Something About Him

-11-

Layla Wilkes

I pull up in front of Chris'  house and as soon as I park, I pick my phone up from the cup holder that it was sat in and I text him to come outside and after about three minutes, he does.

I watch as he jogs down the driveway with Nike sweatpants on with Nike slides on as well. When Chris reaches my car, he opens up the passenger side door, gets in and then slams the door shut behind him. He looks out of the window towards the front door of his house one more time before turning to me and with a head nod, he says, "Wassup?"

"Wassup?" I mock him. "You asked me to come to your house for you to just say wassup?" I ask which makes him laugh lightly and then abruptly he leans over the arm rest pulling me into a hug.

I frown in a joking way but still hug him back. "Ion like you right now," I joke.

"For why?"

"Cause you should've came to the game tonight. You're so corny."

"How I'm corny when ion even have a choice? My moms never tryna let me leave the house," he shakes his head.

"Why though?" I ask him.

"She uh," he sighs. "She's real protective over me."

"Did you used to get in a lot of trouble when you were younger or something?" I press.

"Nah," he answers dryly. "And I don't really wanna have this conversation right now."

"Fine," I respond. If he doesn't wanna talk about it I won't force him to even though I'm really really curious.

Chris sighs and then says, "So. How was the game?"

"They won. Well the guys did. The girls lost as they always do," I tell him.

"Damn, they never win. They need a new coach or somethin'," Chris comments.

"They really do cause Coach Marie not cutting it. She always being tough on them but it never pays off," I agree.

"I only see videos on Instagram and allat relating the games. The girls lose every single time and the guys always leave their hearts out on the court. Something ain't right."

"It's the coach like I said," I repeat. "But that's gonna change soon right?" I ask. "You're gonna show up to one of the games coming up?"

Chris sighs and then looks over towards me. "I'll see Layla, but I doubt it."

"You can never go wrong with asking. If your mom says no, so be it, but it's just that when everyone's around just hanging out, you're never there."

He shrugs his shoulder and says, "I'll see, alright," and in response, I nod my head.

"So you play tomorrow right?" He questions me.

"Yep. Games back to back. Last week and then this week too," I let him know.

"Sounds like a lot going on. Can you deal?"

I shrug my shoulder in response. "It's something that I love so of course I can deal with it. I feel like if you can't then you shouldn't even play on the team because you're not passionate about it. There's no point."

"Cool, cool," Chris responds with a little laugh as he pulls out his phone. "Aye, add me on the snap."

"No. You add me."

He looks up from his phone and mugs me for a second. "I followed you first on Instagram."

"And... you could add me first on snapchat, too," I suggest. "Don't be petty Chris."