chapter thirteen

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"And after Field of Screams, we can go get food at- okay what's wrong with you?" Lourdes asked Rashir as they finished eating their food at a Chiptole near campus. He had been acting weird ever since he came back from visiting his family and she was tired of it. "You've been acting all weird since you came back, what happened?"

"Nun, keep talking," Rashir replied, taking a sip of his Coke as he waited for her to throw her trash away.

"Something is obviously wrong Rashir, just tell me what it is, maybe I can help." She offered and he shook his head.

"I said nothing is wrong bruh, relax," He lashed out at her and she blinked at him for a moment before scoffing.

"Whatever Rashir, call me when you start acting right," She walked out of the Chiptole and stomped to her car, deciding she wanted to be home. She was tired of Rashir being all closed off and quiet, it wasn't like him to be acting like this so she was concerned at first, but after denying anything being wrong multiple times she was fed up.

They had met up after class and she suggested that they go get food and he agreed, but she was tired now and was in desperate need of a nap. Her bed at home was calling her by her full government name and she was eager to hop in it and catch up on some rest. She was back to working long hours at the diner and while she was happy she was making money, it was taking a serious toll on her sleeping schedule.

She stopped to survey the parking lot, looking for her car when she heard Rashir behind her telling her to wait. She waited for him to catch up to her, turning around with her lips pressed together and an annoyed expression on her face. "What?" She snapped at him, tapping her foot as she looked at him.

"I'm sorry," He let out looking at his feet, "You right, I have been acting weird, there's just some shit going on at home and it's stressing me out."

"You can talk to me Rashir, we're friends," She sighed, "You don't need to keep secrets."

"I know,"

She could sense that he was stressed like he said and decided to give him a hug. He was stiff at first, but quickly hugged her back, resting his chin on the top of her head. "I'm here for you if you wanna talk about it." She mumbled against his chest, reveling in the warmth.

"Thanks," He sighed.

"Do you want a ride back to your house?" She took a step back to look up at him.

"You don't have to," He replied and she shook her head, unlocking her car and gesturing for him to follow her.

"Shut up and get in the car," She replied and he chuckled, following her to her Civic.

Lourdes plugged her phone into her aux cord and grinned wickedly, coming up with an idea to get Rashir in a better mood. She searched through her music library and finally found the song she was looking for, clicking on it and setting her phone in her cup holder. "Pussy Talk" by the City Girls loudly played through her speakers, startling Rashir who looked at her like she was crazy.

"Lourdes." He gave her a blank look, "Turn this shit off bruh," He sunk further in his seat as they drove through campus, trying to hide himself from the people that were giving the car strange looks. Seeing the captain of the basketball in a car with 'Pussy Talk' blaring wasn't exactly good for his image.

She ignored him and began rapping as she made a turn, "Boy this pussy talk English, Spanish, and French!" She yelled over his protests, "Shut up this is the best part," She shushed him as Doja Cat's part came on, "Pussy talented, it do cartwheels!"

Rashir fumbled for her phone and unlocked it, remembering her password to change the song. "Hey! I was listening to that," She glared at him and snatched her phone back as they sat at a stop sign, waiting for some students to cross the street.

"Pick another song or I'm jumping out the car," He said with a straight face, clearly not joking.

"Fine, fine." She shuffled a playlist she thought that he would like and "Shake the Room" by Pop Smoke played instead.

"You listen to this?" Rashir looked at her with surprise.

"Yea, why are you so surprised?" She laughed at his facial expression, "What? Did you think I just listen to pop all day or some shit? Is it because I'm a girl?"

"No, I just ain't think you was the type of person to listen to Pop Smoke," He raised his arms in surrender, "Relax girl,"

"I'm kidding," She turned to him as they sat at a red light, "You never answered my question,"

"What question?"

"Do you wanna come to Field of Screams?" She asked him. When they were at Chiptole she was in the middle of explaining the plan when she stormed off, so she didn't get to finish asking if he wanted to come.

"Oh yea, fo' sure I'll come. I'll tell Nico and Mateo 'bout it too," He offered.

"Okay, you wanna go next weekend on Halloween?"

