"𝐆𝐀𝐌 𝐌𝐘 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄," I walked into his bedroom. He was lying down in the bed, watching television. Graham looked over at me and nodded, "Alright take your iPod in case of an emergency," he tells me.
"Yes sir."
He sits up and gets out the bed. "I'll walk you out," he says as we walk out his room. "And make sure you're back by six it's a school night," he adds. "Ok." I run into my room and grab my iPod.
I head into the living room and Graham is opening the door, "How y'all doing gentlemen," he ask the guys.
"Doing good Mr. Lee how are you," I heard Jahmir ask.
"Good."
I walked past Graham, "Y'all take care of Noelani," he says to them.
"Yes sir we will!"
"Alright y'all have fun," he waves.
They rode their bikes over and Kenan was the only one with pegs. I put my iPod inside my back pocket before balancing myself on the bike pegs. "You ready," he asks me, I held onto Kenan's shoulders.
"Yeah."
They rode up my street. "Yo' dad cool as hell," Micah says. I smile. "Y'all say that every time y'all come over!"
"Cause he is—"
"He lets you go anywhere."
Graham trusts me and allows me to have fun but he's also transparent about things before I make any decisions. "I don't go everywhere though," I answer.
"I've never met a girl that can go hang out with four boys to the park by herself," Micah adds.
I laugh, "But he's met y'all several times," I reply. He would never let me leave the house with them if he didn't know who they were.
"That's true."
——
"What's up Jason," Bryson yelled out. I turned my head and saw a white boy walking over to us smiling.
"What's up? How are y'all," he asks, dapping them up. He looked familiar. "Good."
"This our friend Noelani she's playing with us," Kenan introduces me. Jake looks over and smiles at me. "You look familiar," he tells me.
"Yeah you do too," I agree with him.
Jake stares at me before asking, "Did you go to Hall County?"
I nod my head. "Yes—"
"Are you the girl with the white dad?"
"Uh yea..."
Jake looks around then back at me. "I'm sorry I didn't mean anything by that," he says.
I shake my head, "It's okay I understand."
It grew silent. Kenan cleared his throat and spoke up, "Ight let's get this game started how yall tryna' play?"
"First to Twenty," Jahmir suggested.
Everyone nodded in agreement. "Bet I'll take Mir and Lani," Kenan called out. I am terrible at sports so I don't know why I'm playing with the guys but they didn't want the team to be uneven.
The score is now 16-18, Micah's team is winning. I've barely been giving the ball but I try my best to guard.
Mir faces my direction and quickly passed the ball over to me. Nervously, I fumble almost losing the ball as Jake ran over to guard me. I begin bouncing the ball as he stared at me intensely.
"Come on Lani," Jahmir shouted, snapping me out of my thoughts.
I sighed as I dribbled the ball and began running closer to the goal. Jake followed all of my movements, "Shoot it Ni!"
I looked around briefly and saw Kenan to my far left and Jahmir across from me. I took a deep breath and stared up at the goal.
Jake tried hitting at the ball and I leaned back. I dribbled the ball once more before shooting up at the goal. Everyone watched as the ball went into the air, the ball preceded to come down and into the goal. 18-18, a tie!
I stood there with my mouth opened, shocked. This was my first score ever. "Oh shit yes Lani," the guys cheered for me.
Jake held his hand out and I gave him a high five, "That was good," he tells me.
The guys walk over, "Ms. Two Points," Kenan says as he pats my back.
"Lucky," Micah yells.
I laugh and shake my head. "Micah you a hater," I say to him.
He shrugs, "We not on the same team right now sorry."
——
"Knew that wasn't gone last long," Bryson says.
We were sitting on the bench. Micah's team won! "Still ass bro," Jahmir told him. Bryson shrugged his shoulders, "Nigga stop crying!"
Jake laughed, "Y'all came back though all thanks to Noelani cause it would've been over before then," Jake says, looking over at me.
I smile. "Them two points definitely helped y'all—"
"But not enough!"
Micah and Bryson laughed. "Y'all so corny," Kenan chuckled, shaking his head.
"Y'all tryna' go to the gas station I'm hungry," Mir asked. Of course it was him to ask.
"Fat ass."
"I can't. I have to go home but I'll talk to y'all later," Jake says as he daps the guys up. "Ight bet."
He walks up to me and gives me a side hug, "It was nice meeting you Noelani."
"You too."
He heads up the street. "You wanna come Ni or you have to go home," he asks.
"I'll come I'll just let Graham know where I'm going," I tell them.
"Alright come on."
____
𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦. 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦.
