more life / b.simmons (2)

36

avery slips her purse over her head and waits for adrian to come out of the bathroom. she looks around his room and smiles at the framed picture of the two of them on his desk. the bathroom door opens and adrian walks out and walks up to his girlfriend. "what you looking at?" he asks, throwing an arm around her shoulder. avery nods at the picture and grin breaks out on his face. it's a picture of them on valentine's day at a nice restaurant he took her to last year. "we cute."

"extremely," avery says, pulling out her phone and dragging adrian to the mirror. she snaps a few pictures of them before exiting his room and barging into kyras.

"knocking would be nice!" she yells from her closet. the two kids sit down on her bed and get on their phones. kyra walks out and stands in front of them, her hands at her sides with the palms facing them. "this cute?" she asks.

"yes!" avery says, a smile on her face. kyra wears black mom mom jeans, an oversized green flannel with the sleeves rolled up, and black doc martens.

"who you dressing up for? adrian asks, eyebrows furrowed.

"let's not act like Caris Levert isn't playing tonight," she says, walking away from them and sliding bracelets on over her wrists. adrian rolls his eyes and avery raises her eyebrows in agreement. "but let's get out of here—they're waiting." kyra slides a jean jacket on and grabs her baby LV bag and heads downstairs.

"ready?" amari asks, draping a fendi shawl over her shoulders. the three of them nod and follow amari out to her car. adrian hops in the drivers seat and backs out of the driveway.

kyra hooks her phone up to the bluetooth audio and shuffles a playlist consisting of drake and drake only. "you love lightskins," adrian says from the front.

"have you seen keanu? and you do too, sir," kyra says, rolling her eyes. adrian snorts at the mention of keanu, bur nobody says anything. it's not a secret that kyra and keanu haven't hung our or talked in awhile. they don't act like they're dating.

amari relaxes in the front seat, glad to not be driving. she's not excited about going to the game, but she is for the kids and because, even though her and ben are still fighting, she loves him and watching him play.

almost an hour later, they pull into the back parking lot of the arena and they all hop out. kyra links arms with her mom and they walk ahead of her brother and kyra. "are you excited?"

"i guess," amari says. the security guard pulls the door open for the four of them and they enter the arena. ben waits for them at the entrance of the tunnel, and he smiles once he sees his family.

ben hugs and kisses kyra first. amari only offers him a side hug, and he doesn't say or do anything about him. adrian onlt daps him up and her earns a similar hug to amaris, from avery. "you guys have a good day at school?" he asks, taking kyras free hand. and this is a visual representation of kyra being in the middle of her parents arguments.

"yeah. i got a 97 on that bio test," kyra says.

"you don't sound happy."

"well i was one question away from a perfect score. do you know how annoying that is?" she asks. ben chuckles and kisses the side of her head and cameras flash as they finish their walk through the tunnel.

other players pass by them in hall and say hello the family. analiese hears all of the commotion outside and waits by her desk for bens family to pass. its been a week since they did what they did, and ben won't even acknowledge her. instead of getting bags of ice, he takes an ice bath after every game.

the family walks by and adrian and kyra look into the athletic office to see if analiese is there. they've hung out with ben in there several times—before he was cleared—and they like analiese because she's young and pretty.