The Contract. (Book One)

Fifty-Two || Team Lunch

The next day Klay dragged himself out of bed, getting ready for practice. He brushed his teeth, put on his practice clothes on, grabbed his gym bag, and headed out the door. His eyes were still swollen from the events that happened not too long ago, and his emotions were no where to be found. Whenever his teammates would talk in the group chat, he would either reply with one worded answers or not even answer at all.

Klay drove about forty-five minutes to the Warriors practice facility and got back into his usual routine. He arrived to the practice courts, lacing up his shoes, ready to forget about reality and focus on basketball for a couple of hours.

"Hey bud." Steph said, dribbling towards Klay.

"Sup." He replied bluntly, continuing to shoot the ball.

"You good? I heard about what happened at the meeting yesterday." Steph was hesitant whether or not he should bring the subject up or not.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Klay said with a straight face.

Steph sighed, knowing he wouldn't get any answers from Klay. So he dribbled to the other side of the court, working on his free throws.

A couple minutes later, Draymond and KD made their way over to Klay, knowing he wasn't acting like his usual self. He hasn't been for a while.

"Hey Klay, wanna work on some practice drills with us?" Draymond said, dribbling in between his legs.

"Nah, I'm good here, thanks though." He said, not making eye contact with anyone.

"Hey Klay, are you feeling alright?" KD said, as he was concerned for his teammate.

"Yeah don't worry about it." He said, in a blunt tone yet again.

"Hey look man, I'm sorry for everything that happened. I had no idea-" KD started before he was interrupted.

"I know KD, it already happened, it's fine." Klay said, in a more annoyed tone.

"We tried." Draymond sighed, as him and KD walked back to the other hoop, practicing with the other members of the team.

"Did he say anything?" Ian Clark asked.

"Nah, he's shutting everyone down." Draymond sighed, looking back at Klay.

"I mean you gotta feel bad for the man too. This dude really loved her." Javale said.

The rest of the practice was an awkward silence between the players, just the sound of dribbling basketballs and swishing nets. Practice felt like it dragged on for hours and hours, when it really was only two hours. Coach Kerr gave everyone a pep-talk, as they were headed into the NBA playoffs. Practice was dismissed and everybody headed into the locker rooms to shower and get freshened up.

"Hey Klay, we're gonna have lunch, do you wanna come with?" Steph asked.

"Thanks, but I'm good. I'm heading home." Klay said as he buttoned up his shirt and headed out the door without saying a single word to the team.

"We need to do something about this." Steph whispered, to Draymond.

"Lauren called me yesterday, saying she needed help with Klay. I can't do it on my own bro." Draymond said.

"Don't worry I gotchu. I just don't know how." Steph furrowed his eyebrows, trying to find a solution.

"Isn't Ayesha really good friends with Lauren?" Draymond asked.