Love and Basketball (Lauren/You)

Chapter 7

Y/N'S POV

The constant vibrating of my phone woke me the next morning. I groaned and answered without looking at the caller. "Hello?" My voice croaked out. Whoever was on the other side of the line had been laughing, but they slowly stopped once I answered. I took the phone away from my ear and cracked one of my eyes open to see that it was Lauren. I placed the phone back at my ear and waited for her response since she still hadn't said anything. I turned on my back and winced at the feeling.

"Y/N? Why do you sound like that? Are you sick?" Lauren started rattling off questions left and right and I could tell that she was starting to get worried. I shook my head and remembered that she could see me so I cleared my throat in hopes that it wouldn't be as scratchy as it was. Before I could reply though, Lauren kept going off with her worrying to the point where I had to shut her up myself. When she had stopped rambling, she came to a dead silence.

"I'm fine, but I just woke up." I rubbed my eyes tiredly and flinched at the pain that surged through my face. I didn't think I would ever have to feel this again in my life. Lauren remained quiet on the other end of the line for what seemed like an eternity. I feared somehow she knew what had happened, and she was waiting for me to cave in and tell her. I held my breath subconsciously until Lauren finally spoke up with her raspy voice.

"Well get up sleepyhead, I've been waiting to talk to you forever now." She whined. "You should be getting ready to leave anyways, your plane leaves in like two hours. You're all packed right? Did you double check everything before you went to bed?" I closed my eyes and just listened to my girlfriend as she went on with her motherly ways. I could feel myself start to doze in and out of consciousness until Lauren had called my name. I hummed, keeping my eyes closed. "Are you sure you're okay? You're worrying me." She mumbled.

"Babe I'm fine." I tried to sound as convincing as possible. "But thank you for waking me up, I should double check everything before I leave to the airport. It's a while away too, so I'm going to get ready. If you're not doing anything, text me and I'll get back to you when I can, okay?" I tried to sit up in my spot but the pain was too much. I bit my lip so that I wouldn't make any noise as I had to lay back down. Lauren agreed to my words but didn't say anything after that. "I love you." I spoke softly, knowing that's what she was waiting for.

"I love you too." I could practically hear the smile in Lauren's voice until I hung up the call. I knew I had to face the grueling task of getting myself up so that I could get ready to leave. I groaned loudly at the feeling of pain as I tried standing up from the bed. I stood on shaky legs and looked down to see the bruises starting to turn a purplish color. I sighed heavily and made my way into the bathroom. The cuts around my body and face had scabbed over, leaving disgusting marks. I knew it was going to take a lot of makeup to cover everything up, and I was nowhere near skilled using any type of makeup. I rummaged around the bathroom that I still needed to finish cleaning out for the makeup I had before beginning to cover up the bruises on my face along with any other marks I came across. It seemed to take forever, only because the rest of my body was aching and wanting rest already.

When I figured that my face was covered enough, I sighed again and started cleaning up the rest of the bathroom so that I didn't leave anything behind. I did as Lauren said, double checking that I had everything before I grabbed an outfit and put all my bags by the door. The American league had set everything up, the housing, the transportation, and everything in between so that we didn't have to worry about anything. I knew the driver would be here any minute to take me to the airport so I had everything ready for when that time came. I slowly dressed myself in my white shirt with my black Adidas hoodie over that, my black joggers, and my white Adidas shoes. When I heard the knock on my door, I slipped my jean jacket over my hoodie and slipped a hat over my head, along with sunglasses over my eyes. I pulled the hood over my hat and grabbed all my bags before answering the door. The driver helped me with my bags until we packed everything in the car. I took one last look at the apartment I had stayed in for the summer before sliding into the car where the driver took off towards the airport.