Lamentations #Wattys2020

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I shuffle uncomfortably in my seat as the crowd cheers. Pavilion High's gym is filled to the brim with people and the volume seems to increase with every small movement the players make.

I throw a piece of popcorn in my mouth and resist the urge to pull out my phone so that I can browse through Twitter and check out what's going on in Love Island. Sports was not my forte and I'd much rather spend time figuring out how to watch England's LI from flippin' Texas than watch Rakeem play. It was easier to fake the excitement for basketball when we were together because I would genuinely get excited to see him play the game he loves. Now I just don't see the point in coming to these types of things.

'How much longer?' I can't help but ask. Guinevere sighs.

'There's like thirty seconds left.'

The score was 4-3 with our team in the lead, our team's captain responsible for that. I keep my eye on him, number fourteen, as he dribbles the ball across the court. Danny, another member of the team is wide open, and close to the net. If Rakeem would pass the ball to him, it would be a whole lot easier to score another basket. I wonder what choice he's going to make, especially since I know he can be arrogant.

'I could do so much better than you.'

I resist a shiver as I remember the cruel words he threw at me during our argument, the last time we'd spoken before my last English lesson.

I'd stormed into the janitor's closet and shut the door behind me with such a force that it should have popped right off. I hadn't cared if he was following behind or if he had already left, in that moment I just wanted to be alone. To my surprise, the door handle was pushed down and I watched as he threw the door open before slamming it shut again.

'I wasn't finished talking to you Sada.' He said, anger laced around his voice.

'Rakeem, please just go-'

He grabbed my wrist and turned me around to face him. 'No. You don't get to embarrass me like that and just get away with it. Everyone is saying that you were all over that guy.'

'Well I'm telling you that I wasn't. And who is everyone? Your sidechicks?'

He kisses his teeth, turning away from me. His reaction only angered me further. How could he leach on to his friends' dislike of me to even accuse me of cheating, and then get annoyed when I questioned him?

'You think I haven't seen the way you look at Nathalie? The way she looks at you? I'm not an-'

Idiot? But I never asked about it. I never said anything until that moment in the janitor's closet.

'Go have fun with them then and leave me in peace.' I tell him, willing him to leave but really wanting him to stay. To apologise, to tell me that he was wrong. But he just stared at me, gave me a cold hard look as if he was tired of me.

'You think you're so bad, don't you?' The tone of his voice took a monstrous turn, becoming venomous and sly. The smirk he gave me was devoid of all jokes, joy. All I could see was contempt. I knew that I wasn't going to like whatever he was about to tell me but I wanted to know what it was.

'You're not even my type, and you think I'm gonna get on my knees and beg for you? You know how many foreigns I could bag? Lightskins? And you think I'd settle for you? You were just a-'

He stopped talking, his eyes stalking the tears falling down my face. All of a sudden his eyes widened and his face softened until a look of grim realisation took over.