Stay in Your Lane | Lonzo Ball

Chapter 16

Izzy

There's nothing like waking up to a game day on a beautiful Sunday. I was energized and ready to play after a good nights sleep. To knock out getting in some cardio and getting something to eat, I elected to walk to the cafeteria. I listened to my game day playlist while watching Snapchat videos and scrolling through my Twitter and Instagram.

People had been tagging Zo and I in the clips from our ESPN interview. It was reposted by Slam Magazine and other sports related accounts. I didn't respond to anything. Seeing his face annoyed the hell out of me.

The cafe was full, mostly of the students who were taking buses to church which came around around ten. Everyone else on campus was probably still in their beds getting over hangovers.

Fresh fruit, a veggie omelet and a bagel were my choices along with a cold glass of water. I had been slacking on eating correctly and needed to get back on track. Keeping my body fit was important to me.

I sat down by myself. Enjoying my meal and thinking about the game. We were currently undefeated. I wanted to keep things that way. We had the tools to do so, we just had to make sure that we were on the same page every time we hit the floor.

"Hey Izzy."

I looked up with a mouth full of food. Zo stood in front of me, in a BBB sweat suit holding a tray of fruit, bacon and eggs. He looked like he had a long night with no sleep. It was all over his face.

"Yeah sure," I mumbled, continuing to chew my food.

As soon as he sat down I stood up, grabbed my things and walked out. I forced myself to not look back. Once outside, my phone started to ring. He was calling me. I declined it as I hopped on the campus shuttle bus. He called two more times. Same result. Did he really think after the other night that he could just come up to me like everything was normal?  I blocked his number and went about my day as I had it planned.

I went back to my room and took a nap. When my alarm went off, it was time to head to the gym and prep for the early afternoon tip off.

We dressed in our white home jerseys. Underneath I wore my favorite sports bra and compression shorts, the rolled my game shorts up so they weren't touching my knees. I hated that look. I smoothed my hair up into a bun and tied my white Adidas headband around my crown. After putting on my warm up top, I went out to the court with Jordan to shoot around a little bit. Getting my mind in the zone.

When the game started, I was able to use that as an escape from all of the bullshit drama. I took it out on the opponent. Today had to have been one of my most physical games. I went head to head with their best guard and ended up getting the best of her. We pulled off the 84-64 win and improved our record with a zero remaining in the loss column.

I showered and changed into a comfy pair of gym shorts, tank top and slides. Jerrold had text me to let me know he was waiting outside for me with Chat and my parents. My little Gracie was sick and staying with grandma. They congratulated me on a good game. Dad invited them out to dinner with us. Instead of choosing his restaurant, mom was in the mood for Italian.

As soon as I got in the car, I had remembered that I left one of my gym bags in my locker. Not wanting to make the trip up here once we got back, I hustled back inside to grab it.

Jogging down the stairs in between the bleachers, I heard a basketball dribbling and assumed it was one of the girls.

Zo. How coincidental? A gym rat just like me. One reason why we used to gel as well as we did. He must have been at the game today.

I attempted to go unnoticed. However, I just had to be clumsy and bump into one of the rails and made the loudest noise I could possibly make.

He looked up in my direction. I looked down at my phone and continued my route to the locker room. Hopefully this gives him the hint to not waste his time approaching.

I quickly grabbed my bag and walked back towards the door. When I opened it, I saw Lonzo now standing in the hallway. The ball he was previously shooting with rested between his arm and hip while he looked at his phone.

Not drawing any attention to myself, I went in the opposite direction of where he stood.

"Izzy."

He must have heard my footsteps. Ignored.

"Izzy...Izzy. Wait up," he called after me again.

I continued walking despite the sound of his footsteps quickening and nearing.

Before I knew it he had jumped in between me and the double doors that I had planned to walk out of. I went to reach for the knob and he shifted over just enough to block me from doing so.

"Move out of my way," I could hear the hiss in my voice.

"I need to talk to you," he was pleading with his eyes, but I wasn't going for it, "like seriously."

"I don't want to talk to you, so move."

"You're upset with me...we're upset with each other. I get it but can we just talk through it."

"Upset with me?" I scoffed, "you accused me of taking sides with your trashbox girlfriend that I don't know from a can of paint! You find out she's cheating on you and find a way to blame me."

"How did you expect me to feel, Izzy?"

"I've known you for less than a month. Cut me a damn break. I didn't know how to come out and say it to you but I kept giving you the best advice I could to help show you. But whatever, it's cool. According to you I'm fake and didn't value our friendship. That's funny to me seeing as how I didn't want to really fuck with you like that in the first place but you grew on me and I ended up spending almost everyday with you. I shared parts of my past with relationships that I've only told my best friend. Yeah Zo, that really sounds like someone who doesn't care. So with that being said, don't call me, don't text me. You're blocked. Don't hit me up on social media either...I don't exist to you and you don't exist to me. Bye."

I pushed past him, bumping his shoulder and let myself out through the doors. Not feeling a bit of remorse for what came out of my mouth. He did it to himself. As far as Lonzo Ball is concerned, I'm done.