Stay in Your Lane | Lonzo Ball

Chapter 29

Lonzo

I couldn't sleep for shit. My mind replayed all the moments between Izzy and I tonight over and over. There was an uncertain feeling lingering after leaving her doorstep. A mixture of signals. She liked the kiss and slick complimented me as a good kisser, but was it something that she wanted? Was she feeling the same way or was she just trying to make me feel better about the situation?

Who am I kidding? This girl don't wanna fuck with me like that. She made it clear from the beginning. Why am I even testing that?

It's a vibe though, Zo. You feel it and you know that she does too, no matter how hard she tries to deny it.

As I laid in bed staring at the ceiling with my phone face down on my chest, I debated on sending her a text or calling. I wanted to badly. I couldn't come on too strong though and be doing too much. I can hit her up in the morning.

10 am the next morning I rolled out of bed, hopped in the shower and continued with the rest of my morning rituals. Mani and I headed down to the student center for breakfast. I told him everything that happened last night, hoping that my friend and fellow teammate could offer up some advice.

"I'm proud of you bro," he dapped me up.

Confused, I inquired, "For what?"

"For shooting your shot. I was wondering how long you were gonna play around for, man," he said, "when you got a chick like that in sight you gotta go for it."

"I don't know if she with it or not though. I can't really figure her out," I shrugged.

"Look man, you put yourself out there. That's all you can do. It's her move if she wanna make one."

"I guess you're right," I nodded, "I'm gonna try to link up with her after the game today. Hopefully, they win so she's in a good mood."

A few hours transpired, leading up to game time at Pauley Pavilion. Mani and I took seats next to our teammates, TJ, Jerrold, Bryce, Ike and Isaac, behind the girls bench.

My eyes couldn't look away from her once they casted upon her running from sideline to sideline doing ball handling warm ups.

I could feel myself smiling. She wasn't just beautiful when she dressed up, or wore street clothes. Her beauty was relevant all day, every day. That included when we FaceTimed when she first woke up in the morning to her sweating and grinding out here on the court.

I had a thing for her swag. She was confident yet humble like me. Not too into showboating, but she demanded your attention when she walked in the building. Although she donned the same warm up and jersey as her teammates, she brought her own individuality to it. Her hair tied up on her head in a bun with an Adidas headband tied across the crown and her shorts rolled up to touch mid thigh.

"Them cameras gonna catch yo ass bro," I heard Jerrold say.

"Catch me doing what bro?" I fought to tear my eyes away from Izzy joining the captains meeting at center court to look at him.

"Since you've sat your ass down you've been looking at Izzy," he smiled, "I knew it, bro."

"Knew what?"

"That you got a thing for her. It's been obvious and was definitely obvious last night at my place."

I sighed, "I can't even lie bro. I like her. At first I thought I was on some rebound shit but I've been digging Izzy for a minute. Before I broke up with my ex."

"Then what you waiting on? Look, if you were any other nigga I'd tell you to step off. I'm protective of Izzy, you know? That's like family. I saw all the shit she went through with Nate," he shook his head, "but you're a good dude. Young as hell, but you're mature for your age according to her. I can see that too."