Basketball is Not Life

Chapter Four

Noon rolls around, and my stomach grumbles; it was upset I had skipped breakfast. I opened the fridge to find a wide variety of choices: chicken, spinach, bacon, bottled water. It was as if someone organized it every time they used the fridge. It was immaculate. Melissa was not kidding when she was looking for Tidy because the whole house was tidy. Throw pillows were in their desired spots and fluffed. The granite countertops were sparkly, and no leftover food remnants were left on the top of them. The stainless steel on the outside of the fridge lets you see your reflection as clear as day in it. And I shuddered to think what the dorm bathrooms would have looked like compared to the ones I had at the Baer's house. I had my own soaker tub and a walk-in shower. At the community dorms, I had wanted to stay at, I would have had a shared bathroom with twenty-plus people. When I couldn't find rooming, I was tempted to look at pledging at the sororities just so it would be better than sharing dorms with a bunch of random college students.

A chicken spinach salad was what I had decided to make. Crumbled bacon on top sounded good, but it was just too much work. 

"I'll take one if you don't mind," Parker said, coming into the kitchen. "That looks amazing."          

"Get it yourself." I take my salad and walk to the dining room table. Spartan is already at my feet, begging for scraps.

"Ok." Parker throws his hands up as if I personally assaulted him with my words. "Did I do something to make you not like me then?" He asked, picking up our conversation from earlier.

"Like I said..."

"It's not me. It is just all athletes." He retorts back to me, with a serious edge to his words.

"My schedule is busy, especially coming up. You will barely see me as it is, but the animosity is something I don't have time for."

And my lips were moving before my brain could stop them from leaving. "It is that yes. I am not a fan of athletes. Especially ones that have everything handed to them." I feel like Melissa from the day before ticking off points on my fingers. "Who has a maid, who has a fully stocked fridge and pantry. I am assuming you do not do the grocery shopping, and at this point, by the looks of everything in this house, I am guessing you do not do your own laundry even."

He snorts. "That is rich coming from the girl with a $90,000 vehicle sitting in my garage."          

I tried to come up with something, but he had a point; I was calling the kettle black.

"You are the kid who has his own five-bedroom house. Why is that even needed?" I add weakly. 

 "So you do not like me because..." 

"Because it seems like everything is given to you. Did you ever have to work a job growing up? Did you ever have to cook? Or clean? Or go grocery shopping? Do you even know how to do your own laundry? Be a normal college kid?"         

"Why does that matter?" he rolls his eyes at me like if he cannot believe we are having this conversation.

"Because Parker, it just does. And throw on the fact that you are Michigan State's golden boy... I bet you couldn't last a month as a normal college student."

His eyes narrow on me. "And according to you Renee what is normal?"

"Attending all classes, shopping for your own food, cleaning, doing your own laundry. Living the normal college experience. This is not a normal college experience."

During my list of things, I deemed the typical college experience Parker had started to smile, his anger before dissolving, and that scared me.

"Let's make a bet then. One month of me living as a normal college student, off of this official Renee's list." He walked over to the fridge and dragged the trash can from the garage into the kitchen. He started to unload all the food, minus the water bottles and Gatorade, into the trash can. He finished by grabbing my bowl and dumping the salad into the trash.