A Tournament For My Heart

Chapter Sixteen- Fair Trade

"It feels so nice out here today." Jaz says as she takes a sip of her pink drink.

It is Monday and we are currently sitting outside the campus Starbucks enjoying our drinks.

"It is." I confirm.

Shayla then sips her drink before asking "So the sorority ball yay or nay?"

I sip my drink "Ball?"

Jaz looks down at her phone. I'm guessing they have received a conjoined text from their sorority.

"Will you come with us?" Jaz directs the question towards me.

"Even though I'm not in the sorority?" I reflect.

Shayla looks at her phone before looking back up at me "Yes, it says here each sorority girl gets an extra ticket to bring a date or guest."

"But wouldn't you want to actually bring a date?" I question dumbfounded.

Shayla smirks "I think I may have one."

Jace? I presume.

"I don't and you can be mine." Jaz says matter of factly.

I finish my drink placing the empty cup on the table "Okay, when is it?" I question.

"This Saturday." They said in unison.

"Jinks you owe me a pink drink." Shayla said quickly.

I looked at her finished pink drink on the table "okay I think she's addicted." Motioning my finger towards Shayla.

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"Make sure your knees are not lining over your toes." Kayden says as he squats beside me holding a weight.

I adjust my position to were I have a wider stance and my knees are no longer lining over my toes.

"Good." He says encouragingly.

We are in the on campus gym working on legs today. I stuck to my goal that I would be going to the gym to gain more muscle. While Kayden stuck to his promise of being my personal trainer.

"Okay last one." He coaches.

I do my last squat and quickly place the weight on the floor.

I place my hands on my thighs bending over out of breath. Kayden grabs my weight shaking his head trying to hide a smile.

He then grabs his weight placing both were they belong.

Then we stretch because like he always says your muscles won't be as sore if you stretch afterwards, Well guess what there going to be sore either way.

"I said I wanted to build upper body strength what does squats have to do with that?" I say to Kayden as we make our way to the cafe.

This has kind of been our routine we work out at least twice a week then go to the cafe and eat together afterwards.

"Believe or not you have to use your lower body to lift. Especially if you don't want to hurt yourself." He explains sophisticatedly.

I look over at him with a blank facial expression.

"You asked ." He mused.

We make our way into the cafe. Todays menu is Spaghetti, corn, and roll. While pasta which is always be served in another line along with hamburgers.

I grab a plate of spaghetti. While Kayden grabs a hamburger and pasta. We head to a booth towards the entrance and sit with our plates.

I grab a fork full of spaghetti placing it in my mouth. I don't know why but I always have a huge appetite after working out.

"So how does it feel to call yourself a state champ?" I say with a smile.

"Crazy. It's crazy." He says in realization and seems as though he's in thought.

I sip my sprite before saying "I know NBA teams have their eyes on y'all'. Maybe even the Hawks." I say excited for them.

He swallows a bite of his burger his Adam's apple bobbing "Yeah they do." He says lowly.

"They do?" I ask awaiting for further explanation.

"Yeah they do." He confirms grinning widely.

I smile happy for him "That's amazing. Congratulations. Why were you holding this back?" I say.

"I wanted to tell you in person and see the look on your face." He mused.

"The Lakers reached out too. Both teams are looking and waiting to see what I can do next year. And the Lakers want me to come visit." He says.

My jaw physically dropped. Lakers? That's crazy.

"Wow.... So are you going to be a Cali or ATL guy?" I say.

He shrugged his shoulders "I don't know. I guess we'll have to see next year." He says hiding a smile showing his dimple.

"You know what this means right?" I question him.

He creases his eyebrows awaiting my answer.

"That means that when I beat you in 1v1 I can say I beat a NBA player." I reason.

He shakes his head "See there you go. Thinking that you actually have a chance." He says smoothly.

"Says the one who demands a rematch every time I beat him." I counter.

He smirks leaning forward with his elbows on the table "You got your smack talking down pack. But who taught you how to really play?" He says matter of factly.

I lean forward with my elbow on the table mirroring him "hmmm I'm sorry no one is coming to mind right now." I pretend to be in thought.

"Okay so that's how we playing it" He says teasingly. "Bet. I'm not being easy on you anymore."

I shake my head rolling my eyes teasingly "Whatever you say scrub."

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"Now I know you don't have my boy in here watching the notebook." Jace says as he enters into the dorm.

I am currently in the guys dorm because Kayden promised to watch the notebook with me if I agreed to commit to the gym two days a week instead of one.

He stated that going only one day would rarely show any progress and if I wanted to see faster results I should go at least twice a week.

So I offered to go twice a week if he agreed to watch the notebook with me today. I don't know how I managed to get him to agree to that when I was the one who asked him to be my personal trainer in the first place.

But I'm not going to bring that up to him.

"The fact that you even know what movie this is by looking at it rats you out Jace." I counter back.

Kayden chuckles at Jace being caught "Okay guilty." He says making his way over to the adjoining couch to watch with us.

"Are you crying?" Jace says as he looks over at me after hearing me sniff.

"It's just so sweet. He made the house exactly how she wanted it." I say my voice cracking in the process.

Jace looks over at Kayden with wide eyes and I could see Kayden shaking his head with his lips turned up.

"It's sweet man." Kayden says to Jace motioning his hand towards the Tv.

"Damn they done got you man." Jace says shaking his head.