"That's cool,"

"Okay yay! We should make a group chat with everyone," She suggested as they pulled into his neighborhood. Rashir nodded in agreement and she parked, killing the engine. "You know I'm always here if you wanna talk right? And I mean I'm actually here, not just like I say I'm here when we both know that you would never actually come to me to talk to your problems-"

"Lourdes," He cut off her rambling.

"Yeah?"

"I promise I'll talk to you when I need to aight? You don't gotta worry about me," He assured her, making intense direct eye contact which was made her feel like he was being sincere. She didn't speak for a couple of moments, just staring back at him until he broke their eye contact, grabbing his bag from her backseat. "Thanks for the ride, you still coming to my game tomorrow right?"

"Shit," she cursed inwardly. She had completely forgotten that their game was tomorrow. She hadn't asked any of the girls to come with her but she was sure they would say yes if she asked. "Yeah, I'm coming,"

"Good," He nodded, "I'll see you tomorrow then," He dabbed her up, opening the car doors and jogging up to his walkway. She stayed parked and watched him until he unlocked his door and went inside, turning around to wave at her. She started her engine and pulled off, driving back home.

Lourdes sat in the gymnasium with Aaliyah, waiting for the game to start since starting late seemed to be a regular occurence.

When she had asked Nala and Gianna to come with her to the game, Gianna had claimed she had some sort of charity ball to go to with her parents that she couldn't get out of and Nala said she didn't feel like going. Lourdes reminded her that her boyfriend was also going to be there and she would miss seeing him play but Nala waved her off, saying she would quote "Suck his dick or something" to make it up to him.

Aaliyah was the only one who had agreed, and Lourdes suspected it had something to do with a certain someone who was playing in the game named Mateo but she kept her suspicions to herself and decided she would ask Aaliyah about it later.

"So..." She dragged out the 'O' giving Aaliyah and knowing look.

"So what?" Aaliyah replied, furrowing her brows in confusion.

"Are you excited to see them play?"

"Yeah, I guess," Aaliyah shrugged.

"Are you excited to see Mateo play?" Lourdes nudged her with her shoulders.

"Will you stop with that? Mateo and I aren't a thing." Aaliyah insisted.

"Are you sure? Because-"

"Hey look, the game's starting," Aaliyah cut her off and eagerly pointed to the court where the players for the opposing team were making their way onto.

"Damn, number 15 is fine as hell," Lourdes squinted, trying to get a better look at the team. "What team is that?"

"Clemson," Aaliyah said while also studying the players.

The crowd was bigger than last game and the booing was also louder. The Clemson players were a little more aggressive as they got into their positions and the captain had a permanent glare etched on his face, making his way to the middle of the court for jump ball. He seemed to have shared a few words with Rashir who did not look happy at all to be playing this team. Whatever he said to Rashir obviously angered him because he shoved him with force, making him stagger back.

"Is there some sort of rivalry between them? What is happening?" Lourdes looked down at the court in concern. Rashir was known to have terrible anger issues and get into it with teams during their games and she didn't want any of that to happen now.

"Yeah, Giovanni and Rashir hate each other," The girl that was sitting next to them butted in, making Loures and Aaliyah turn to her with curiosity. Lourdes recognized the girl from her chemistry class that she had on Monday's. Her name was Malaya and she was pretty sure that she was a senior.

"Who's Giovanni?" Lourdes asked her, intrigued. The game resumed below them, both teams playing aggressively and fouling each other.

"He's the captain of the Clemson team. He tripped Rashir on purpose a couple of years ago when they were playing and Rashir sprained his ankle so he couldn't play for a couple of games. Ever since then they despise each other. Whenever they play against each other there's always a fight." Malaya explained.

"Looks like one is gonna happen soon," Aaliyah turned back to the game where the ref was separating the two. Rashir's nostrils flared as he shoved the ref off of him and held his hands out for someone to throw the ball to him. He yelled at his team and threw the ball to Nico who dribbled it down the court, going in for a layup and successfully shooting it into the basket.

The game went on, both teams fouling each other relentlessly and some shoving occurring occasionally. At halftime Lourdes stood up to go to the bathroom, taking Aaliyah with her so there wasn't a repeat of last time. They asked Malaya to watch their stuff for them and she happily agreed. They had conversed throughout the game and Lourdes was glad she had made a new friend.

