sanctum: a sacred place
in which a troubled boy takes refuge in a girl who feels like the good life is right in front of her. will their life be changed for the better or for the worst?
Song for chapter: Calling My Phone by Lil Tjay & 6LACK
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Sharife groaned sitting up from the bed. His head pounded from his celebratory night out. His stomach was doing flips. A blonde girl lay asleep in the bed. He cursed rubbing his dry face. He kicked the white girl scaring her awake.
"Did you just kick me?"
"Yeah, get out." He angrily told her pulling the covers from her naked body.
She sent him a death glare before gathering her things. He heard the door slam alerting him that she was gone. Sharife unlocked his phone and scrolled through social media. He came across a video that had tagged him.
"Shit."
He was drinking heavily in the video. He looked a hot mess. His clothes were messy. All of the players on his team had surrounded him shouting and cheering. The video of him going wild was getting way too many views.
On queue his pr rep, Daniel, calls him. Sharife hesitated on whether or not he should take the call. He hit the green button waiting for Daniel to speak. Daniel started speaking already sounding stressed.
"Have you seen yourself on social media?" Danny asked gripping the phone with all his might.
Sharife lifted his sore body from the bed and stretched, "Yes, Danny. Look, I don't see what's the issue."
"You don't see the problem! How do you think the Hawks are gonna feel when they see this? Good boy gone wild? No self-security? Loser? You are embarrassing." Danny vented.
Sharife could already tell that Danny's face was tomato red with anger, "You're my pr rep for a reason. You'll handle stuff like this."
"Aren't you trying to get to a better team? I thought you wanted to play for bigger and better. Don't you want those sponsorships? Do you even think that a company like Wheaties wants a drunk on their cereal boxes?" Danny's harsh words did nothing to Sharife.
"I don't even eat Wheaties."
Danny sighed, "I don't know what's wrong with you but you need to fix it. From now on don't do anything stupid."
The minute Daniel hung up Sharife threw his phone on the bed and made his way to the shower. The hot water ran down his sculpted body. He shook off the bad vibes and finished washing up. Feeling clean he read through his text messages.
"Yo!" Sharife exclaimed as Josh answered his facetime calls.
"Why you ain't come out with us last night?" Josh asked turning down ESPN on his television.
"I ain't feel like it. I went out to celebrate with the team after this last win."
Joshua shook his head, "Rife, we had this planned for weeks and you flaked on us."
"Listen, it's not like that."
Josh placed a hand over his chest, "Please, don't try to gaslight a black king."
Sharife laughed, "What?"
"Nothing. Plus you missed that new girl Stella had been telling us about."
Sharife rolled his eyes, "I don't care about no bitches."
"It's not even that serious. You're so irritable nowadays." Josh responded feeling a little hurt by his friend's mean streak.
"I ain't mean it like that. I've been doing me."
"You mean getting white girl wasted and having Omar come to save you."
Sharife went silent. After a wild night, Sharife had accidentally called his twin brother. Omar came to the club immediately like he was their daddy. Sharife couldn't remember much after he told Omar to go home.
"Look, I'll holla at you later. I got stuff to do." Josh pressed the end call button leaving Rife with his thoughts.
Sharife went to their friend group chat. He was surprised to see that they were active in the chat. He touched the do not disturb button he had on the chat. He wanted to know what was going on.
sandbox days
stella added unknown to the group
Stella: Mila send a contact card
mila shared contact card
maybe mila alvarez: damn can you not be so demanding?!
Raylin: I already found your Instagram
Zuri: that quick? that's my job.
Jalen: stop blowing up the chat, please
Josh: Yeah, go make another chat
Sharife added Mila's name in his contacts. He scrolled to Raylin's Instagram and checked her following list. The whole gang had followed Mila overnight. Sharife rubbed his eyes in confusion. Where did she come from? He found himself immersed in her Instagram page. Before locking his phone he hit the follow button without thinking.
authors note:
I wanted to do another update. vote and comment, please. this really helps!
