Page 46 of High Baller

I've fallen in love with Trey King, and he doesn't even know it. It's only been five weeks, is it too soon to tell him I love him? It might scare him, he might not even feel the same way.

He never leaves my mind; he’s always there. If he's not standing in front of me, he's the only person I think about. The moment I open my eyes in the morning, I think about him, and the thought of him runs through my whole body. It's overwhelming, but I feel complete with him. I feel safe with him—at peace.

With everything my parents are doing to me, I need someone like Trey that has my back no matter what.

When he's with me, my heart dances around in my chest, which always makes me smile. I feel like I’m on the top of the world with him. He's my air, that's how I feel when I’m with him.

I can’t imagine my life without Trey in it. I know he’s my soulmate, I know it—I feel it.

“Hey, shorty,” Trey says, and I turn to face him as he walks across the basketball court that he has in this mansion he calls a house. My eyes move to the guy walking with him. “This is Russell. He plays on the team with me.”

“Very nice to meet you.” I hold my hand out for him.

“You're as beautiful as Trey said,” Russell says, and I look over at Trey. What happened to not telling anyone?

“I’ve only told him, and there’s a reason for it, too.” Trey wraps his arm around my back and leans down to give me a kiss. “I know Madison has been over in the mornings when I’m at training. Just because you’re not telling me, doesn’t mean Jade won't.”

Madison has been over every day this week, bringing me down. She even came to the house to see if I’d fallen off the wagon and started taking drugs again, no matter how much I tell her that I've never taken them in my life. I even told her that if Trey takes them, I'll walk away, but that didn't stop her coming over.

One morning, she came to bad mouth Trey, telling me that he sleeps with a different girl every week, he'll cheat on me, and everything the press says about Trey is true and it’ll end badly.

I wasn't going to tell Trey about it, what's the point? I have to see Madison whenever I come to LA, and for that time, I can keep my mouth shut for Trey.

"Nothing I can't handle," I tell him. One morning, it did get to that point where I was telling her that she can fuck off, and leave Trey and me alone. Her insults increased, her language even worse.

"Russell's girlfriend is here. I thought we could have some lunch,” Trey says.

I look over at Russell.

"You shoot?" Russell asks as he picks up a ball.

“No, I’ve never even watched a full game, I tried the other night, but I didn’t understand any of it.”

“Trey, man, what’re you doing? That’s the first thing you should be teaching your girl—how to shoot.” Russell throws the ball to him.

“That was our first date, I remember it very well,” a woman says. I watch her walking over to me, and she isn’t who I was expecting. “So nice to meet you, Trey’s not stopped talking about you today.” She wraps her arms around me for a hug.

Russell gestures to her. ”Sky, this is my fiancée, Cody,"

“Hi.” I look over at Trey because I’m not sure what this is all about.

“Russell’s sister didn’t like Cody for the same reason Madison doesn’t like you, so I thought having her—”

“Have another white girlfriend talk to your white girlfriend. Smooth.” I turn to Cody. “Does she like you now?”

They both start laughing. "No, still hates me. After four years together, she still hates me.” Cody laughs again, and I can't help but give her a questionable look. "Russell told her that he loved me, and she can like me or hate me. So far, she fake likes me, and I've learned to live with it."

"She's growing on my sister, but you can't help who you fall in love with,” Russel says. “The fact that Trey’s dating you, knowing his family wouldn't like you, tells me that he must’ve fallen hard." He looks over at Trey. "The only thing we can say to you is, if Trey says he has your back, then he has your back. You just need to trust him.”

"Do you give out a script to everyone?” I ask. “Derek said the same thing. I think I need to give Calvin and Finn one.” Trey bursts out laughing, and I continue. "Seriously, I can handle your sister. I seem to have dealt with her just fine this week."

"You did, shorty, but I just wanted to show you that this could be us.” Trey points to Russell and Cody. That’s the first time I've heard him talk about more with us, and my stomach is doing cartwheel after cartwheel. "If we just ignore—“

"You worry too much,” I cut in. “Now, this isn’t a conversation I wanted in front of two people I met five minutes ago, but if I were going to walk away, I'd have the second she called me a white whore.” I hold my arms out. “But look at me, I'm still here."

“I have no idea why you asked us to help you—she has this handled. You do worry too much,” Russell tells Trey and nods his head as they both walk out. Trey gives me one last look as he leaves.

“The team is a family,” Cody says. “Most of the girlfriends and wives are family. If Trey wasn’t sure about this, he wouldn’t have told Russell about you, so all I can say is, welcome to the family.”