Page 6

6

Jade

A fter hanging up with Cliff, the weight that had been sitting on my shoulders since the moment I’d opened my phone and seen the article my mother had sent me lifted. She had also sent a message wondering why I hadn’t told her that I had started dating Cliff. Which, if you were wondering, she also wrote how she fully approves of us together.

I can hear her voice in my ear saying, “Jade, that hunk of man is perfect for you. I don’t know why you haven’t dated before.”

When I read the message, I had to roll my eyes because it’s not the first time she has said something to me about dating Cliff. “ Mija , he’s a good boy like his brother, Taylor.”

And though every time I’m near him my body lights up, Cliff has never showed me any interest outside of our friendship. Instead, he became my manager and then my best friend. I’m not sure I would be able to survive without him, which makes this whole plan risky.

I just pray that we can get through this and still come out the other side as friends. This idea could go really wrong and it probably would’ve been better to do it with someone I don’t know very well, but I just couldn’t . The thought of kissing someone who isn’t Cliff has every cell in my body revolting.

Climbing into my car, I decide it’s now or never to get some of these phone calls handled on my way to basketball practice. First, I’ll call the least of all evils which, if you can believe it, is my mother.

She answers, “Hello, Jade.”

“Hello, Mama. How are you this morning?” I ask her.

“Don’t ‘hello mama’ me. Why didn’t you tell me about Cliff?” she sasses.

Sighing, I guess we are just jumping into this then. “Mom. We just started talking about being a couple. Someone released a photo of us before we were ready to announce it.”

“Fine. I guess I can accept that. When you have a break, I’m going to need you to bring that fine boy here.”

“Sounds good, Mama,” I mumble, not having the heart to tell her that by the time I have any time off from basketball, Cliff and I will be staging a breakup.

“Now, tell me about basketball. How is everything going? Are you getting along with your teammates?”

“It’s going good. We should have a good run all the way to the Championship game unless something goes wrong. I hold my own with my team,” I answer each question she’s thrown at me.

“Jade Isabel, I know you. Are you trying to make any friends?” she asks me.

I bristle at her question. I’ve never been great at making friends, but after what happened in college, it’s made it harder for me to trust, and she knows that.

“I’m…friendly,” I tell her.

She lets out a breath. “You know Jade, you don’t have to do things alone. Having someone on your side will be good for you.”

“I have Cliff on my side,” I tell her.

“Okay, baby. I’m just saying you can have more than just Cliff and it might not hurt to have a friend on the team. Just say you’ll try?”

“Okay, Mama, I’ll try,” I tell her as I pull up in front of the basketball stadium. “I’ve got to go. I just got to the stadium.”

“Sounds good. Just think about what I said. Oh, and Jade?”

“Yes?”

“You know you need to call Mya and Taylor, right?”

“Yes, I know,” I sigh.

“It will be okay. Mya will understand. Taylor is just protective.” She tries to comfort me, but I’m not sure that anything could help calm the nerves I have when it comes to Mya and Taylor.

“Love you, Mama,” I finish, not wanting to talk anymore about having to break the news to my sister and brother-in-law.

“Love you, Jade,” she says as we hang up. Leaning back in the driver’s seat, I take a deep breath and slowly let it out, ridding myself of everything I have on my mind. Right now, I need to think about basketball.

Opening the door to the locker room, I can hear everyone laughing and talking as they get ready for practice. It makes me smile because even though I don’t partake, I do enjoy seeing everyone letting loose. I make my way to my locker, opening it, and shoving my bag into it.

“Hey, Jade,” I hear from behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I see one of my teammates with her hands on her hips.

“Hey, Jessica,” I reply but return my attention back to putting my stuff away.

“How are you doing?” she asks me while walking up next to me.

“Fine,” I start but then I hear Cliff and my mom’s voices in the back of my head, telling me to open up more to my teammates. That thought has me clearing my throat as my gaze goes back to her and I try again. “My morning was a little unexpected, but I’m ready to play basketball.”

“Yeah, I saw the article. It’s really dumb that they report on that stuff,” she says.

Nodding my head, I sit down on the bench and start to tie up my tennis shoes. “I’m more surprised that people even care.”

Jessica goes to open her mouth when another one of our teammates, Diana, comes over and starts shouting, “Yo, Gonzalez! You dating your manager? Isn’t that a no-no?”

I bristle a little at her comment. I don’t respond at first, finishing up with my shoes. The longer I stay silent, the more tense the locker room becomes, waiting to see what I’m going to do. Once again, Cliff’s words run through my mind, but before I can open my mouth to reply, Jessica beats me to it. “Shut up, Diana. It’s none of our business.”

I can’t help but smirk at her words. Jessica is new this season, having transferred from New York. I haven’t had many opportunities to talk with her before this.

Standing up from the bench, I look at all of my teammates that have surrounded us. “Let me clear some things up: Jessica is right, it’s none of your business, but yes, I’m dating Cliff. He used to be my manager, but now it’s someone else at the agency.”

Before anyone else can open their mouths, Coach comes in and yells, “Let’s go, ladies. Time to stop gossiping and get to practicing.”

Thankfully, everyone disperses and heads out onto the court. Once my feet hit the wooden boards, everything within me settles. This is where I belong. I grab a ball off the rack, and begin a quick warm up.