seat, but as you can see, none are available."
Truthfully, if there was a seat available, I didn't know if I wanted to sit on it. This place appeared to have gone through some changes over the years.
I didn't know what to say to her. "Uhhh... I usually pass by here to go home. This is the first time I've ever seen a car in the driveway, so it took me by surprise."
I removed my other hand from my pants pocket and folded my arms across my chest. I watched as her bottom lip trembled, and I wondered if I had said something wrong.
"Avani?" I called her name, and that was when tear after tear escaped her eyes, scaring the hell out of me. "What the hell?"
Without saying anything else, I pulled her into my arms, and she cried into my chest. Out of habit, I rubbed my hand up and down her back while I had the other one holding her head in my chest.
"Shhh. Don't cry. Don't cry. Tell me what's wrong. I know we are not friends and are practically strangers, but you can't cry in front of me like that. It's gonna make me sad."
She laughed with a snort, causing me to smile. "You can let me go now. I'm okay."
I didn't want to let Avani go. She felt too damn good in my arms. It was a feeling I could get used to. I shook my head at the thought and pulled away from her slightly.
"Thank you for that," she expressed, clearing her throat and slowly wiping her eyes.
"It's no problem. Now I have a question for you. If I'm being too forward, you don't have to answer, but I want to know what happened to you twenty years ago. You just vanished that day when we were all chilling at the park. It was the last day my siblings and I saw you."
Avani looked away from me and sighed deeply.
"I was sent to a group home. My mother called the cops to pick me up.
I found out that she called the police, letting them know she couldn't take care of me anymore.
Then, two weeks ago, I got a call saying she died in her sleep.
It turns out the rumors were true. She did have cancer, but she held on for a long ass time.
She was already sick, but the cancer came too. "
I shook my head, saddened by the news. "Aww, damn, I'm sorry to hear that."
She shrugged. "It is what it is. She gave me up without a care in the world and told me her daughter died when she was ten years old."
My eyes widened. "Oh fuck."
"It's all good. I don't know why I'm telling you this. You are just a stranger to me."
I grabbed her hands in mine. "No, I'm a childhood friend."
She sneered. "You were no friend of mine. A damn bully, you mean."
I laughed. "Well, call me that then. Your childhood bully.”
“Whatever. It is good to see you. I see you’re doing well for yourself.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I told you I would be a beast on the court when I grew up.”
“Yeah, you did. I can remember telling you that you suck at basketball. You were ready to beat my ass.”
We shared a laugh.
“We always fought.”
She cackled. “Yeah, we did. Gosh, I missed the old days.”
“Same here,” I replied.
It felt good talking to Avani as if we were old friends.
I didn’t stay too much longer since I was tired as hell.
Avani left when I did, and I made sure I got her number, too.
She didn’t want to give it to me at first, but I told her it was for old friends catching up.
That part was true. Another reason was that I wanted to get to know her all over again.
I knew her while we were in elementary school, but now I wanted to know the woman she’d become.