30. Sonny
Sonny
I fake left on my defender and then step back, bring the ball up and take my shot. The ball bounces off the rim and Malik rebounds it, passing it to one of his teammates before it gets passed back to him for an easy layup.
Game point.
I make my way over to the sideline, grabbing my towel and wiping the sweat off my face.
“You aight, man? I don’t think I’ve seen you play that bad since the fifth grade,” Chris says chuckling, his tone light.
I send a glare in his direction as I grab my duffel bag and start packing my things up to leave.
He raises his hands in mock surrender. “I’m just telling it how I see it.”
He wasn’t wrong, I had played like shit today, missing nearly all my shots and slow on getting rebounds.
“I’m good,” I say, ignoring his comment.
Chris reached out the day the pictures surfaced of me and Laila. He congratulated me on the release of my single and also told me that he was always available if I needed to talk.
“I meant what I said before,” he says, the humor gone from his voice. “I’m here if you need me.”
“Appreciate it,” I say, dapping him up.
I toss a hand in goodbye to the rest of the group before I leave the gym.
Xavier has already brought the car up to the door of the building so I easily slide into the passenger seat and he drives me back to my place. After the photo leak, I've been keeping security around me more than I used to.
I drop my duffel bag by the door, and toe out of my shoes. I make it a few steps into the living room before I stop mid step.
Laila is curled up on my couch, a blanket wrapped tightly around her as she sleeps. I’m shocked at her presence, especially since our communication has been nonexistent except one text telling me that she needed space.
I walk over to the couch and smile when I hear her soft snores. I gently run a finger down her cheek and she doesn’t stir.
Seeing her again in my space reminds me just how much I’ve missed her.
I respected that she needed space but I would be lying if I said that it was easy to keep my distance from her.
No good would have come from me putting my own feelings over hers, so like I told her I would before, I followed her lead.
I decide to let her sleep, not wanting to wake her up from a nap that is clearly much needed. I leave the living room and go to my bathroom, turning on the hot water in the shower to wash off all the sweat and stink from playing ball this morning.
After I’ve showered and moisturized, I go back out to the living room and find Laila in the same position as I left her.
I sit down in the spot next to her head and I’m struck by how damn gorgeous she is.
I catch myself watching her sleep for way too long again before I take out my phone to scroll until she wakes up.
Laila opens her eyes and sits up, disoriented for a moment before her gaze lands on me.
“Hey,” I say softly.
“Hey.”
Quiet falls over the room as we both take each other in.
Laila sinks her teeth into her bottom lip and it takes everything in me to keep my hands to myself, to not try to swoop in and erase all the hurt and uncertainty in her eyes.
“I’m sorry that I’m here unannounced. I thought you would be home but then you weren’t and I didn’t want to leave without talking to you. So I decided to wait for you but I was so tired that I guess I fell asleep.”
Laila rambles a clear sign of her nerves and I hate that she even feels the need to explain herself to me.
I shake my head. “You have that key for a reason. It has always been yours to freely use.”
“I know but I just -”
I don’t let her finish that sentence, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her into me, unable to fight the urge to have her in my arms any longer.
She lays her head on my chest, the sweet scent of her shampoo flooding my nostrils. I feel her relax into me, the rhythm of her breaths slowing as her nerves ease.
“The pictures have been taken down,” I say, quietly.
“And Morgan and my team are putting more things in place to make sure that your privacy is respected in all aspects when it comes to being around me. I’m sorry that this happened and I promise to do everything in my power to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. ”
“Thank you,” Laila murmurs, her voice small. “I just needed some time to process everything.”
“I want you to feel comfortable talking to me. I don’t want you to feel like you need to retreat into yourself when things get hard.”
“It’s been just me for so long. Yes I have Zara and my other friends but I never wanted to put the weight of what I’m dealing with on them, so I have always just figured it out on my own.”
“Lean on me,” I say. “Let me hold some of the weight you’ve been carrying for so long. You don’t have to do it all by yourself.”
“It felt like a cruel joke,” Laila says. “I had finally let myself fall for you and then my worst fear came to pass. It felt like some sort of punishment.”
“Is that how you still feel?”
Laila sits up and tugs the abandoned blanket back around her body.
“No, but then I started reading the comments and I know I shouldn’t have but everyone had such nasty things to say and it started to make me second guess myself. They made me second guess if I had just made it all up in my head.”
I cup Laila’s chin, forcing her to look at me as I speak my next words. “Nothing anyone else can say will ever come between you and me unless we let it. I’ve been going crazy without you around and unless you tell me otherwise, I’m not going anywhere.”
Laila sniffles and tears well up in her eyes. I pull her back to me and she sobs into my chest. Eventually her cries slow to sniffles and I continue to hold her, rubbing her back in circles to try to bring her some comfort.
“Baby, tell me what’s wrong,” I say.
“I -,” she starts, her voice shaky. “I’m pregnant.”
My hand stills on her back, stunned by her words.
Pregnant.
Of all of the things I thought she might say, this wasn’t even on the list. We hadn’t been as careful as we could have been but we hadn’t been totally reckless either.
“I thought-”
“I am,” Laila says, answering the thought that I wasn’t able to fully get out. “I have an IUD but for whatever reason it didn’t work.”
“Don’t cry, baby,” I say, wiping away the tears that have streaked down her face. “How long have you known?”
“Like a week and a half,” Laila sniffles. “I went to the doctor a few days ago and did a blood test and it confirmed it.”
“Are you okay?”
Laila shrugs. “My next appointment is in a couple of weeks.”
“But how do you feel?” I ask, being more specific with my question.
Her shoulders sag. “Not good. I’m so tired all the time no matter how much sleep I’ve gotten. I also have had a lot of cramping, my doctor said that that is a common symptom that women have but it’s so uncomfortable.”
I kiss the top of her head. “I’m sorry that you’ve been dealing with this alone. We’ll figure it out together, okay?”
“Okay.”
Laila spends the rest of the day with me. We spend most of it on the couch together watching the last season of her show. It’s mostly me watching because Laila’s fatigue causes her to go in and out of sleep.