"I can't believe you didn't want to sit court side."
Malia discreetly rolled her eyes, watching the players practice as an attempt to ignore Brooklyn's nonstop complaining. "Can you still see the game or not?"
"An NBA player offers you and your friend tickets and you pick seats that are 4 rows away from the front." Brook said. "Why?"
"If you want to go sit up there, go."
"No, I don't want to sit alone."
"Then can you please shut up?" Malia asked. "There's unoccupied seats up there and you're complaining in my ear."
Brooklyn groaned, closing her mouth.
If it weren't already very obvious, Malia wasn't having a good day at all. Devon left another 40 phone calls and that ruined her entire day. She was forced to ignore him because she didn't allow anybody to call her 40 times. Not even her grandma.
So, she and Brooklyn had been at it all day. Brook had a natural tendency to complain and Malia usually had the patience for it, but today wasn't one of them.
Ja was warming up on the court with his daughter, headphone's angled carefully over his dreads as he listened to music. Malia wasn't even sure that Ja knew she was here yet so she pulled out her phone to shoot him a text.
His phone happened to be in vibrate so he felt the message come through. Ja smiled at the message before scanning the arena. He didn't see her anywhere so he called her, not bothering to worry about what anyone said about him being on the phone.
"I'on see you." He said, gently passing the ball to Kaari. "Why you ain't sit up front?"
Malia watched him play with his daughter. "I don't like cameras and you were going to try to come talk to me."
"I'm finna come talk to you, anyway." Ja told her, picking Kaari up to take her to her grandmother. "Where you sitting?"
She ducked down. "Ja, do not come over anywhere near me."
Ja continued to look around then he caught sight of Brooklyn subtly waving. When he abruptly hung up, Malia knew he'd found her and he was coming despite her not wanting to be on TV. She was prepared for the Twitter bombs later, as well.
Malia met him halfway down the stairs, rolling her eyes softly. "You're unsettlingly frustrating."
"Stop using all these big ass words." Ja told her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "Be confusing a nigga."
"Sorry." She hugged his torso, knowing that cameras were out and she was being recorded. "I just really hate cameras."
He pulled back, watching her eyes dart around the arena. "You ain't scared of cameras. You scared of what niggas gotta say about you."
"Nope." She pulled back, keeping her hands on his sides as she looked over his face. "Are you hungover or anything? Do I need to detox you?"
Ja chuckled. "How you gone detox me if I play in 15 minutes?"
Malia ran her teeth over her braces before pursing her lips. "I can make you throw up."
"Nah." Ja said. "And I'm straight. I ain't hung over or nothing."
While it was true that Ja was not hung over, he did go drinking with his friend last night. He kept it to a minimum since the Grizzlies had to start stringing some wins together here soon. Ja figured he should be at 100% of himself if he was playing with playoff implications on the line.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I'll probably go out tonight fa' a lil bit."
Malia stared at him blankly. "Can it be at the club where I work at?"
