My heart is beating like a drum inside my head, I’m exhausted, and these girls from Monterey are like walking skyscrapers. I have yet to get one rebound and my game has been reduced to stealing balls in order to turn them into points. I have two fouls against me and the couch is threatening to bench me if I get a third.
Drew’s watching from the sideline, but every time I look over there he has a girl in his face. Dating one of the hottest guys on the planet has its cons and girls who can’t keep their hands to themselves are one of them.
Focus Sid, focus…point guard at one o’clock!
I snap back into reality just in time to steal the ball as Monterey’s point guard goes up for a shot. Running for the ball I see one of my teammates flank to my left. I pretend to go up for a layup with one of the skyscrapers from Monterey hot on my trail. Instead, I toss the ball behind my back and Dominique puts it in the basket.
YES! Two points and counting…
We have to keep our lead. I don’t know how we did it, but we’re up by seven, “you got this Sidney!” Drew shouts from the sidelines.
I’m back at the other end of the court and the point guard is headed in my direction. Don’t get cocky Sid, just focus.
The point guard is right handed with the ability to use her left about twenty percent of the time. She favors her right side though and ninety-nine percent of the time she fakes left and goes right. I’m ready to steal the ball only she fakes right and goes left. Crap! She goes up for a jump shot and I may as well be a toddler tugging on her jersey. There’s no way I’m getting near the ball. Now they trail by five.
We rush down to the other end of the court and I wait for my teammates to setup their picks. Paula is the first to break free and I pass the ball to her faster than the girls from Monterey can intercept. She makes an easy layup and its back to the other end of the court. They trail by seven again.
We continue this song and dance until the last two minutes of the fourth quarter. I go to block a shot, hands straight up, and the ref blows his whistle, “FOUL!” he calls against me. WTF!
“What are you talking about? My hands were up!” I shout at the ref.
“Sid! Come out!” Couch calls out to me.
No! Crap!
I reluctantly head over to the sidelines with the rest of my team while Danielle takes my place. I’m so on edge that I’m literally biting my nails off. I glance over at Drew and there are even more girls around him now. He’s surrounded by groupies on all sides. I want nothing more than to beat the crap out of all of them, but they’ll have to wait. We’re back to a five-point lead and Monterey just made a three-point shot.
As Danielle gets the ball she dribbles back down the court, but she’s doing too much and playing around with the girls from Monterey instead of passing. She goes to dribble between her legs and the ball gets stolen. No. No. No! Now we’re tied up.
“Sid, go in for Danielle,” coach calls a time out so I can sub in.
Danielle’s irritated and so am I. Thanks to her one-woman show I now have to pull a miracle out of nowhere and help my team win the game. I check the ball in and dribble down the court. Two girls from Monterey set a pick for me leaving Leslie wide open. Seizing the opportunity, I pass the ball behind my back so fast that the two girls who ran up to set the pick don’t realize it until its too late. Leslie goes up for the shot but she misses and Monterey now has the ball. I have less than sixty seconds. They have to be stopped and we have to score.
Everything slows to a crawl as their point guard dribbles towards me. This time I don’t try to anticipate her moves. I wait until she makes a move one way or another. She tries the same move that shook me last time but I’m ready for her. I knock the ball out of her grasp and take off down the court like a bat out of hell. Three seconds! I won’t get to the basket in time so I go up for a shot and pray to God it makes it into the basket. It DOES! Yes! The crowd erupts in cheers and my teammates swarm me, patting me on the back. Monterey, EAT. OUR. DUST!
“Great game Kit-kat,” Drew pulls me into a hug.
“You ready for your game?”
“Yep, and I won’t foul out like somebody I know,” he teases.
“Whatever dude, go get ready for your game, and wipe that groupie thirst off of you.”
“Hey, groupies need love too,” he smirks.
“Not your love…it’s mine. And I’m not sharing.”
Drew laughs and hands me his backpack with all his stuff in it to watch while he goes to warm up. His cell phone vibrates in his bag and I take it out to see who it is. I’m surprised to see he has tons of messages from the countless girls I know I texted and broke things off with.
Curiosity gets the better of me and I start going through his texts. From what I can tell he hasn’t gone out with anyone, but he’s still sexting them.
I shut his phone off and put it back in his bag. It bothers me that he’s still talking to those girls. I wasn’t talking to anyone but him.
My first instinct is to go off on him, but I didn’t want to throw him off his game tonight.
“Hey Sid, can you watch my stuff too?” Quincy asks.
“Sure.”
I could’ve said no, but I’m pissed off. Quincy sets his stuff down in front of me and jogs onto the court. I catch Drew’s pissed of glance and roll my eyes. He has SOME NERVE.
