Off the Rim by Sonya Spreen Bates

Author:Sonya Spreen Bates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV032020, JUV028000, JUV039230
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2015-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

I had a hard time being around Jesse at practice the next morning. The way he ran around on the court, passing and dribbling like nothing had happened. Like it was an ordinary day and his buddy wasn’t making death threats to my girlfriend. I wanted to wipe the smug look off his face with the back of my hand.

After forty-five minutes of running drills, Coach set us up for some one-on-one shooting practice. I scooted over to Jesse and gave him a friendly grin. Not.

It was an unusual choice, and Jesse knew it. Normally, I would have paired up with Matt or Carlos, or Stretch, before he hurt his knee. I think Jesse may have sensed something was up. Still, he shrugged and started dribbling the ball. He eyed me warily as he shuffled from one side to the other. Perhaps he could see the murderous intent behind my smile. Perhaps he just knew I was the better player. Either way, he was taking his time making any moves.

He glanced up at the hoop, and I thought he might just go for the long-range shot. Coach wouldn’t have been happy about that. It was the cop-out move. We could practice long-range shots any time. Then suddenly he switched hands and turned his back to me, sidestepping closer to the basket. I matched him stride for stride, left, right, left again and forward, letting him herd me into position. When he spun and drove in for the layup, I made my own move.

I stepped in, crossed my arms and bumped him. Hard.

Jesse reeled back and hit the floor.

“What the—?”

“Whoa, sorry about that,” I said, giving him a hand up. I would rather have given a hand up to Hitler, but I had to keep up appearances. “Let’s go again.”

He gave me a guarded look and started dribbling again, keeping an eye on me while he switched the ball from his right hand to his left and back again.

“Come on, don’t take all day,” I said, gesturing for him to come closer.

He faked to the left, then drove in past me on the right.

I turned and jumped as he went for the layup. We collided in midair, and both of us hit the floor.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he said as he got to his feet.

“What?” I said innocently. “I’m defending the basket. What does it look like?”

He scowled at me. I almost thought he was going to walk off the court, but he got to the top of the key and turned back, prepared for another attempt. This time he drove straight in. I rushed right at him, and he hit the floor for the third time.

He jumped up, anger written all over him. With a glance over his shoulder to make sure Coach wasn’t watching, he stepped up and got right into my face.

“I don’t know what your problem is, Lane, but you’re asking for it,” he said.

“Yeah?” I growled back. “What’re you gonna do about it? Get your buddy to send me nasty emails?” The words were out before I could stop them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.