End Game

Sixteen

"You have been watching the time like a hawk, JP. It's a delay, it happens all the time, why are you so anxious about it?" Chelsea physically reaches over to stop Jo from looking at the time on her phone again for the tenth time in as many minutes.

"I had a plan to surprise Michael in LA, but with this delay we won't be in the airport at the same time anymore." She sighs, scrubbing her hand over her face for a moment, "It was a tiny window anyway, but I was going to try. He's been so good about coming to me and interrupting his plans to make sure we could see each other. Our busy schedules don't cross again until mid-July. The two minutes in LAX was going to be a way for me to show him I'm trying too, since I've had little chance to do that so far."

"That's cute, and I'm sorry the flight is delayed now too." Chelsea smiles.

"Am I crazy for liking a guy so much after just a couple months? Months we have spent almost entirely apart?" Jo sighs, leaning her head sideways onto her friend's shoulder.

"No, and don't let whatever your dad told you make you question that."

"How–"

"Please, Jordan." Chelsea laughs, "I've known you for years now, and I've met your dad enough times to understand how he pressures you, and one tracks your mind. You can have basketball and a boyfriend, even a busy one."

"Ya..." Jo barely breathes the word out, "It's probably good dad was needed in Chicago a month earlier than usual this year, if they were still in the Vegas house and I had to see him regularly I'd be a complete mess."

"You've spent one weekend in Chicago with him since seeing Michael and he's already made you a mess with whatever he said, so I'm really glad there's half a country between the two of you. Your dad is supportive to a fault, JP, and you need to break the hold he has on you. Whatever he said, it doesn't matter, you are a great basketball player, and you have no reason to think otherwise. Whatever turnover he drilled you about for twenty minutes, or shot you missed and shouldn't have, they are something everyone deals with. No one in the league has absolutely no turnovers, or stupid missed shots. You can't be perfect, and even if you were, your dad would still have complaints. Get him out of your head and enjoy the attention from this guy who's crazy about you."

"I'm trying, but it's hard when Michael is as far away as dad is, and busier. Dad is constantly hounding me about my games and practices, and questioning where my focus is and where my head is at. Michael's sweet, but there are days we barely talk because our schedules are so jam packed. It makes it hard."

"You were going to use today as a way to help calm your anxieties about it all weren't you?" Chels asks, patting her friend's hand.

"It would have helped, it's harder to believe dad's shit when I'm with Michael, when I'm feeling what he makes me feel fully because we're physically together."

"You need to just block your dad out, that's all. You can do that." Chelsea encourages, both of them turning as they hear the announcement saying they are finally going to be able to board their flight to LA.

"That is easier said than done." Jo shrugs, picking up her bag and slinging it onto her back.

"If you need help, just ask. I'll remind you how great it is for you to have this amazing guy doting on you. He isn't all the issues your dad thinks he is, and he isn't that good for nothing cheater from Texas who used the team moving to Vegas as an excuse to sleep with half the city after you left." Chelsea says pointedly, "And if somehow he becomes that, Jackie, the team, and I will personally deal with him for you."

"I just want to see him again, to reassure myself that that look in his eye when he sees me isn't a figment of my own imagination."

"It's not, trust me. The whole arena could see it when he came to the game a few weeks ago."