Great. Now he knows something is wrong…
Everything unfolds in slow motion. Drew finishes his warm-ups, but I can tell his head isn’t in the game. He keeps looking over at me, then at Quincy. I try smiling to put him at ease, but he isn’t buying it. For the first half of the game he’s so out of it that if there is anything that can go wrong, it does. Coach Treggle pulls Drew out of the game for an entire quarter. When Drew gets put back in the game, it doesn’t get any better. His team barely wins by a hair and he’s visibly pissed.
“What’s going on between you and Drew?” Patrice asks.
“What makes you think something’s wrong?”
“Because whenever Drew plays like crap, you two are usually at each others’ throats.”
Ugh! Now I know my ride home with Drew is going to be off the hook. And that’s IF he agrees to drive me home. In short…I’m toast. Quincy came by to grab his things, which could only mean that…yep, Drew’s on his way over too. I brace for impact and grab my things.
“Drew, what happened during that game?” Coach Treggle approaches him.
His eyes shift over to me, and then back to coach. He makes up some lame excuse about not feeling well, but we both know what happened out there. He was distracted. I distracted him.
Once coach Treggle was done ripping him a new one, he snatches his bag from me and I follow him out to his car. He explodes as soon as the doors are closed.
“What the hell was that?”
“I could ask you the same thing. Why are you still sexting girls?” I ask.
“Did you go through my phone?”
“It vibrated and-”
“You went through my phone?”
“Why are you sexting girls Drew? We’re supposed to be exclusive.”
“Well I can’t sext you. No offense, but you keep things so PG that it’s starting to drive me crazy,” he sighs. “With those other girls I can talk about things that I can’t talk about with you.”
“You can talk about anything with me.”
“Why don’t we start with you watching Quincy’s stuff? Since when is it your responsibility to watch his things and why are you even talking to him?”
“He’s your teammate. Its not like I can avoid him, and its just stuff. Its not like I accepted his hand in marriage.”
“You damn near cost me the game Sid. I told you I can’t be distracted during the game and then you go and do exactly that. You knew what talking to Quincy would do to me. As my girlfriend, you should’ve been looking out for me, not trying to sabotage me.”
“I was angry,” I sighed.
“Yeah, well now I’m angry.”
“But if you hadn’t been sexting girls, I never would’ve gotten upset.”
“You really don’t get it do you?” Drew scoffs, “It doesn’t matter what happened. You had one job and that was to support me. Instead, you decided to drag me down and distract me from my game.”
I wanted to argue my points, but the words died in my throat. “You’re right. I allowed my temper to get the better of me and I purposely distracted you from your game. I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing at the time, but it was and I’m sorry.” I apologized.
Drew started his car and drove me home. He was silent the entire car ride home and not once did he glance in my direction.
“Do you hate me?” I asked as we pulled up to my house.
“No, but I think you should go inside.”
He wouldn’t even look at me when he said it. “Drew-”
“Just go.”
After gathering my things, I climbed out of his car and went into the house. I tried texting him when I got inside but he wouldn’t answer. I tried calling him and it went straight to voicemail.
Saturday came and went with no word from Drew so I went by his house Saturday night and his mom told me he didn’t want to see me. He was still mad at me.
On Sunday Patrice started blowing me up telling me to check Facebook and Instagram. There were pictures of Drew on his accounts with a slew of random girls. Then came the sports interview that was televised. When the news reporter asked if he had a special lady or someone special, he told them no. He was a free agent. My boyfriend just denied me to everyone watching and I didn’t know what to think. Were we over? Has he broken up with me and just haven’t told me yet?
Monday rolled around and Drew wasn’t waiting for me outside like he normally would be so I hitched a ride with Josh. Drew’s car was in the parking lot when I got there, and as I walked the halls, people would stop and whisper or snicker behind my back.
“Oh look, it’s the girlfriend that doesn’t exist,” Desiree and her friends all laugh as I walk into first period, “I guess the DrewSid ship has finally sank.”
I look over at Drew who’s sitting next to me and he doesn’t even bother correcting her. He doesn’t bother looking at me either. He just chops it up with Dustin like I don’t even exist.
“Did Drew say that?” I ask her, keeping my eyes on him. Still nothing. Not even a glance in my direction. I’m so hurt by his indifference that I don’t even bother putting up a brave face. He hit me right where it hurt with his very public dis of our relationship, and even now by ignoring me.
“OMG. I think she’s about to cry,” Desiree smirks.
I ignore her and her minions for the rest of class. Part of me is hoping Drew will walk me to second period, but I know he won’t. Sure enough…Drew rushes from the classroom when the bell rings and I’m slowly regretting my decision to piss him off. If I knew it would start all of this, I wouldn’t have. I love Drew.
I barely make it through third and fourth period without shedding a tear. When I meet up with my friends for lunch, they all notice I’m barely hanging on by a thread and encourage me to talk to Drew. BIG MISTAKE.
“Drew, can we talk?”
“I’m sorry, but Drew isn’t in a talking mood,” Scott speaks for him.
