City of Champions: Jalen Hurts

16

Reese squatted the bar for the very last time before lifting it onto the rack. "Holy shit."

"That was good, Reese." Ray said, his loud applause echoing through the gym. "You're good to go for the day. Just remember a full meal tonight for dinner."

She nodded, taking a seat on the floor. "Thank you."

Reese laid flat on her back as he left, heaving in and out to get her breathing straight. She wasn't working out as often as she usually would so she got gassed more easily now.

Despite the differences in her eating habits and gym routine, Reese felt to be in really good shape. It was strange but things were shaping up really nicely.

She took one final breath before standing and brushing her bottom off. After retrieving her gym bag and other things, Reese was on her way out. A call from Layla set her fuzzy mind straight, so she answered after a few rings.

"Hey, Layla."

"Reese. Um..." Layla's unsure voice sailed through the phone in a way that made Reese's insides turn. "I called to say that... I'm free today. All day. If you want to talk."

Reese nodded to herself. "Sure. Do you want to meet at my house or yours? We could go somewhere else as well if you'd like."

After making plans to talk with one another, Reese rushed home to take a shower. She'd just left the gym and didn't want to stink around anyone. It wasn't like her to be unimpressive.

Reese was attempting to find comfort in being imperfect and while she was attempting to make progress on herself, it was difficult. She felt that it would be hard to break the habit of wanting to be prefect.

News was getting out of her health scare in Jamaica and their were mixed reactions from everyone. She had tried many times to assure the public that she'd be alright but people were gonna talk whether or not she cared to listen.

"Hey, Jordan." Reese greeted Jordan with a small smile. "I didn't know you'd be over here today."

Jordan looked up from his iPad, halfway acknowledging his younger sister. "What's good? Just watching film."

"Nice." She rocked back and forth on her feet for a moment before trying her luck. "Have you talked to Nolan?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "He doing better. They just tryna make his pops as comfortable as possible before... you know."

Reese thought sadly to herself. "Yeah. Damn. That's really sad."

She felt for Nolan. Despite what happened between them in the past, she was always willing to be there when a friend needed her. He'd been a big part of her life for so long so she wasn't willing to turn Jordan down when he asked her to go see Nolan with him.

He wasn't just her ex-crush, or someone that had broken her heart over a year ago. Nolan was her big brothers best college friend and a young man that her parents adored.

Either way, if someone needed comfort, Reese was going to try her best to help. Even if they couldn't do the same.

"What you bouta do?"

Reese tried clearing her thoughts before speaking. "Talking to Layla."

"You not seeing Jalen?"

"No."

She decided not to go into detail because Jordan didn't know about their fight. No one did except the two of them. Reese decided to keep it that way. She didn't want to hear what people had to say about she and Jalen.

Reese didn't want to hear that they weren't good for each other. She didn't want to hear that they fought too much. She didn't want to hear that they didn't see eye to eye on anything and how that would be detrimental in the long run.