The Brown Girls Club sat in the bleachers Friday night at Lake Lacroix High School to watch Amir on the floor getting blew out. He was doing his best to carry the team, but nothing was helping.
Raven sat at the top of the bleachers cackling with her girls in their matching jackets. She was thrilled the weather was warm again in the sixties—a normal Louisiana December heading into the holidays. Although she watched the game, she paid more attention to Amir. The rest of the assault was painful to watch, but she couldn’t look away. The team was just awful, there was no way around it. She could see Amir’s frustration building from the stands, and whenever the opposing team made a basket, she winced for him. Amir’s team missed free throws and layups. When the other team made baskets and ran back down to the other end of the court, Amir’s team walked back. He spotted her in the crowd and waved, and she returned the gesture. Raven caught a silent scowl from Taylor. Raven looked around for Justin and soon spotted him in the crowd a few feet from Taylor. He limped and wore a boot on his foot. Justin walked towards Taylor and placed his arm around her shoulder; she slipped out of his embrace. Raven turned her attention back to the game. That wasn’t her business.
“Do you guys want to go grab pizza after the game?” Trinity asked.
“I’m out, I got to do something with my mom,” Nia said.
“I’m out too,” Jasmine mumbled. “I don’t have a ride home, and my dad isn’t letting me borrow the car anymore.” Their eyes got big as they looked away, recalling their fateful driving adventure.
“I’m down,” Raven answered.
Everyone turned and looked at her.
“You want to go?” Jasmine sat wide eyed.
“Yeah, I can go,” Raven repeated.
The final buzzer rang, and the game was over. Amir’s team was beat by double digits. The other team clapped and cheered for one another while Amir’s team sullenly walked back to the locker room.
“Hey, Amir!” Raven ran down the bleachers. “You want to grab some pizza after this?”
“Sure.” He wiped sweat from his forehead with a towel. “You going to Lake Lacroix Pizza?”
“Yeah. I’ll meet you there in about an hour.”
Amir shook his head and walked into the locker room.
Raven ran back up to the girls. “Amir is coming too.”
Trinity peeked at her incredulously. “Who is this woman? This isn’t Raven.” Trinity glanced, seeking answers.
Trinity and Raven waited for Nia and Jasmine to leave before they walked the short distance to the pizza shop. It wasn’t far from school, and they often strolled there during school lunch breaks. Raven’s phone buzzed, and she swiped up to see who it was.
Amir: I’m here
Raven picked up her pace, wondering how he beat her there. She didn’t see him come out of the locker room with the rest of the team. Trinity took a phone call as they trekked, and she got louder and louder on the phone. She hung up.
“Ray, you’re going to kill me. I have to go home. My dad needs me to stay at the house until the contractors leave.”
“We have to tell Amir we’re not coming.” Raven stopped walking.
“Not we—me. I’m not coming,” Trinity corrected. “You still go.”
Raven was thoughtful. She hadn’t factored her and Amir alone in a pizza shop, just the two of them. Sure, he came to her house a few times, but that was to study. There would be no studying tonight. Raven wondered if she should cancel.
Trinity said in a low voice. “Ray, just go. It’s just pizza. You’ll be fine.”
Raven glanced at Trinity. She was the shortest of the girls standing at five-foot-even, and she was always so calm. She admired that about Trinity. She was right; it would be okay. Raven started moving again in the direction of the pizza shop.
* * *
“I hear it’s just me and you today,” he said with a smile once she arrived.
And he still came, Raven inferred.
“Can we get a table for two?” Amir leaned over the counter, motioning to the server. They escorted Amir and Raven to their table, and they sat quietly, staring at their menus. Her hands were sweaty.
“I’m sorry about the game,” she said, looking up from her menu. She wasn’t sure why she was studying the menu. They were at a pizza shop, and she was getting pizza. She put the menu down and played with her straw.
“I’m not worried about that, it’ll come together in time.”
“You’re so calm about it. If I got beat by twenty plus points, I’d at least have an attitude.”
“Oh, you got jokes.” He shot a paper straw at Raven. They laughed. “How is your dad?” Amir asked.
“He’s okay.” Raven told him about the latest with Carter.
“You’re always in my business, what’s going on with you?” she quizzed. Amir sat back in the booth.
“I’m making it.”
“What’s that mean?”
He shrugged.
“Talk to me. I’m ready for you to lie on my couch and tell me all your secrets,” she joked.
