He's so cute to me and I hate that he's taken but I love that it's a black woman. Especially not a racially ambiguous one!
"That's another one bro, damn." Jalen Brunson shook his head as another girl turned down his best friend's advances.
Josh Hart was young, handsome and talented but socially awkward. He couldn't talk to a woman to save his life. There was a mixer on Friday between the basketball team and the contemporary dance team. Raina was a dancer he asked to be his date.
"I don't know at this point, you gotta do something else. They don't even like nice guys anymore." Donte DiVincenzo, the resident cool white boy chuckled.
Hart was a hopeless romantic and the dating world didn't exist while engulfed in the basketball world. He was trying to at least feel good about himself in the meantime.
"C'mon, let's go to practice."
Sonja rolled her eyes as Rubi dragged her through the gym to watch the boys of Villanova ball out in practice. Rubi had her eye on Jalen and she wanted to be in position to talk to him. Only one brave enough to talk to anyone in their friend group was Sonja.
"Yaya I'm begging, I really like him." Rubi pouted. "Then why can't you talk to him?"
Rubi has a class with Jalen and Josh, creative writing and although Jalen sucked in that class, he always found away to keep her entertained with a joke or two. This was the only guy to make her nervous.
"Okay, I see those puppy dog eyes. I'm going I'm going." Dragging herself to the sidelines, Sonja made note of who Jalen talked to the most.
Number 3.
Some of the team noticed the random but beautiful girl walk up to Josh. They were confused but intrigued. Josh hadn't noticed as he still scrolled on his phone during his break.
"Hey, mind if I sit here?" Josh muttered a 'sure' as he found an episode of Pokémon he felt like watching. Peering over, Sonja could see what he was watching. It was funny because her only tattoo was of Pikachu.
"Nobody is as strong as the cute little yellow being." Josh looked over and gave her a glance over.
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She's too pretty, retreat Hart he mentally screamed at himself.
"Yeah... I agree 100%" is there a reason you're over here?" It came out a little harsher than he intended. He couldn't lie and say he wasn't interested, he couldn't tell if she was.
"Actually yes. I didn't expect you to be so blunt." Wiping her hands on her black jeans, she giggled. "Here's the deal, my friend over there is scared to talk to your friend over here."
Josh looked over at Jalen who kept glancing at Rubi. "Ohhhh, your friend is Rubi? That shouldn't be too hard. He's already looking."
"So you'll help me?" She stuck out her hand for him to shake. Josh took her hand, instantly feeling something. He smiled while shaking it, "I'll help."
"Oh, and you're cute and all but your people skills are a lil off boo." She laughed before standing up from her spot.
She thought I was cute? Josh didn't notice Mikal sit next to him.
"How you know Sony?" "Umm I don't, why?" He wondered if she was someone his teammate dealt with.
"Y'all looked comfortable." Josh gave an uneasy look. "Relax bro. She's my cousin."
••••
Sonja and Rubi sat on their couch in the suite they shared. It was late and they just finished dinner. Sonja cooked while Rubi went over their flash cards for the history exam they had coming up.
"Am I your plus one to Friday's mixer?" Rubi inquired. She knew that was her way in and usually was Sonja's date.
Sonja was as lowkey as it came but reigned as one of the best dancers on the team.. she wanted to stick to the background while she focused on her law degree.
"Of course, who else would I take?"
"Oh I don't know, you looked a bit cozy with Josh Hart today."
Ah, that was his name.
Sonja wasn't lying when she called him cute. He had this boyish gleam to him. She liked that he was awkward, cause that meant he was out the way. She preferred a lowkey guy. Her problem was he was on the basketball team and aside from her cousin playing for the same team, it reeked of trouble.
"Speaking of your boy, he just went viral on the scoophall page." Sonja scrunched up her face before taking the phone. It was a video of Josh in the locker room shirtless and pulling his pants up. The team made jokes about him doing good in practice but not good with the ladies.
"Turn that off y'all." He waved them off as he looked in his duffle for a clean shirt.
He seemed embarrassed but he smiled through it. Sonja looked at the comments and rolled her eyes. All of the girls were talking about his abs and his apparent package. How they wanted to see it up close, what they would allow him to do to them.
Sonja looked again and blinked a few times before scrolling the comments again.
"Well, that was fun while it lasted." She handed the phone back to Rubi and resuming her studying. Both friends knew that mean she wasn't going to look his way again outside of helping Rubi and Jalen get together.
