Sex, Love, and Basketball *Books 1 and 2* (Slowly Editing)

1. Move In Day

Daniella

"That's everything." I said, letting out a relieved sigh.

I had finally finished bringing everything into my room. Thank God there was an elevator in these dorms because all basketball and soccer players were on the third floor and I was not about to make several trips up the stairs.

"You've got everything in here, but you still need to unpack and organize everything. I can help you, sweetie." My mother said and I just rolled my eyes. I knew what she was doing.

"Mom, I can handle it. You said it yourself that I'm going to have to start being more independent, this is my first step towards independence. I got this." I said, tapping my chest.

"Being independent doesn't mean that you can't have help." She argued.

She was just looking for a reason to stay here longer. I'm her only child and now her baby is growing up. Her words not mine.

"Mom, I know what you're doing." I said placing a hand on her shoulder.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, feigning innocence.

"You're looking for a reason to stay longer because you don't want to let me go, but you have to. I can organize my room on my own. Now hug me and then leave me to it. You do have a pretty long drive back home." I reminded her.

"You're growing up on me." She said, looking like she wanted to cry.

"Mom, please don't cry. You promised you wouldn't cry." I groaned.

"Oh hush, Daniella. You're my only child and you're going off to college. I can cry if I want to."

My mother pulled me into a hug and I hugged her back tightly. I wanted to cry too, but I had this thing where I just didn't cry. I wouldn't let myself do it. The last time I cried was at my father's funeral last year. It's not that I felt like there was something wrong with crying, but it just made me feel weak and I hated feeling weak.

"Okay mom, you have to let me go now." I said trying to pull away from the hug, but my mother wouldn't let me go.

"Okay," she said, finally releasing me and taking a deep breath. "I'm going to leave now. Call me if you need anything."

"I definitely will. And call me when you make it home." I said holding on to her arm.

"I will sweetheart." She said, smiling sadly at me.

"Okay."

I let letting my mom's arm go, feeling a little embarrassed.

It's just that the idea of her making the drive back home by herself made me worry. It wasn't that my mom was a bad driver. It was that my dad had just died in a car accident last year and cars just made me nervous ever since. I wasn't in the car with him, but my mother was. They were on their way to one of my basketball games when it happened.

That day I spent the whole game glancing in the crowd and wondering where the heck my parents were. I hadn't gotten a call or anything telling me they were going to be late. I waited until half time to call and see what was going on, but neither of them answered their phones. It wasn't until after the game was over that I got a call telling me that my parents had gotten into an accident and that my father was in critical condition.

He died three days later from "complications" as the doctors put it.

Enough about that. I'm not trying to cry right now.

My mother and I hugged one more time before she finally left after promising to come to every game she could make it to.

I was only five minutes into organizing my room when I heard the buttons on the outside of the doors being fiddled with.