aLOVEthing

two | excuse me, miss

Stephen plopped onto the chair alongside the court to gather his breath. The sweat was profusely dripping down his face and he was so tired, he felt like he could faint any minute. But hard work wasn't pretty and Steph knew that from the jump.

He worked so hard that he tweaked his own ankle and he wanted to nurse it back to health more than anything. And on top of that, his emotions about Heart were running wild. He felt the need to just let everything out on the court.

"Yo, the media's ready for you. But you look like you aren't ready for them." Draymond took a seat next to him.

"I'll be good in a few minutes." Steph leaned over onto his knees as he let the sweat drop from his nose, down the floor. He tried to regulate his breathing, making Dray arch his eyebrow in confusion as to why he was acting so weird lately.

"What's buggin' you, man?"

"Nothing really."

"Nothing really." Dray mocked him before smacking his lips. "That's a damn lie."

"I'm just frustrated with these paper ankles."

"Maybe you shouldn't be so hard on yourself."

"Always room for improvement, right?" Dray shrugged in response.

"What did she do?" Steph quickly looked at Draymond, as he folded his arms and sat back in his chair with a smirk forming on his face. "You can't fool me, bruh. I know something isn't right."

"I don't know." Steph sighed.

"Ya'll doing okay? It seems like you are."

"Yeah & that's it. We're just okay."

"Well, why are you two just okay?"

"Just distance, I guess."

"Nah, nah, nah." Dray waved his hands. "That's bullshit. Distance shouldn't matter if you two really want to make this work."

"I do want to make things work!"

"Okay so what the hell are you talking about, Steph?"

"I don't know if she does though. We don't talk as much as we used to. And when we do, she's always super tired or occupied with other things she needs to catch up with. Like.. other work on top of the work she already does."

"Man, let's not go back to this whole selfish thing alright? That girl is in a whole new city by herself, trying to get some work done. Of course she's going to be busy, she probably doesn't even realize it herself." Steph leaned back onto his chair as he stared at the ceiling.

"I miss her. I miss being able to hold her whenever I can and I miss being able to just run to her whenever I have a bad day."

"Exactly, she did all that extra work for you while you were out there doing your thing during the season. It's her season right now. You gotta be the one to do the extra work sometimes, bruh. When she's busy, be that rock for her. It aint fair to let her always be that backbone. She got a life to live too, Steph." He closed his eyes as he let Draymond's words sink into his head.

"You're right."

"I know, tell me something I don't know." Steph chuckled as he sat upright.

"I'm just not used to this."

"That's why you learn. I got you. So anyways, how is Heart doing in general?"

"Cool. She seems to really like what she's doing and learning. Even though she gets super occupied, she manages to put the biggest smile on her face at the end of the day." He chuckled to himself as the image of Heart's smile popped into his head.