nothing less ➸ demar derozan

twenty-two

Isabella

"Are you going to Bryson's party?" I ask Haro as he enters my car. We were on our way to school and he missed his ride with Reggie.

He shakes his head, "Nah."

"You're not?"

"I heard some things about that party," he says.

"Like what?" I hadn't heard anything about the party. I hoped he didn't give me the usual lecture of not drinking or doing drugs. Paul and I weren't going to do any of that. We just simply wanted to cross it off our bucket list.

He chews on his waffle, "That some dude was gonna raid it."

"What do you mean?"

He turns toward me, "Like some dude is gonna go up in there and shoot people."

I furrow my eyebrows, "The party isn't even in Compton."

"Don't matter," he shrugs, "did you forget that LA is like thirty minutes away?"

I shake my head, "No."

"They might cancel it."

"And if they don't, will you still go?"

He shakes his head, "I ain't trying to die."

"What about Reggie?"

"Doubt he's going. He said he gots something that night anyway."

"Like what?" I look at him curiously. I started driving a bit quicker once I realized we were about to be late.

"I think he got a college visit," he says.

"For real?"

"Yeah," Haro says. "At USC, they invited him to this thing and it's like he gets a whole college experience for two days."

"That's cool."

He nods, "Reggie is doing big things."

I chuckle, "He sure is. I'm so proud of him."

"I know you probably don't want to hear this, but did you hear how DeMar was on some newspapers earlier?"

"Huh?"

"DeMar is like the best player here."

"Oh yeah, I know that," I say. It was true, but the other boys were good too. I wasn't sure why they never received any clout.

"Wait, why are you even mentioning the party?" He asks as I enter the parking lot. We quickly grab our things and hop out of the car. I meet him by his side.

I shrug, "Paul and I were going to go to it."

"You're not going," he says sternly.

"Why not?"

He shakes his head, "A lot of things are supposed to happen, Isa. It's safer if you don't go, trust me."

With those words, he walks off and enters the building. I groaned and followed behind him. I wasn't ready to face DeMar this morning. I was still angry at him for his little antics that happened a couple days ago.

As I'm walking in, I see that Mr. Hudd was assigning us in groups. I groan as I notice the pattern he's doing; I'd be sitting with DeMar. There were some other girls with them but I was just bummed that I had to sit next to him.

"Figueroa, next to DeRozan," Mr. Hudd points. I sit down next to a hooded DeMar, and I catch the girls glaring at me. DeMar takes off his hood and I am able to notice his red eyes. He didn't smell like he was doing drugs, but it was evident that he sad. I wonder what occupied his mind at night.