"I just realized somethin'." Desmond said aloud as he, Jaren and Ja walked into Jaren's home gym. "Malia is your bartender."
Ja gave his teammate a look, dropping his Nike gym bag. "Nigga, what? Fuck you talkin' 'bout?"
Desmond flipped Ja the bird. "On the way over here, you played Bartender by T-Pain."
Ja sat on the bench to tie his gym shoes, as he thought of the lyrics to the songs. "She made us drinks... ta' drink..."
"We drunk 'em..." Jaren said, dancing a little as he walked over to the bar to lift. "Got drunk."
"And then I think she thinks I'm cool!" They all sang together, laughter filling the room afterwards.
Brooklyn entered the room. "Please for the love of god, stop singing. Jaren, for your house to be so fucking big I can hear y'all from the living room."
"Where Malia?" Ja asked, pulling his dreads into a ponytail.
She cut her eyes at Ja. "She's not coming."
The guard sighed, knowing exactly what was happening. "Why?"
"She's strategically avoiding you and I don't blame her." Brooklyn quipped. "Should've thought about that before you wanted to be a weirdo."
Ja wasn't purposely being weird. It was a strange reaction of him feeling himself getting closer to Malia.
After the night Ja first got back to Memphis, Ja and Malia spent 2 full days together. He felt himself falling more and more, so instead of expressing that, he busied himself. Ja kept Kaari for an extra few days, got in the gym with his teammates a bunch and even went out a few times.
It was dumb of him, but Ja was a man and being attached to someone in that way fucking scared him. He wasn't gonna say that, though. Just like he wasn't going to say he wanted to see her. Even though he did.
"What you do?" Des asked.
Ja shrugged, walking over to the weights. "I mean.."
"Had sex with Malia then started ignoring her."
"Aight." The guard waved his hands, looking at Brooklyn. "Allat ain't true."
Brook crossed her arms. "What did happen?"
Ja licked over his lips, taking the weight from the rack. "I ain't really ina' mood ta' explain allat but basically I handled sum' wrong."
His girl friends best friend rolled her eyes one last time and exited the room. It was silent for a moment before Desmond looked at Ja, shaking his head.
"Nigga. What are you doing?"
The guard shrugged. "What you mean?"
"You realize Malia and Brook is best friends, right?" He started, tying his shoes. "I can't be fuckin' around wit' the enemy."
Ja chuckled, brushing the comment off. "Fuck up."
After their workout, Ja went to his house before going next door to his parents place. Kaari was there and he wanted to see her so that's what he was doing.
"Where Kaari?"
Jamie placed her hands on her hips. "With her Mama. Came and got her little while ago."
"Oh, aight." The guard walked over to the couch and plopped down on it, oblivious to his mothers glare at first. "What happened?"
"Boy. TeNiya asked Malia to pick her up."
Ja frowned. "Okay. What that gotta do wit'-"
"Why that girl told me on the phone she ain't seen you all week but I seen you all week?" Jamie crossed her arms. "What yo' problem is?"