“What are you? His spokesperson? Move,” I shove him out of the way and sit down next to Drew. I gently turn his chin so that our eyes meet and he finally acknowledges me. “Talk to me.”
“I don’t want to talk Sid. As a matter of fact I’m done talking.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means go back to your friends. I’m done.”
“Done with what? With me? With us?”
My heart is currently in a state of panic and I feel like I can’t breathe. Did Drew just admit to breaking up with me? I’m confused and now he’s back to ignoring me. Taking the hint I leave his table and sit back down with my friends.
“What did he say?” Em asks.
“I think he just broke up with me.”
My appetite is now gone and if I don’t leave I’ll keep staring over at his table. Sparing myself the embarrassment, I skip lunch and head to the library to be alone. I need to study anyway.
Fifth and sixth period dragged by so slowly that it feels like time has literally stopped. I went to practice after school, but I was so out of it Coach thought I was sick and let me sit in the bleachers until practice was over.
I tried to reach Josh, but he wasn’t answering his phone and I had no idea how I was gonna get home. Normally Drew would give me a ride, but he wasn’t even talking to me right now. Screw it. I’ll just walk.
I head out to the parking lot and to my surprise Drew’s waiting for me. He’s standing next to his car and motions for me to come talk to him. My heart began pounding in my chest.
“You’re right,” he nods when I get closer, “we need to talk.”
“Are we good? I mean, I’ve been calling you all weekend and you haven’t been answering my calls. Then you pretty much told the world you were free, and today in the cafeteria…”
“It’s over Sid,” he sighs, “I’m done.”
Tears form in my eyes and I hate crying. I can’t believe he’s breaking up with me. He can’t. I’m in love with him and I’ve never been in love before. This sucks.
“Why?”
“I almost watched everything I love go down the drain because you couldn’t keep your pride in check. You jumped to conclusions like you always do, you purposely pissed me off and you almost cost us the game,” he explains.
“So this is all my fault then?” I scoffed. “And the fact that you were sexting girls you shouldn’t be sexting had nothing to do with this, right?”
“No it doesn’t! You shouldn’t have been going through my phone in the first place!”
“I’m your girlfriend!”
“Were,” he corrected me.
I grimace at his words as they pierce my heart and look away. How could he toss me away so easily? He dissed me in front of thousands of people and I’m still standing here trying to work things out, but for what? He’s already made up his mind.
“You know what, you’re a coward Drew.”
“Here you go,” he rolls his eyes.
“Yeah, here I go,” I nod. “For the first time in your life you were a part of something real. You and I…we were REAL. But you couldn’t handle that could you? You got scared and now you’re using this one little thing I did to justify being a coward. Well SCREW YOU. You LIED to me when you said you wouldn’t talk to any other girls. I had every right to be angry and to hell with you for trying to turn this around on me like I did something wrong. If you don’t want to be with me, fine. I won’t stop you. I’m not in the business of keeping people who don’t want to be kept anyway. Besides, there are plenty of guys lined up to take your place.”
“Like who? Quincy?”
“Like anyone but you,” I snapped. “Anyone who has the balls to fight for what he wants and who’s not afraid when things don’t go according to plan. Like someone who will talk to me, instead of dissing me to the world, like I don’t have feelings. You don’t emotionally body slam the people you love Drew. That’s not love.”
A long silence ensued between us until I turned to leave. “Wait,” Drew stopped me, “I’ll take you home.”
I wanted to say no, but it would just be my pride talking, and truthfully I’m exhausted. I officially HATE boys now, thanks to Drew. I mean I knew he had a tendency to be a self-centered jerk, I just never thought he’d do that with me. Now I’m nobody to him, and you know what, that’s fine by me. I had a life before him and although I can’t see it now, I’ll have one after him too.
We pull up in front of my house and everything between us seems so final. I reach for the door handle and Drew stops me, “Wait,” he sighs, “You’re right. I should have talked to you instead of doing what I did and I’m sorry. But Sid, you have to understand that this whole one woman’s man thing is new to me. I’ve also never cared about a girl the way I care about you. I almost tossed my career down the drain because another guy spoke to you. Call it being a coward, or call it what you want, but when I think of losing you…I don’t know…I’d just rather it end now before I get too invested in the idea of us, only to have it blow up in my face.”
“I don’t want to be with anyone but you,” I assure him.
“I know you say that but-”
“But nothing,” I cut him off. “You’re worried about Quincy and you don’t need to be. I don’t want him, I want you.”
“I just don’t know if I can go back to being exclusive.” He confides.
“So then we’re back to dating other people.”
“I don’t know. I don’t want you seeing anyone.”
“You have to choose because you can’t have both.”
Drew takes a long hard look at me and sighs, “Okay,” he nods, “but I’m your number one.”
“You’ve always been my number one,” I smiled.
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