Chapter 2
brIANNA
Brooklyn met me halfway once he saw me walking out of the arena.
My heart was still pounding from everything that had taken place.
It was having to keep it professional that broke me the most. From having to continue coaching to getting back to my phone and having a million threatening messages from Teddy, I was ready for this day to be over.
With the way Naomi looked after they took her off the court, it wouldn’t be over any time soon.
Regardless of how I felt, my bestie needed me, and I was going to be right beside her.
“Hand me that.” Not waiting on me to say I got it, Brooklyn took my bags out of my hand. I unlocked the doors and popped the trunk so that he could put my things inside. “I got that too.” Stepping back, I allowed him to open the door for me.
“Thank you,” I spoke softly while sliding inside.
“No thanks needed. It’s what I’m supposed to do.”
“And I’m still supposed to let you know that I appreciate the gesture. Chivalry doesn’t come around too often.”
“His loss,” Brooklyn stated with a shrug of his shoulders before closing the door. At this point, I was the one lost after what he’d just said.
Once Brooklyn got inside, I asked, “What made you say, ‘his loss’?”
“You said chivalry doesn’t come around too often. That’s that nigga fault that he chooses to stay away from a beautiful woman like you.”
Quietly, I sat still, hung on his words.
“Wait… you do know that chivalry isn’t—"
“I’m fucking wit’ chu’ Bri,” he interrupted, making me exhale a sigh of relief.
“Lord, I was about to say, now he is too damn fine to be stupid.”
Brooklyn glanced my way before pulling out of the parking lot behind Zoo and PJ. The beautiful sounds of Snoh Aalegra, “I Want You Around”, played once he started the truck up. That’s literally all I listen to so my phone automatically started playing it through my Bluetooth.
“So, you think I’m fine?” Brooklyn smirked at me as if I was really going to answer that.
“Really?” Chuckling, I shook my head at him. He was really sitting over there, thinking about what I said.
To be perfectly honest, I thought he was fucking gorgeous but that wasn’t a conversation I wanted or needed to have right now. My eyes scanned every piece of his body that I could see outside of his clothing. In graffiti lettering, the words SMITH BLOOD were tattooed perfectly on each forearm.
Just by looking at Brooklyn, you would’ve thought he was extremely mean but when I first bumped into him at the hospital, it was something about him that made me instantly feel comfortable.
I stood there and talked to him like we were old friends catching up.
Didn’t matter what state of mind I was in before seeing him, his chestnut eyes had hypnotized me.
Then, we met again at the party when he showed up with Zoo and Sin.
We held small talk but only because we were the third wheel to the others.
Seems like every time all of us linked up, we gravitated to each other.
I wasn’t complaining at all because he was a cool guy and a lot different from trying to talk to Teddy about anything.
“I think we need to get to the hospital so I can check on my friend.”
Nodding, he continued to drive towards the hospital but had to stop once PJ and Zoo pulled over. I didn’t get out. I figured they were having a moment and she needed to pull herself together. Moments later, we pulled back into traffic.
Images of Naomi collapsing kept playing in my mind, making tears skate down my face the harder I tried to hold them back.
“Quit that cryin’, yo girl gon’ be good. If my cousin has anything to do with it, the doctors will have answers by the time we get there. He’on play and ain’t gon’ play ‘bout Naomi either. Think about something else.”
“She’s all I can think about.” A heavy sigh escaped my lips as I released the breath that I didn’t realize I was holding.
“Although I have a sister, Naomi and PJ have been like little sisters to me since the first moment we met. From college to now, we’ve been inseparable.
My family took to them and the same for theirs.
Shoot, I was even in their family photo, that’s just how close we are, and their mom wasn’t taking no for an answer because to her, I was her daughter too.
I’ve always been the protector. Lately, it seems like I’ve been dropping the ball with that, just like I did tonight. ”
“Tonight, wasn’t yo’ fault. Don’t even start blaming yo’self for that.”
“But I should have been able to look at her and immediately know that she wasn’t feeling well. Maybe I missed something she said or pushed them too hard at practice because I wanted to win. I don’t know but I feel like I’ve been letting them down.”
