YOU & I - LaMelo Ball

08

MELO
-

My brother not wanting to get out there and play?

Nah, something was up. I could even hear my dad a few rows above us telling him to go play.

I don't think anything has bothered him that much to the point where he won't play.

That's how I knew it was something really wrong, and I don't play about my family.

He sits in the same position as they start the third quarter of the game.

Most of the quarter he was still in that same sitting position, seeming to be getting angrier by the second.

I knew we had to do something once the game was over, to figure out what's wrong.

•••

"Gelo! Boy come out here, now!" My dad yelled and everyone was waiting in the hall for him.

Gelo came out with a towel over his head and his duffel bag on his shoulder.

He gave Mariah a side eye, and leaned against the wall beside my dad.

"Yeah pops?" He took the towel off his head, and wrapped and unwrapped it around his hand.

"Why weren't you playin'? Y'all still won, but son you know I've never taught y'all boys to sit out when you got a chance to play." My dad fusses at him.

My mom leaned against my dad and shook her head. "Gelo, this isn't you." Her sentence is chopped up a bit, since she's recovering from a stroke.

"It don't even matter pops, as long as we won, and I dropped my points." Gelo walks outside, and my dad just sighs and shakes his head.

He looks over at Mariah and I, and comes over to us. "Sorry I had to meet you like this, Gelo can be stubborn sometimes."

He chuckles and Mariah smiles. "Tell me about it." She shakes her head.

"You look familiar, you look like an old good friend of mine, just like him too." My dad studies her for a good minute.

"You and my dad used to be good friends, he's Antonio Williams."

He smiles and nods. "Yep, you're a spitting image of him. That surely is your father, you and your brother look just like him."

I finally said something after their conversation. "Well pops and mom, Mariah and I are sort of seeing each other, so I just wanted y'all to meet her."

I grab her hand and squeeze it, I know she was nervous because her arms were folded over her chest.

My dad held his arms out for a hug, and she hugged him and my mom. "Welcome back to the family Mariah." My dad smiles and she laughs.

•••

"Gelo better get his tail here in the next 10 minutes." My dad paced around our table at the restaurant.

We all planned to have a dinner in celebration of his game, but he ain't even show up.

He didn't answer anyone's calls, but I knew if one person called he would answer.