Page 74 of High Baller

"You know nothing!” I yell “Keeping us a secret was to protect her, not me. The photos, the drugs were a no, she had her reasons—"

"Yeah, she took them."

"Madison I swear to fucking God—"

"Trey!" My Ma yells.

"Sorry, Ma, but no." I look at her, and I can feel the tension in the room. No one talks to Ma like this; not today. "I have lost the woman I love, that I've cried over because she won't talk to me because someone thought they could mess with my life, mess with the woman that I wanted to marry." I turn back to Madison. "Her parents aren't dead, they're drug addicts, alcoholics, and thieves. They’ve robbed her of every penny she has. She knew if we went public, this would happen, that they'd take everything from her. And that's what they did. Derek flew to England, and when he got to her place, it was empty. While she was here, her parents took everything. Furniture, clothes, even her fucking food. That's why she said no to drugs. She's lived with, and witnessed up close what it does. So, Madison, I would shut the fuck up now." I push my plate away from me, no longer in the mood for breakfast.

Jade looks over at me."She has...nothing?"

“No, she doesn’t. She won't talk to Derek or me—she won't accept anything from me," I tell them as they stare.

"She knew the moment she kissed you, her parents would do this?" Jade adds.

“Yeah, so putting me first caused her to lose everything. She's been in foster care because her parents did nothing for her." I turn to my ma. "Everything Sky is today, it's because she worked her ass off to become that person. Even after what happened, she told everyone that we broke up before it so my name wouldn't be trashed.” I stand, then turn to Tracy and Sean. "Wanna shoot some hoops?” I walk out to the garden, not waiting for their reply.

This is not how I wanted breakfast to go, but I needed to let out some of the frustration, and they're the ones that got it. Everything Ma and Madison thought about Sky was shit. They thought she was using me, but she only wanted to be happy, and they took everything away from us, just because they saw her color and not her.

Tracy and Sean walk over to me. “Trey, I need to tell you something.,” Tracy says. I pick up the ball and start bouncing it. "I spoke to Sky two days ago, as I needed help on my Math work."

I freeze, my arm in mid-air. ”What did she say?"

"She said she'd help as long as I didn't mention you, so I didn't. I was on her side. You messed up, and I told her that too." Tracy liked Sky right from the start, I knew he'd be the one to take her side; he's never liked the whole players cheating on their girls. He always told me that if I did it to my girl, he'd never forgive me. I told him that I did nothing to hurt Sky and I don't even know what the hell happened that night.

"I'm trying, Tracy, I am." I shoot the ball into the hoop, and Sean throws it back.

“Do you want Jade to talk to her? She might answer the phone to her,” Sean suggests.

“No, she's asked for space, so I'm giving it to her. Derek and Calvin talk, and I send messages. I just have to hope that a few days of not talking to me, she'll miss me enough to give in and reply."

"She misses you, Trey, you can hear it in her voice," Tracy tells me as I shoot again.

I walk away from both of them for a while as I try to get my emotions under control. Tracy telling me that she's missing me and hurting isn’t helping me keep it together. I take my phone out of my pocket and bring up my messages.

Trey - Hey, shorty. I miss you.

When I don’t get a reply, I walk back over.

“I don't think you should stop calling her, she has to get annoyed enough to answer it sooner or later,” Sean says, and I look over at him. "What? You saw how long it took me to get Jade to finally talk to me, that was one long month of non stop calling her."

"I don't want it to be a month—I’m hoping for a week at most, and that's going to be the longest week of my life." I don't want it to be another day, never mind a week. I’m hoping Calvin can talk to her, Derek can help me, even Tracy now I know they are talking. Someone out there has to have my back in all this. Someone has to help me, to tell Sky that this is just all one big messed up mistake.

My phone starts to ring, and I dig it out of my pocket. My heart races as I see Sky's name flash on my phone. "Sky, I—"

"Please stop calling and messaging me," she chokes. I can hear all the pain she's in, and it fucking kills me to hear. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say, and you calling my friend is annoying me, so please stop." The line goes dead, and I just stare at the phone.

Sean pats my back and stands next to me. “Do you want one of us to go to fly out and talk to her?"

"No, it won't help,” I reply, my words getting caught in my throat. “The only way I'm going to get her to talk to me is face-to-face. That's just not going to happen now the season has started, and I don't know when her next flight to LA is." Derek did ask Calvin about her flights, which part of the states she's coming to next, but he didn't tell him. She's made her Instagram private again and unfollowed my friends and me so I can't see what she's posting.

I turn to Tracy. "Can you still see Sky's Instagram?" I ask him. If she's still talking to him, maybe I'm lucky there.

“Yeah." He hands me his phone. I type in her name to see what I can find.

As I scroll through the images, I see she’s only posted two since the party, one quote about how life feels empty without having love in it, and the other of her watching the game and wishing the team good luck.

"If she posts anything, can you do a screenshot and send it to me?” I ask as I hand Tracy his phone.