“The only thing you can do to change that is, to stop thinkin’ that shit right now. If her own blood wasn’t able to just look at her to know that she wasn’t feeling well before she collapsed, then what makes you think you were supposed to?”
I wanted to frown up and roll my eyes at him ‘cause who was he to be right?
“You’re right, I just feel like I wasn’t paying attention enough. She had to have been showing signs. There are always signs,” I cried out. My chest rose and fell as I tried to get myself to calm down.
“Or sometimes shit just happens, and we have no control over it.” Silence enveloped us as we continued our ride.
My sniffles slowly calmed down and faded away.
I could still see PJ and Zoo a few cars ahead of us.
They had on their emergency lights and still wasn’t moving through the thick line of cars ahead of us.
“How’s your dad?”
For a moment, my eyes hung on Brooklyn, in shock at the fact he actually remembered what I told him that night we bumped into each other at the hospital.
‘Til this day, Teddy hadn’t even asked if my father was doing ok, and he was my damn man then.
For Brooklyn to remember, really struck a nerve in my heart. In a good way.
“He’s doing better now. My mom stays on him about eating healthy and putting those damn pork rinds down but he’s old and set in his ways. He’s not stopping anything, not even with a scare like that. That reminds me, I owe you a shirt and your girlfriend a plate.”
“I’m good on the shirt, and that wasn’t my girl then and she’s not my girl now.
I was being nice, not knowing she lied and said she didn’t have food and couldn’t leave work because they were short-handed.
I ain’t fucked with her lying ass since.
Then, the way she came at you pissed me off because she tried to make it like we were more than what we were.
She was just something to do until I found someone that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. ”
“How old are you? Aren’t you a little too young to be looking for someone to spend the rest of your life with?”
“I’m twenty-five, and I’m never too young for that. Not in my eyes. I just don’t want to settle down with any ol’ body, and Emily was just that.”
“But she was good enough to fuck?” I retorted, causing him to grumble.
“Yea. Her attitude and her pussy are two different things. It’s not like I was just out here fucking her daily and feeding her lies about us being together.
She knew what it was, and she was ok with what it was until she wasn’t.
I fell back, and she pushed harder. I’m usually at my studio working.
Shit, ninety-seven percent of the time, that’s where I am.
I’on have time for shit but money. If we kicked it, we kicked it.
If we didn’t, then…” He shrugged off the rest of the sentence.
“Don’t sit over there and look at me like I’m some fuck boy, Bri.”
“You are, Brooklyn.”
“You don’t know that.” His eyes darted towards me, then back to the road.
“I know what you just said, and it screams I’ma fuck boy.”
“Aight. I won’t try to convince you that I’m not.”
“Why not? You don’t care about what people think of you?” Brooklyn had me turning in my seat to get a better view of him.
“It’s their opinion and it’s what I know.
Usually, what I know overpowers what someone else thinks about me.
The truth is, I’m twenty-five years old and in my eyes, I’m already halfway dead.
I wasn’t raised to be with this woman and that woman.
None of us were. Sin is only a year older than I am and you see the way he’s going hard for yo’ girl.
When I find that one woman that I can’t breathe without, then I know I’ve found my person.
The one who will have me changing from being in the studio ninety-seven percent of the time to me giving her that time instead.
I’ll still get money, but making sure my woman is good and we are happy would be my main concern.
The girls I’ve been meeting haven’t been that, so I don’t waste their time or mine.
I let them know and I move around. Simple as that.
It’s someone that I’m interested in, I guess I gotta physically bump…
into her again. Maybe the second time’s the charm. ”
Realizing what he was saying, I fought back the smile that tried to come forth.
“You don’t have to run game on me.”
“I’m not. I’ll never do that. How do you think we’ve been ending up around each other lately?
I found myself asking Zoo and Sin what’s the move and if they said they were going somewhere with y’all, I was leaving the studio on two wheels.
Tonight, I made sure I left the studio in time to make it to tonight's game. Zoo and Sin dragged my ass about them having to beg me to get out of the studio, and now all of a sudden, I wanna go to the game with them.”
“Why did you come to the game?” I asked him, anxiously waiting on his reply.