Perfectly Imperfect

Chapter 19

A Few Months Later

Dre

It's the last home game of the season and senior night, the whole school has been lit all day, but this is the moment I've been looking forward too. My last home game in high school, I don't whether to be nervous or excited, but I'm ready, especially after taking a tour of UCLA, I want to prove I'm worthy to be on the team. After everything with Diamond happened, I realized just how much I've been slacking off. I got back on track and surprisingly shit has been going well lately, at least outside of my love life. Jason and Sherry have kept their word as far as taking care of Ari, she stays with Jason during the week and I get her on Fridays for the weekend, unless I have a game like tonight. Nikki is actually a pretty cool chick, and after that favor I called in she has a new job working at a luxury hotel as a bartender. We've become pretty close friends and her daughter absolutely adores Ari. Lay and I have even reconnected, I couldn't stay mad at her forever and after getting over the initial tension, awkwardness, and sexual attraction, it's been a good distraction from Diamond.

I mean looking back on it, Diamond was right, our friendship is more important, and we both have shit too work on before we can even talk about being together. But I still find myself missing her. I miss kissing her, and waking up with her, being able to spend time with her and go out, just us. Honestly, I didn't expect to miss her how much I do, the first few weeks were the worst, but I've learned to shift my focus into basketball and work.

My scoring, steals, and assists average has gone up and this little dream of mine to play at the bigger level is becoming a reality, it's a strange, exciting feeling. Music is bumping in the speakers around the locker, and everybody is dancing around and hyping themselves up. Even with the noise in the locker room, I can hear the chaos in the gym. I pray and kiss my dad's chain before I put it in my locker, coach comes and gives us her usual speech and I honestly tune her out as I get in my own zone.

When she's finished everybody leaves the locker room invigorated but Lay pulls me aside giving me a smile. "You ready?"

"I have to be" she nods in understanding before her face turns serious.

"Coach didn't want anyone else to hear this, she said "you've been playing within the game plan and system your entire career, now it's time for you to play how I know you can. You have the greenlight and I expect you to use it", go fucking kill it Dre" Lay says, and I smirk before running out the locker room to catch up with my team.

One of the first things I notice when I look into the crowd is Sherry, Jason, Ari, and Rebecca are sitting together, it's the first time Sherry has seen me play and it's kind of weird, so instead I decide to look somewhere else. That's when I see Izzy, Diamond, and Monica each with a sign making me smile and shake my head they're extra as fuck, but I've grown to love and appreciate them all. We start warming up and all I can really think about is how ready I am to do my father proud; he's watching me in heaven, and I want to play my hardest for him.

It seemed as though everything is looking up and I want to build on it as much as I can. The whistle blows signaling the start of the game and I'm not sure if it's the adrenaline or everybody's excitement but within the first thirty seconds we score sending a buzz of positive energy throughout the gym.

We continue to go back and forth for the first quarter, but in the beginning of the second, we start to pull away and I begin to find a rhythm. I have 15 points, 3 steals, and 4 assists, I still haven't missed a shot and I can tell the girl guarding me is getting frustrated. She starts holding on to my jersey and subtly pushing me when the ref is looking, even if I'm not moving, she seems to have her hands on me. At first, I was getting irritated, but I don't want to change the energy for the team, so now I'm trying to ignore her. Her team is trying to get the last shot, but they make the mistake of trying to pass to the girl I'm guarding giving me the perfect opportunity to steal the ball. I race down the court two defenders a step behind me, and the clock shows five seconds left. I manage to get a floater up a little past the foul line when I feel a body crash into me from behind sending us crashing to the floor.