“I’ve just been thinking about the school. We moved here to help my chances of getting a basketball scholarship. The way these games have been looking, I don’t know if that will even happen.” He scanned the restaurant and landed on everything but her.
Blair always said when a Black man shares his innermost thoughts, you’re supposed to listen.
Raven listened.
“My entire future depends on me getting a scholarship. I don’t like that. I think I’m pretty good at other things too. But everyone wants me to shut up and dribble. What if I don’t want to dribble? What if I want to own the team or manage behind the scenes?”
“Those are all great options, Amir. What stops you?”
“Me. I guess me.”
“Then stop your shit. You can do all of those things. You can play basketball, own the team, and you do whatever you want to do. You don’t have to be what everyone else wants you to be.” The words flowed out of Raven with zero effort. It was so easy to see someone else’s problems clearly. Yet, she struggled to apply them to her own life.
“You just have to do it. Once you make a choice, the people around you will support you and fall in line. You can just be what you’re ready to be—when you’re ready to be it.” Raven tried to comfort him as best as she could like he did for her.
She lowered her voice like she saw her mom do with her dad. Raven looked Amir square in the eyes. She let him talk and lay down whatever was on his mind.
“Dr. Ray,” Amir bantered. “Is everything okay with you and Taylor?”
“Yea, I think so. Why?”
“No reason, I saw her looking at you at the game tonight.”
“I think she saw me looking at you.”
“Why were you looking at me?”
Raven’s face felt flush. “Because. . . you were getting beat so bad tonight I had to make sure you were okay.”
Amir spit out some of his soda and laughed. He shot another paper straw in her direction.
“But seriously, you good?”
Raven quieted, and a flurry of thoughts ran through her mind. Was she good? She wasn’t sure. She probed her feelings, and before she knew it, the word vomit came back. She told Amir everything. Raven detailed her time with Taylor and Ms. Whitaker, her family’s session together, getting her nails done by Aunt Cocina. She even told him she requested an information packet from the Alvin Ailey Dance Academy in New York. Raven didn’t tell anyone that yet.
And Amir. Amir told Raven about his mom and being there for his younger sister. Amir watched a few documentaries about sports agents, and he admitted he was interested in learning more about it. But everyone saw a tall, young Black man, and they told him what he was supposed to be. He was unsure how to show others anyone else.
Raven and Amir shared pizza, time, and understanding. One by one, the lights in the pizza shop shut off—and the server returned to their table. “Hey guys, we’re closing in thirty minutes. Just a heads up,” she said, clearly annoyed. She walked away in a huff.
Raven looked around. They were the only ones left and had stayed until closing. Raven looked at her phone and had three missed calls. One from Trinity and two from Blair. She had only one text message from Blair.
Blair: I know how to track your phone now, girl. You make me come down to that pizza shop in my slippers, and that’s your ass.
“Oh, crap, it’s getting late. My mom is looking for me,” Raven grabbed a to-go box. They went through two pizzas while sitting there talking.
“How are you getting home?” he asked.
“I was going to take an Uber.”
“I’ll share one with you.” Amir got up and paid the bill at the register.
Once their car arrived, they piled into the back seat. Their driver hit a pothole, and Raven’s arm bumped Amir’s. Her left hand was down on the seat. He moved his hand closer to hers. They touched.
Amir gazed at Raven.
She gazed at him.
He opened his mouth to say something but stopped. No words came out.
His head moved closer to Raven’s, and her heart began beating fast.
She moved her head away and inched back. Amir retreated and gave Raven space, letting her choose. She moved closer to Amir and placed her hand over top of his. Amir leaned forward and touched the side of her cheek and kissed her softly on the lips.
He pulled back, his eyes searched Raven’s. Raven wasn’t sure how long they sat there kissing. Their Uber driver cleared his throat and eyed them from the rearview mirror.
“We’re at the first destination,” he reported. Raven opened her eyes and untangled herself from Amir.
Physically and emotionally.
Raven saw Blair standing in the front doorway of their house. The porch light was on, and she was in her house robe with curlers in her hair, tapping her foot and looking at her watch. It was 11:11 p.m. Go figure, Raven mused. Raven could see Blair’s ratty, old nightgown from the car.
Amir spotted her and smirked.
“See you tomorrow?” he asked.
“Tomorrow,” Raven said slowly and closed the door.