Page 60 of High Baller

I throw the last few things into my suitcase. I can’t wait to be in LA and with Trey. We landed there Friday morning, and I’m already stressing about it. I have no idea how, but Trey got me to agree to have dinner with his family. It doesn’t help that Madison and his mother hate me, so I’m going to be crying on the inside.

“Sky?” Calvin yells.

“In the bedroom,” I shout back to him. Finn’s coming with us. He quit his job so that he can travel with Calvin, but I said that was a bad move. I mean, Calvin can’t afford to pay for him forever; he'll need to do something for work between modeling jobs, but Calvin started a fight with me, so I dropped the subject.

“I see that your fan club is back. How long have your parents been sitting out there?” Calvin asks as he looks through my luggage and picks up my sexy panties.

“Shut up, I’ve not seen him in two weeks, I plan on wearing this tonight.” I take them from him, and gesture to the window. “They've been out there all night.”

“Well, good to know that you didn’t cave in to them.” Calvin helps me zip up my bags, and carries them out to the kitchen for me. “Trey's calling.” I look at my phone in his hand.

“Can you answer it? I just have to get something—” I stop as Calvin answers the phone and I answer the door. “You know I didn’t give you anything last night, I’m not going to give you anything this morning,” I tell them as I hear Calvin telling Trey that I’ve just got to get a few things.

“Sky, if you could just hear us out, we’ve changed, and we—”

“No, I want you to leave—” I cut my parents off.

“Do you know the meaning of family? It—”

“It means fucking nothing to you!” I almost scream. How dare they think I don’t know the meaning of it; they take my money every month. “You come here begging me for money, and as stupid as I am, I give it you. But, not anymore. I want you to leave me the fuck alone.”I slam the door on them. I’m not playing this game anymore.

I turn around to grab my travel mug from Calvin, and the phone. “Hi,” I say to Trey as Calvin takes my things out to the car.

“Hey, shorty, who were you arguing with? One thing is, I don’t want to be on the other side of it,” Trey says, laughing, and I do too. I’m not telling him who it was. There's no way that's happening. I know that I’m going to have to tell him the truth about my parents eventually, but that’s one thing I don’t want to do.

“No one, just people wanting to piss me off,” I reply as I grab my keys and make sure that everything’s locked up. “So, I should be at yours while you’re still at training. Once Derek drops me off, I’m going to sleep for a bit. By any chance did your mum happen to cancel dinner?” I’ve asked that question every night this week.

“Sorry, shorty, dinner’s still happening. Derek and Ariel will be there too.” Trey's been telling me everything will be fine, and he's been trying to get me to relax me all week. He said his mum’s going to making something special for us. I’m not sure if I'll be able to eat anything, but Trey said he'll be right there next to me the whole evening.

After locking the door, I look over at Calvin who’s beeping the horn at me. “Trey, I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a good training session.”

“Have a safe flight, shorty.”

I end the call and throw my phone into my bag. I have a look around to see if my parents are around, and when I don't spot them, I get int the car.

“Hey, Finn.” I lean over to the front seat and give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Hey, Sky, can you tell Trey thanks for hooking us up with tickets?”

“Please don’t remind me.”

I think that was our first fight. Trey wants me there for the first game of the season. I said no a lot, and then he did the one thing I didn't think he would. He called Calvin and told him about it, then after that, I didn’t hear the end of it. I called Trey and told him that next time he goes to Calvin about something, I’ll kill him…slowly.

Trey said that he got me tickets that are good, but far enough from court-side that no one would suspect a player got the tickets. He’s promised not to look at me because he knows the cameras are everywhere. No matter how much I was saying no, Trey really wanted me to be there, and the amount of flowers delivered to the house with a card saying, ‘Please say yes,’ finally got me to cave.

I told Trey that I'd go, but he has to promise that no pictures will be there of us together, and he said that's good. As long as I’m there, he's happy.

“You can tell him yourself,” I reply.

“Sky, it'll be a good game,” Calvin says. “You're dating him, so you'll have to go to his games, and Trey said that he always throws a party after the first game, which I already know is going to be amazing.” He looks at me through the rearview mirror. He's so excited about this, and that's the main reason I said yes to it.

“Well, I didn’t really think about it, to be honest. I didn’t think we'd last this long, or I’d fall in love with him. Things have surprised me…” I stop as he stares at me in the mirror. “And before you say anything, I know I have to talk to him about my parents. I will after the game. I’m not looking forward to telling him that I lied about them—”

“Sky I’m not telling you how to do this,” Calvins says. “I mean, not seeing each other all the time is hard enough. You do what you think’s best.” I know that he just wants the best for me.

I never thought things would end up like this for Trey and I, so telling him my parents were dead seemed the easiest thing at the time, and now I’m sat here lying to the man I’m in love with.

***