When 7 came around and Ja still hadn't seen or heard from Malia, he gave her a call. She sent him right to voicemail so he called her again, slightly confused.
Ja got the same result so he called Brooklyn to see if she knew where Malia was. "Yo."
"Hello." Brook's voice rang through the phone with a slight attitude as it very often did. "Let me guess... You're looking for Malia."
The guard let out a breath. "Yeah."
Brooklyn disregarded what he said, placing him on speaker as she scrolled through Instagram. "You went out last night. There's pictures all over social media."
Ja moved the phone away from his ear, understanding all of a sudden. "FUCK!"
That was why Malia didn't come over after work and that's why he was currently unable to get into touch with her. Malia found out he went and to be honest, Ja didn't know exactly why he was surprised.
"You do realize you're famous, right?" Brook asked, holding her phone between her ear and shoulder. "If you do something out in public, people will know."
Ja wasn't in the mood for that so he didn't bother answering her comment. "Have you talked to Malia?"
"Nope."
"I tol' her I was finna go ta' sleep last night and stepped out wit' D-Tap." The point guard explained, looking frantically around for his keys. "And I got drunk as fuck."
Brook sighed. "I gathered as much. Didn't the commissioner just lift some of your suspension?"
News broke earlier of Adam Silver cutting the suspension for the young guard in half. Everyone was proud of him for therapy, including Adam, so he decided to loosen his stance of the incident.
No one in the media really made much of Ja Morant going out. He was a 23- year old and he was allowed to do that. So, that wasn't gonna change anything about taking games off his suspension because that wasn't the main focal point of him receiving it.
So, no one in the media cares and his fan base didn't care, either.
Ja knew Malia did, though.
"Yeah." He mumbled. "Is Malia home?"
Brooklyn walked down the hallway out their complex in her pajamas, knocking on Malia's door. "I just knocked on her door."
He was already on his way out of the house with Brooklyn on speaker, waiting for him to tell her if she was there. Wherever he was, Ja had every intention of figuring it out.
"Hi, Lia..." The guard could hardly hear Brook's muffled voice. "Ja.... wondering where you were."
Then, the phone hung up.
Ja started his car, cursing softly to himself as he prepared every single thing he could do to apologize when he got there.
Malia could hear Ja when he came into the apartment because she was in the kitchen already, cutting something. The guard heard the knife hitting the cutting board repeatedly, not able to make out her mood.
"I don't want to argue tonight." Malia said, voice coming out soft. "So, I think you should come back tomorrow."
Ja removed his slides, looking at her through his dreads. "Malia, ain't no way fa' me ta' explain this shit ta' you."
Malia didn't say anything back and didn't even turn towards him. She wasn't about to be yelling and cursing just for him to do the same thing in a few weeks. There just wasn't a point.
"Baby."
His deep voice saying that almost brought tears to her eyes but Malia also realized she couldn't cry every time he messed up. There was no point in that, either.
