laid in shot after shot into the basketball hoop on the curb of his house.

He was shirtless and the sun was beaming down his back as he continued to run shooting drills.

A black hooptie came around the corner and parked itself in the driveway of Ayoluwa's home.

Sure enough, Ayoluwa came out of the driver's seat, her locs sectioned in braids, and without sparing Joshua a glance, opened the backseat and reappeared with a little girl who had a Dora the Explorer backpack on, resting on Ayoluwa's hip.

The little girl looked to be at least four or five in age, and had skin significantly deeper than Ayoluwa's own skin tone and her type four curly hair was neatly parted into multiple twists with multicolored flower barrettes at the end of each twist.

Ayoluwa went into her house with the little girl leaving Joshua with one singular question.

She has a kid?

That doesn't surprise me.

Joshua shook his head just as the timer on his phone came off, signaling that he could rest.

He slipped his phone into his hand and held the basketball underneath his arm as he walked forward to press the correct password to open his garage.

Inside the house was significantly cooler than outside and Joshua was grateful for it.

Snatching a water out of the fridge, Joshua gulped at it as he sat down at the kitchen table.

The sound of a FaceTime call emanated from his phone and when Joshua glanced down, he could see that Jalen was calling him.

"Gup, hold on," Jalen said when he picked up.

The outline of lush covered mountains were behind him and he was also shirtless.

"Nigga, you called me." Joshua snickered, "Where are you?"

"Yeah, I know, we're hiking up mountain, uh I can't pronounce none of these hard ass Hawaiian words. Lani! You can't get another dog. Put her down!" Jalen called offscreen.

"They're literally giving puppies away so yeah, I can!" Noelani shot back, offscreen.

"This was the reason you called me?" Joshua asked in an indignant tone.

"You already have two!" Jalen laughed.

"But this is one we could raise together! Josh, look," Noelani came into the screen with a chocolate brown and white Akita puppy in her hands.

"Blue and Cin' would love a little sister. I think I'm gonna give her a Hawaiian name. Maybe something like Meli. It's the Hawaiian word for honey," She explained at Jalen and Joshua's confused expressions.

Her curly hair was parted in half to form braids and she was wearing a sports bra, matching biking shorts and Jalen's backpack.

"Your mom would kill you." Jalen pointed out.

"I didn't answer this call for y'all to be arguing about a damn dog." Joshua leaned back into his chair.

"I'm getting her, my mom is just gonna have to deal." Noelani said then walked offscreen.

Jalen rolled his eyes but finally looked into the screen, "Dior called me, bruh. He wants me to talk to you about some girl named uh, Ayanna? Wait, no. I don't remember her name. Anyway, what's up with you and this girl?"

Joshua chuckled at the question, "Nothing is up with me and her."

"It's not nothing if Dior is calling me talking about sum, 'You gotta call Gup, bruh. He tripping out, you need to talk to him, he listens to you.'" Jalen imitated Dior's northern accent poorly.

"It's just this girl that I don't like who lives next door. He's overreacting." Joshua waved off the comment.

"Wait, is he talking about Ayoluwa? That girl you got beef with?" Jalen asked.

"Yeah."

"Then yeah, I agree with Dior. You always go overboard when it comes to her." Jalen wiped his forehead.

"You haven't even met her." Joshua pointed out.

"I did the last time I stayed at your house in February." Jalen replied, "She was helping Dior with his English homework and I think you ran to the grocery store with your mom. She's aight."

"Who is?" Noelani appeared back into the screen, the dog still in her hands.

"Josh's neighbor." Jalen said.

"Oh, yeah. Dior showed me her instagram, she's pretty." Noelani used one hand to shield her eyes from the sun.

"Oh my God," Joshua dragged out the middle word, "Give it up. This is some fan shit."

Noelani shook her head, her braids moving with her, "You know what's some fan shit? The hating ass comments you left on my instagram. Let's really talk about it."

"Alright, Lani." Jalen immediately jumped in, sensing an incoming argument between the two.

Noelani moved offscreen again and Joshua readjusted himself in the chair.

"Anyway, what else is going on?" Jalen asked.

"Patrick is selling the lake house."

Jalen stopped, "Your grandpa's lake house?"

"Yeah."

"Damn, I'm sorry to hear that. I know that y'all don't have a lot left from him."

"It is what it is," Joshua lied, looking away from the phone.

"You don't have to lie to me. I know how upset you were after paint got onto the chain he gave you." Jalen replied, "How'd that happen anyway?"

Joshua's gaze immediately flashed up to peek at the siding of Ayoluwa's one story house, "I don't wanna talk about it right now. Just know that me not liking ole girl isn't out of nowhere. And you should tell Dior to talk to me himself if he's mad."

"Ion think you realize how you come off sometimes, bruh," Jalen reached up to lightly roll a curl between his fingers.

"Whatever. When you coming back this way?" Joshua questioned.

"End of July. I'm moving to Walnut Creek to start practice and Lani's little brother is supposed to be born by then or about to be born so hopefully we'll be able to get on the same flight or on one a couple days from each-."

"I asked about you not her," Joshua pointed out.

Jalen was quiet for a couple of seconds, giving Joshua a confused expression, "We a package deal, bruh. You know this. I'm not making any big decisions without letting her know about it so we can move forward."

"You talk like she's gonna be around forever." Joshua scoffed quietly.

"That's 'cause she is gonna be around forever. Do you have a problem with my girl or sumn'? I thought you liked her."

"I do. I just... I feel like you've changed. Like you're not the same person you were before you met her." Joshua sighed.

"Well yeah. If I was the same person, I wouldn't have a girlfriend. Growth is good."

"Y'all are going too fast." Joshua muttered.

"Our one year is coming up," Jalen replied with a short chuckle.

"Y'all just got back together." Joshua raised both eyebrows.

"We not counting the break up. We both agreed that it was some bullshit." Jalen looked up at his surroundings.

"Yeah, okay. You did some dumb shit and that's why you wanna pretend that it never happened."

Jalen screwed up his face in irritation, "What's your fuckin' problem, Josh? You know what? Never mind. I don't care anymore. I have to go and get a new leash and everything for Meli and you can sit there and be a dickhead with your bitter, lonely ass."

Then Jalen hung up the phone leaving Joshua slightly abashed.

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