more life / b.simmons (2)

15

when kailen and kyra enter the party, followed by the boys, all eyes are on them. girls and guys gawk at them, leaning into their friends and whispering. it makes kyra nervous, but being next to kailen gives her a sense of confidence.

kailen walks them over to where a majority of team flash is and greets them. surprisingly, kyra receives hugs from her now teammates, and even mikey. "i like you shoes," she says, bur he doenst hear her.

"what?" he leans in closer to her, his hand on the small of her back. she tries to ignore elephant stampede in her stomach. no one has ever held her like that.

"i like your shoes," she says louder. he smiles and gives her a once over.

"thank you. you look good," she thanks him and looks around for her brother. once she finds him, she excuses herself from mikey and heads over to adrian, tossing her arm around his shoulder.

"y'all, this my sister, kyra. that's cameron, taijon, and malakai," he says, introducing her to one of her teammates and two guys she probably won't ever see again.

"hey," she says, waving at them and letting go of her brother. "imma be with kailen tonight." adrian nods and they do their handshake before she walks off.

kailen stands amongst two other girls—both tall like kailen—shaqir and donovan. "oh! this is kyra, she's hella cool. kyra, this is makayla and naomi," kailen says. the girls wave and kyra waves back. makayla is dark skinned, with smooth and clear skin, and naomi is half black and half asian, with long hair down to her waist. both extremely pretty. "she plays basketball with those two." kailen adds.

"you play on a boys team?" naomi asks. kyra nods and cracks her knuckles against her leg in a nervous manner. "why?"

"because they needed a point guard, and all the girls teams i know want me to be a center, and i'm not going for it," she says. naomi nods understandingly.

"i know i'm not nearly as tall as you, but i get it. they force me to play a 4. kayla plays a 5 and she's barely taller than me!" naomi exclaims.

"you guys are only posts because you guys can't do anything else," shaqir says. makayla socks him in the arm and naomi raises her hand up to slap him, and he cowers. "i was just playing! stop abusing me!" he says. kyra rolls her eyes at shaqir and looks around, searching mostly for bronny.

she finds him and they lock eyes, smiling. kyra sending a wave his way, and he returns it. she goes back to her group, a smile on her face.

kyra's bumped into and she whips around, ready to go off on whoever it is. "my bad, ky," julian says, towering over her.

"it's cool," she says. he looks her up and down, licking his lips. the way he looks at her makes her unexpectedly nervous. what's up with her teammates tonight?

"you look good," he says before walking off, looking at her over his shoulder.

kailen elbows her in the side, getting her attention "girl, what the hell was that?!"

"i dont know," she says truthfully. she's never talked to julian like that. that was nothing she expected. two in one night—she must look better than she thought.

"girl, i would be all over that," makayla says, looking at kyra with wide eyes.

"he's single."

"he's not checking for me girl, and he's too young," she says.

"he's about to be a freshman," kyra says, tilting her head to the side.

"exactly. i'm about to be a sophomore. we all are, except you," she says. kyra has never been the youngest out of everyone until now.

over by bronny, he stands with zaire, josh, shareef, and few guys from sierra canyon. bronny constantly looks over at kyra, just to see what she's doing. josh notices and hits bronny in the shoulder. "why you staring so hard?"