Aaliyah fixed her hair in the mirror as Lourdes finished her business in her stall. "You pee so loud," Aaliyah yelled from the sinks and Lourdes rolled her eyes.

"Shut up," She snapped and opened her stall door, stepping out to wash her hands, "You're not gonna pee?" She asked Aaliyah who was waiting for her by the door.

"No, I don't need to,"

"Didn't you drink that big ass can of soda?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, what if you need to pee later? You might as well just do it now,"

"I don't need to pee Lo,"

"Yeah, now you don't but you-"

"Can we just go?" Aaliyah cut her off and Lourdes raised her arms in surrender.

"Okay, but don't ask me to come to the bathroom with you later 'cause I'm gonna say no." She stuck her tongue out at her and threw away her paper towel.

"Whatever," Aaliyah grumbled under breath as they, made their way back to the gymnasium.

They entered the gym and were bewildered when they came back to utter chaos. Both teams were going at it in a huge group in the middle of the court, Rashir and Giovanni yelling at each other in the middle of the crowd. Refs, their coaches and security were trying to break up the fights betweenthe teams, but there was no luck as both teams kept shoving at each other. Rashir looked like he was getting ready to stop talking and throw a punch at Giovanni when Nico and Mateo appeared at his sides, holding him back. They tried pulling him away but Rashir was persistent as Giovanni taunted him, daring him to throw a punch.

Without thinking, Lourdes rushed onto the court, hoping to get Rashir to calm down before all hell broke lose. She pushed through the throngs of players and refs, stopping infront of Rashir who honestly looked pretty scary in the moment. His fists were clenched at his sides, his jaw was ticking and he stared Giovanni down. Giovanni was too busy looking at Lourdes's ass as she stood infront of Rashir.

"Rashir!" Lourdes shouted, putting both of her hands on his chest. He looked down to see who was touching him and his eyes softened for a moment. "What is wrong with you? Why are you trying to fight him?" She yelled in confusion.

"Listen to yo' girl Martin," Giovanni antagonized from behind her and Rashir's eyes hardened again. He tried shaking Nico and Mateo off, but they had an iron grip on him.

"Get out the way Lourdes," He hissed, but she shook her head.

"You need to calm down, he's not worth it Rashir." She grabbed his face and made him look at her, "Relax, okay? You're gonna get suspended if you don't just walk away," She said in a soothing voice, leting his face go. He seemed to have calmed down, no longer trying to escape Nico and Mateo's grip. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and unclenched his fists. Nico and Mateo hesitantly let him go and he rolled his shoulders back, cracking his neck and his knuckles. "Rashir..." Lourdes chewed on her lip as she waited to see what he was going to do.

"I ain't gon' hit that nigga," He stared at Giovanni in the eyes and his jaw ticked again. Lourdes let out a sigh of relief and took a step back from him, relaxing her shoulders.

"Who this?" Giovanni looked at Lourdes up and down, licking his lips. Lourdes whipped around to look at him with disgust and rolled her eyes.

"Don't fucking talk to her," Rashir gritted out.

"The lady can't speak for herself?" Giovanni looked back down at Lourdes, "Can I talk to you? Or does he speak for you?" Lourdes could admit that Giovanni was an attractive man. He was lightskin with shoulder length dreads, and a goatee. He was an inch shorter than Rashir but was at least 6'0, meaning Lourdes had to look up at him but she had to look up at almost everyone.

"I speak for my damn self, and I don't want to talk to you." She snapped at him. Clearly, whoever this guy was wasn't good news and she didn't appreciate him looking at her like she was a piece of meat.

"My bad shorty," He backed away when the ref finally came up to them to continue the game. She looked around and noticed that the huge crowd had been dispersed and all eyes were on them. She awkwardly backed away from Rashir and looked up at the crowd who was watching the entire scuffle on the big jumbotron. Her face reddened when she realized the entire dramatic scene was put on the huge screen and she turned around to shuffle off of the court and back to her seat. She ignored the stares and whispers as she went back up the stairs to sit down with Aaliyah, muttering a few "Excuse me's" on the way up.

"What just happened?" Aaliyah looked at her in shock when she sat back down.

"I really don't know."

what giovanni looks like:

hey y'all! i don't really like this chapter but i needed to get something up for y'all sooo yea. don't forget to vote and comment!

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