Page 65 of High Baller

I look over at Madison. “She can be a bitch.” I know that she did this, and I have a feeling that her mother told her to. Those two are working on breaking us, and this is just their way of trying, as they both know I don’t want my picture in the papers.

“You knew this day was going to come, Sky,” Calvin says. “I say kiss him—show them they don’t scare you.”

“They don’t scare me, but—”

“Your parents,” Calvin finishes the sentence for me. “You hide this, you show the world this, and they're going to keep knocking on your door.”

I turn back to the game and think about what Calvin has just said to me. He's right. Either way, they'll continue to knock on my door. Maybe I have to tell Trey about them.

I look over at Derek shaking his head. The kiss cam's going to try again, and I have to decide what I’m going to do.

“Derek said they'll try again,” Calvin whispers “He tried but they're about to break news that the sport world will love.”

I nod and continue to drink my beer as we continue to watch the game.

Both teams walk over to their coach during the break, and Trey looks at Derek, then to his family. He knows the same thing as me—they did this.

“It’s started.” Calvin points to the screen again, and I see his family watching me.

“Shall we try again with our player? King, show us the girl that took you off the market.” One camera is on him while the other moves around the court. The crowd start chanting, ‘Kiss, kiss, kiss’.

Trey looks over at me as I stand up and give him a nod. He walks over and jumps over the first set of chairs between the spectators, cups the back of my neck, and pulls me into a crushing kiss. I’ve never heard a crowd cheer so loudly before. The whistles and claps get louder the longer Trey kisses me.

He pulls away from me, and rest his forehead against mine. “What about the pictures?”

“That’s my problem, not yours.” I give him one more kiss. “Now, you have a game to play,” I say, pushing him away from me.

I sit back down and get my phone out. I send Dave a quick message, letting him know what’s just happened, and to let me know the moment that he hears about this. I know that my parents are going to be loving this. They’ll think that I’m somehow taking Trey’s money, and try to squeeze more out of me.

I look up as Calvin and Derek swap seats.

“I’m only going to ask this once more,” Derek says. “The pictures, will they hurt Trey?” I already told him once, but I can see why he's asked again; he’s protecting Trey.

“No, just me,” I reply as I look back up at the game, and ignoring Derek’s stares.

“I can help, just tell me how.”

“If you could help, I would’ve asked the moment I knew who Trey was, but this is my problem, not his,” I tell him. I smile at the court as Trey looks over at us. There's no way I can tell them about my parents. If Trey's willing to date me, even if his family hates me, I know that he'll pay my parents to stay away from me. I won’t let that happen.

***

The game ended with Trey’s team winning. Now that everyone knows about us, he's making sure that he gets every chance to kiss me in public, too. As soon as the game finished, Derek took Calvin and me to the back where the players were talking to the press, and I heard my name being mentioned to a few different reporters. How the players don’t get bored of answering the same question is surprising to me. I would've just told them to go ask the other five players they’ve just spoken to.

Trey said that there was a car to take Calvin, Ariel and I back to his house, as he had to stay a little longer to talk to the coach about the game. As soon as we got here, the party planner had everything set up, from drinks to games, and Calvin and I got started.

The house was empty, just us three, so we thought we’d get a chance to play on the pool table before the house fills up, which didn’t really take that long.

I stand at the end of the pool table, and watch Calvin as he leans down ready to pot the black. It’s all down to this last shot. He makes me laugh with the serious look on his face while he cue’s up the ball. He shoots, but misses.

“Yes! I’m going to beat you,” I sing as I move around the table to line up my shot.

Calvin just looks at me, then says, “If you get this in, I'll pay for your house-warming party.”

“Really?” I ask, and he gives me a nod. “Ok, you asked for it.” I line up the balls name my pocket, and shoot. Calvin stares with his mouth hanging open as the ball sinks into the pocket with ease. “Yes, yes, yes! I wonder what type of party I want to have?” I say, laughing.

“Lucky shot, that’s all. I demand a rematch.”

“Not a chance,” I say. Well, not tonight anyway, I’ve just won a free house-warming party.