Hate the Game ( Urban Sports Romance )

Real

Tuesday, May 19

"How can I get this deleted?" Sabrina asked her best friend as they lurked on Instagram together. "What if I report the post?"

"You could try, but they're not bad posts," Chantelle told her, laying across the foot of Sabrina's bed. "If you ask them to delete it, they're probably gonna post that too. Just leave it alone. It'll die down."

Sabrina was about to post something on her Instagram but changed her mind when she saw her notifications were flooded with new followers and mentions.

The ladies were looking at the posts on a WaG's blog page. First, someone sent in a video and photo of Sabrina and Amir getting hot and heavy in the club his birthday weekend. Then the followers started bringing up a few other games Sabrina had been spotted at and other sightings over the last few months.

The thing that gave her some comfort was a few followers were defending her in the comments. It felt good to have some of the ladies defend her. Sabrina hated social media for this exact reason.

"I hate when bitches do that, talkin bout 'where her son?' Do they ask the daddy that?" Chantelle ranted, speaking on a comment someone made. Then she cackled loudly and read another comment aloud, "Somebody tagged Nick talkin bout 'somebody check on NickyRudy.'"

"This is stupid. A bunch of people who have nothing better to do." Sabrina remarked. "They posted me back to back. Why do people sneak pictures? Nuggets game, Warriors game, Knick's game. I didn't post about any of these myself. "

"Don't stress it, y'all been together for a hot second and they're just finding out." Her friend tried to get Sabrina to see the brighter side of things. "Gimme your phone."

Sabrina released an exaggerated sigh, "This is when bitches come out of nowhere, claiming they use to talk, or they start chasing him on purpose because he's in a relationship. Like sharks. They smell blood in the water."

"Sabrina, you gotta stop putting that into the universe. All this time, he hasn't been like that. You think bitches ain't been peeped y'all together. You've been on the Black Sports Online's blog since February during all-star weekend. I'm sure old weirdo girl been up on game, that's why Nick knew who he was already."

"That's true." She agreed. "I'm not trying to think negatively." She confessed, now realizing maybe they should've gone deeper into those conversations about their past relationships. "I feel like I need to block these pages for my own sanity."

"We all have a past, bookie. The difference is yours has proof because of my Godbaby. Don't let outsiders influence your opinion of your man." Chantelle reasoned with her.

In her heart, Sabrina knew her friend was right, but that's not how trauma works. Things trigger you. It's up to you to identify and face those triggers head-on and take away their power.

Sabrina's phone rang and she looked at the caller ID seeing it was Amir.

"Hello," she picked up, calmly as Chantelle walked out the room.

"Hello, beautiful." Sabrina's body immediately calmed at the sound of his voice. "What yaw on over there?" Amir asked.

"Nothing." She shrugged as if he could see her.

"Niko taking a nap?"

"No, he's about to go to the movies with Chan."

"Okay, I'll be there in a hour."

"What?" She asked, smiling. She didn't know he was back in town.

"I'm coming over. Any more questions?" He stated, matter of factly.

"None at all. You got it, Superstar." She laughed. Once they hung up, she jumped out of bed and ran into her closet to get ready for company.

"What's on your mind, beautiful?" Amir asked as they were seated on the couch. Sabrina wasn't as talkative as usual, and he noticed, but he didn't want to push as they ate takeout.

Instead of saying 'nothing' like she wanted to, Sabrina shrugged her shoulders.

"You wanna try that wine I brought?" He asked

"Yeah." She got up and went to the kitchen. She came back with two wine glasses and the bottle.

Amir slipped his hand around her and pulled her into his lap. He released a satisfied sigh once they were touching. He ran his hand down the length of her arm and took her hand in his, "Wanna know somethin?" He asked rhetorically before continuing, "You be on my mind pretty much all day and I'm sure that's not healthy, but a nigga can't help it. I missed you, but it don't seem like you missed me"

She turned and looked at him, "I did."

"So tell me what's goin on, Rosalee?" He said before placing a kiss on her shoulder.

Sabrina felt flustered from his confession but decided, she might as well talk about her feelings since he never had a problem talking about his, "I don't know if you pay attention to that kinda stuff," she paused, "I hate admitting that I pay attention to it, but some gossip blogs have been posting about us." Amir nodded, listening to her talk. He kept his hand on hers to calm her fidgeting as she continued, "I've been through this before, so I should know how to handle it but honestly, I don't. Publicity scares me."

"I understand. You can't control what triggers you, baby. I value you trustin me enough to tell me what's going on. You gotta know, I'll never judge you for that. You're still healing, and I love that your being strong, but you don't gotta go through it alone." He said kissing her temple.

She nodded, "I know. It's stupid because you haven't given me any reason to believe you'll cheat but you know how groupies are..." her words died off.

"You my baby and ain't nothin or nobody worth loosin you, aight."

She smiled widely, embarrassed that she even thought that way about him.

"There go that smile. You know I need to see that smile everyday." He told her. "Ion too much pay attention to the blog stuff, but some of it gets sent to me. Kirk tells me if it's somethin I need to address. I haven't posted about us cause I wanna respect your boundaries."

"Thank you," she leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Damn he's so understanding.

"No need to thank me. I need you to stop being so hard on yourself. Forgive yourself for believing that you aren't worthy of happiness, love, and loyalty."

And right then, she started crying. He rubbed her back until she calmed. Emotional ass cancers.

"Wanna see what I got?" He asked, gently bringing her hand to his lips to kiss her knuckles.

"Yeah," Sabrina replied excitedly.

He smirked, sitting up. He pulled his hoodie over his head, "Look," he turned his head to the side so she could see.

Sabrina gasped, "Amir, what did you do?" She whispered, staring at her name on the side of his neck going up behind his ear next to a single red rose.

"So you know it's real," he chuckled.

She got up from his lap and turned on the recessed lights. She needed to see it better. "Oh my God. You put my name on you?" She stared at the tattoo in surprise, while sitting back down straddling his lap. "Did it hurt?"

"All the tattoos i got, no. It only took an hour."

"That what y'all were doing last night? You said you was getting some old ones touched up." Amir had been in Chicago for the last few days visiting with family after his birthday. Him and his cousins were talking about having their tat man come through and Amir told Sabrina he was going to get some of his old tats touched up.

"I wanna get them soft ass lips, next." He said, licking his own looking at hers. He squeezed her booty, and leaned in for a quick kiss.

The boy was gone.