Ja was in Philadelphia when Jaren advised him to stay in the hotel for the night. The rest of the guys were going out, while Jaren and Ja stayed in and played 2k.
They'd just won a game over the Joel Embiid led 76ers and usually after wins they'd go out to celebrate but being as though he cared about the well being of Ja, they were staying in tonight.
"Nigga, let's just go meet Desmond and them."
Jaren shook his head. "Ri is about to call and I'm not getting hung out to dry if they let you give yourself alcohol poisoning while I'm not there."
Ja's eyebrows raised at the mention of Ri, or Arielle, whom was Jaren's best friend. They had a complicated looking friendship so Ja made it his business to mind his business. "Tell Ri I said what's good."
"Alright." Jaren nodded, putting his feet up on the desk in the corner of the hotel room. "Aye, did that girl from the club ever call you?"
"Nah." Ja picked his phone up. "Her friend that works at the bar wit' her said to call her but I ain't gon' push it."
Jaren shrugged, checking the time. "You might as well call her now. You aren't doing anything right now so I don't see why not."
Ja wasn't sure why Jaren was pushing so hard but he would ask about that later. He couldn't spend the night doing what he wanted to do so he figured he could call Malia, just for a brief distraction from what he was actually thinking about.
Malia was in bed when he called, watching TV. She didn't recognize the number and actually thought it was you know who. So, she answered and paused the TV, not saying anything until the person on the other line decided to speak.
"What's good?"
The familiar voice took a while to come to her but his voice was a lot deeper than everyone else she knew.
"Ja?"
"Yeah." He cleared his throat, laying back against the pillows. "Ya' friend from the bar tol' me give you a call and I wun' doing nothing."
"Oh, okay." Malia moved the bowl of chips from her lap. "I was going to call you tomorrow because I didn't know your schedule."
That was the truth, for she and Brooklyn had an entire conversation about it. Brooklyn just neglected to have told her that she took the liberty of giving Ja her number.
"You good." Ja assured her casually. "I'm actually out Philly right now. I'on know the time differences yet."
The girl on the other end of the phone was amused at what he'd said. "You travel to different states all the time, right?"
"Yeah." He said, picking up on her tease. "I don't be thinking about all that, though."
"Well. Mr. Morant, It's midnight there so that means it's 11 here." Malia said. "It differs based on where you are in the country."
The corner of his lips turned up as Ja listened to her speak. "You a college girl?"
"Are you asking me if I went to college or are you asking me if I'm in college?" She questioned. "I went to college so in essence, yes I am. But more like I was."
Ja listened to her ramble, toying with the diamond chain around his neck. "I can tell. You talk real... intelligently."
"Thank you." Malia sat forward. "So, you have a game in Philly?"
"Yeah. Today." He informed her. "We got one tomorrow in DC, then one in Brooklyn the day afta'."
"Ahh." She said. "You're traveling the East Coast."
