tongue piercing • liangelo ball [ON HOLD]

iii - him

"Do you ever worry about coming off as a douche or would you rather scare any girl off from actually liking you one bit?" Lamelo asks as we get into my car.

"Shut up man, there are plenty of girls at this school dying to be my girlfriend." I say defensively I start the drive back home. Lamelo is silent for a minute and finally speaks up.. 

"Yeah, you're so sure. Kinda like I'm sure they just want to say they've been able to ride your dick. Seriously man, you should try acting a little less like a douche." He says.

"What if I did? Then everyone would call me soft." I say. What else would I be known for? Lamelo and Lonzo have always gotten the spotlight for their basketball skills. I've just always been known as the player, never been known to be in a true relationship.

"I know you have a reputation to uphold but seriously, that could have really gone badly for you." Lamelo says as we pull up in our driveway. He gets out with his MCM backpack and practically runs to the backyard where the basketball hoops are. 

I walk into the house straight into my bedroom, ignoring Lonzo trying to talk to me. He usually doesn't give me any attention anyways. I flop straight onto my bed and try to sleep until my phone starts buzzing like crazy. 

eli🤙🏼: aye bro, i saw you tryna get at erin. it work?

eli🤙🏼: oh and btw practice is gonna start at 5:30 tonight instead of 5:00

eli🤙🏼: you asleep again bro? 

eli🤙🏼: i'm coming over

I decide to actually sleep. If Eli thought that's what I was doing it'd be a great excuse right? As soon as I start to drift off I'm awoken by Eli barging in my room and yelling at me to wake up.

"Why you gotta ruin a possibly very good nap like that man?" I ask.

"Because I'm a nosey friend. How did it go with Erin?" Eli asks and I roll my eyes. Sounds about right. All he wants to know is if I would think about committing to a relationship with her. 

"Gave her my number. Told her to hit me up if she wanted to hook up. Melo says I came off too douchey and that I need to act a little softer. But then who would I be if I did that? So I said nah." I said.

"So basically Liangelo the douche is only a douche because he has an identity crisis? All of the years of meaningless hookups and pregnancy scares because you have a reputation, but you're not even aure that's the real you?" Eli asks and I sit up and look at him like he's crazy.

"Where'd you get that idea?" I ask and he rolls his eyes.

"You kinda just implied that. Anyways, you might wanna start getting ready for practice, coach said if anyone is even exactly on time today we're running an extra 25 sprints. I'm not tryna do that." Eli says and gets up. 

As I put on my practice jersey I begin to think about what Eli said. Yeah, I'm not a hindred percent sure who I am. I know that all the pregnancy scares and meaningless hookups are getting old but what's the point in stopping now? It's not like I'm getting out of that hole anytime soon. I begin to change shorts as Melo starts yelling from outside. I assume he's yelling at Lonzo, the way he's screaming. 

I open up my window and shout "Shut up dumb ass!" 

"You need some sleep grumpy head ass." Lonzo yells back and I laugh sarcastically. 

"Nice one. I'll use that one next time I'm in a fight with a five year old." I say and close my window and head downstairs. 

My mom has already packed up our dinner for to-go and I round up Melo and force him into the car. Eli drove himself so I don't have to drive him. Melo and I sit in silence for the drive to the gym and he gets out without a word too. We both get our bags and get in the gym with five minutes to spare. Although we're still early, we're the last ones to show up.

"Okay, now that everyone is here, let's get to business. We need to work on defense and our scoring in the paint. We are gonna divide you up into two groups today, and half the parctice is going to be spent doing both parts. So half of you go with Liangelo to the defensive side, have of you go with Lamelo to the paint side." Our coach says and I jog over to the side of the court Lamelo didn't occupy. 

"So how do we wanna do this?" I ask the rest of the team. 

Daijon comes up with the idea that we go with after tossing around ideas for a few miutes. We divided those of us on this side of the court into halves and one team is offense first. One person goes up against another and if the person on offense scores, another offensive person keeps going against that one person can get a stop and vice versa. We do this for about an hour, with me getting the most points until we switch sides. 

After practice is over and we've done out running Lamelo and I decide to go to Daijon's house and hang out for a little bit. Our curfew isn't until 11:00, and either way it's only 8:34 by the time we get to his house. 

"Did you guys see that new junior girl? She fine as hell, bro." Will says and I mentally roll my eyes. Why does everybody seem to be wanting her? Yeah, she's beautiful but don't they know I've already gone after her?

"Bro, Liangelo's already gone after her. You know it's just to fuck but still." Phaquon says and I smirk. 

"You eight." I say and take a drink of my water from my bottle.

"Does that wver get old?" Lamelo asks and i raise an eyebrow at him. "I mean always meanlessly fucking someone. And then them making you think you got them pregnant. Does it get old?" He adds.

"Nope." I lie.