From Bringston, With Love

Chapter 19: Keep the Family Close

This Saturday, a lot is at stake. The baseball team gets ready for their eastern conference championship game. The tennis team heads to their conference championship tournament. In just a days time, a few unexpected events throw Damon and Simone off their game. As their freshman collegiate seasons come to a close, they are both left feeling an array of emotions. Week 5 of pledging.

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Amara, Gabby, Nate, and Keisha see Simone and Thea off as the men and women's tennis teams load their buses to head to the tournament. Their wins are just 2 hours away in Augusta. "I'm so proud of you baby girl! You've really pushed through this season. I just know you're going to kill it out there!"

"Yeah she's gonna kick everybody's asses.... I'm sure you will too, Thea," Keisha says.

"Thanks," Thea says in response. Nate gives Thea a hug, then she heads over to talk to Rome. This is his last collegiate tournament before he goes pro after he graduates. Rome and Thea have gotten pretty close over the past month. At first he was just giving her the cortisone shots, but the more they talked, the more they realized how much they had in common. Even after Thea stopped buying the cortisone shots from Rome, they constantly gravitated toward each other and found themselves having more and more conversations, especially after Damon and Thea's relationship ended.

She never had to explain herself to Rome in the ways she did with Damon. Rome just got her. He understood her mindset as an athlete and he was the same way. A bit ruthless. He didn't care much about who he had to get through to be at the top of his game. They challenged each other to be better athletes and, in some ways romantic partners. It was easy, and Thea liked that. They weren't going to see much of each other for the rest of the day, so they went ahead and gave their well wishes and goodbyes. They would be spending the remainder of their trip to Augusta getting their heads in the game and they would be hitting the courts not too long after their arrival.

Thea gets on the women's bus. Simone continues to chat with Amara, Gabby, Nate, and Keisha as the men's bus pulls off. Simone's phone buzzes. It's a text from Lando wishing her luck. She's honestly surprised that he had time to think about her since the baseball team is getting ready for their championship game later. She reads the text from her notification screen, and her face sours a bit. Gabby notices. "You good girl?"

"I'm fine, just Lando texting me, 'Good luck.'"

Keisha: "What, you wishing it was Damon?"

In all honesty, Simone appreciated the text. It was nice that Lando thought of her. His text just reminded her that she had two guys waiting on her to tell them how she felt about them. That's not at all what she needed to think about. "What I wish for... is to kick ass at this tournament. I'm not trying to think about boys right now."

"Boyzzz, plural," Amara questions.

Keisha: "Apparently Damon loves her and Lando likes?? her."

Amara: "Oh I see. Well, I don't know Lando like that, but he seemed nice. And Damon... Let's just say no one should be surprised by that."

Amara's words stun Simone. It seemed like everyone knew Damon loved Simone, but her. That somehow made her feel worse. She had been taking her time with everything. Reasonably so... But, she never quite knew the magnitude of emotions that she would have to consider.

Gabby: "Okay, I can see you getting overwhelmed with your thoughts. Don't worry. The boys will still be in the same place when you get back. Your championship title awaits!"

Simone takes a deep breath. "Thanks Gab. I love you. I love all of y'all too." Simone picks up her bag and heads to the bus as her aunt and friends say their goodbyes. As she walks off she overhears Amara saying, "Two boys? I see what I miss out on when we don't have family dinners." That makes Simone chuckle slightly. Now she's wondering what would have happened had Amara not stopped family dinners in the first place. The girls finish loading up and the bus finally pulls off. Amara and friends wave goodbye as the bus rolls past them.