Malia did not get her braces taken off.
But- she did have her wisdom teeth removed.
So, she now sat in pain from not only having teeth removed in the back of her mouth, but from also getting her braces tightened. Malia was also on a ridiculous amount of drugs. She hadn't ever been drunk before but this is what she'd imagine it would feel like.
To make matters worse, Ja was the only person available to pick her up. Brooklyn and Desmond were in Nashville and she was making him fall in love with her. Her Nana didn't and couldn't drive anymore. So here she was with Ja, hating every part of her life.
"Ja, my mouth hurts so bad." Malia whined, trying to speak as clearly as could on gas with cotton in her mouth. "And I look so ugly."
The point guard chuckled, pulling the seatbelt across her body. "You'on look ugly, Malia."
The woman just sniffled, letting tears fall down her face for no reason. "I want to get Chick Fil A. Can you get some?"
"I'on think you ca' have that right na'."
After that, Malia cried silently to herself as Ja drove her home. She wasn't actually sad and her mouth was mostly numbed, so she wasn't even sure why she was crying, which was crazy.
Ja was probably going to stay the night with Malia because he wanted to and now, he had a reason to. He also didn't want to go out drinking but he wasn't sure he could use that as an excuse anymore.
"Do I look ugly?" Malia asked, walking hand in hand up the stairs with Ja.
"Nah."
She looked at their intertwined hands. "Even like this?"
"You ain't ever ugly, Malia."
They approached her door and Ja unlocked it with his own key, making the choice to not try to figure out where hers was. She couldn't even talk without almost bursting into tears.
Ja led Malia straight to her bed after taking her shoes off. She was being mostly quiet and he didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. He didn't question it though, not wanting to upset her.
"Are you staying?"
"Yeah." Ja told her, climbing in next to her. "You straight?"
"Mhm."
Ja didn't know how to feel about the fact that she'd only asked him because no one else was able to take care of her but didn't want to take much offense to it. They were in a weird space with one another and despite him doing his best to fix it, Malia wasn't budging much.
He hadn't been drunk since that night when Malia fell asleep with people still in her house. That wasn't an accomplishment because he still craved liquor. Ja still wanted it more than almost everything.
Not Kaari. Ja would die for her to live.
Not basketball. He'd worked his ass off to get where he was and didn't want alcohol to ruin it.
Not family. Not money.
Not Malia.
Drunk Ja couldn't get the girl out of his head and he knew he messed up that night he got drunk at her crib.
Malia wiped unnecessary tears from her face, wondering why Ja was staring at her. "What's wrong?"
The thing with alcohol was some people didn't know when to quit. Like Ja. That was probably a good enough reason in itself as to why he should quit.
It only took the one night, when Malia stalked off to her room not knowing if he'd be okay or not, for Ja to stare at the bottom of the liquor bottle and realize he had a small problem. The guard couldn't handle that thought alone, though, so he went out and drank more that night despite what he'd told everyone.
