Alien Romance: Interview with an Alien (Football Paranormal Invasion Abduction Alpha Sci-fi Romance) (Fantasy First New Adult Contact Science Fiction Mystery Sports Alien Short Stories) (43 page)

              “Fine, what do we do?”

              Then I jumped in. I went over tricks and exercises my father did with me when I use to get nervous. I told him how he had to block everything out and stop thinking about the importance and just play. Finally, he it looked like he was starting to get it. He was making his shot and he was playing with more confidence.

              “Can I go now?” He whined as the basketball fell from the hoop. “I’m so over this.”

              “Sure you can go.” I took the ball and Aaron and I watched him leave.

              “Now that you have him playing better let’s hope those tricks you taught him work because the game is tomorrow.”

              “I know.” I nodded.

              “And we have to get drafted.”

              I looked over at my friend and he looked at me.

              “You know if you get drafted before me, I wouldn’t mind,” I told him truthfully because as much as Aaron partied, he took the game very seriously.

              “That’s deep.” He patted my back. “I wish I could say the same as you, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that I wouldn’t be mad if you got drafted before me.” He joked.

              “Oh God.”

              “First of all. I’m prettier than you.” He joked and we went to the locker room.

              It was game day and I was excited. I took a peek out into the court and I saw Simone sitting there. As always she looked great. She saw me looking at her and she smiled. She was wearing this white dress and sandals.

              “You out here looking at her when we got a game to get ready for.” Aaron slapped me behind the head. I was about to say something but I couldn't deny that he was right just a little bit. I like Simone, but as much as I like her, I can’t let her distract me from the reason why I came to college; especially not tonight. I am here to get drafted and there is a scout tonight.

              “You’re right,” I admitted.

              “You’re ready to do this?” He held his hand out.

              “I’m so ready.”

              The game was going better than we ever planned. I always thought that Aaron and I made a great team, but now with Dwayne in the mix, we were even better. Not only were we in the lead but neither Dwayne, Aaron, or I ever missed a point. We were stealing passes, making shots, and the crowd was going crazy. I would glimpse in the stands and saw Simone smiling. She would wave and I would nod back as I made the shot. It was nice to have her there, but besides impressing her, I wanted to know if I was impressing the scout.

              Half time came and the cheerleaders ran out to the floor. I guzzled down some Gatorade and I felt someone tapping me. I smelled her sweet perfume before I even turned around. Simone threw a towel in my face.

“Hey, how did you get down here?” I asked her. “No one is suppose to be this close to the players without buying floor seats.”

              “You can take that up with your friend.” She nudged her head towards Aaron. I turned to see him smiling at me at the other end of the seats. For all that grief he gave me about looking at her, he didn’t hesitate to help me.

              “That was nice to him.” I gave him a slick look. “I can’t talk for long though because the Coach is going to round us up for us to go over the plays.”

              “How sporty.” She smiled. “But I just came down here to wish you good luck.”

              “That’s sweet.” I stuck my tongue out. “Let me find out that you have a soft side.”

              “It’s going to take you 90 days to get to my,” She leaned in and whispered in my ear, “soft side.” She winked and then got up.

              The Coach called us all in together and we went over the plays. Half time was almost over. We were looking all over the place trying to see if we could spot the scout.

              “Is this boring to you guys?” The Coach asked out of nowhere. “Why aren’t you guys listening to me?” He sighed. “Let me guess, all of you are out there looking for the scout.” We nodded and he shook his head. “I suppose it’s my fault, I shouldn't have shared it with you guys. You are all playing well, but I need you guys to be focused on the game.”

              “I’m not going to lie to you, if I don’t see the scout, I’m probably going to be looking for him all evening.”

              “Fine, I’m going to tell you where he is.” All of us players leaned in. He’s sitting over there in the third row up. Right over there.” He pointed over and we saw this guy with a suit and clipboard. It was so obvious how much he stuck out, it was amazing we didn’t notice him before. “Now I don’t want you thinking about him, I want you all to be back in the game. I want you to get out there and win this.”

              The game was going great. Aaron, Dwayne and I were dominating the whole game. We were a triple threat. Fans for both teams were yelling and pretty soon, it was crunch time. I looked over at Dwayne and he looked so nervous. I sensed that the game was getting to him and I was afraid that he was going to choke. The last thing I needed was for him to mess up. But like I jinxed the whole game, he started to play badly. He went up to the Coach and just told him to pull him out.

              “Are you sure? You are just playing a little off, that’s no reason to get out of of the game.” The Coach could be heard across the court.

              “No, I have to do this Coach. If I’m not my best, I’m not going to jeopardize the whole team for that.” He told him. “I need to be benched.” The Coach nodded and swapped him out. The replacement, Ronald, was okay, but he wasn’t as good as Dwayne.

              “I can’t believe we have to deal with this right now,” I told Aaron as we waited for the game to start again.

              “It’s not a problem if anything this works for us. Now the scout has seen how great we play and he will definitely knows it is us two that is the real deal in this team.” He pointed out and I hated to admit that he was right. I nodded my head.

              “I hope you get drafted.” I nudged him with my shoulder as the bell rang.

              “Yes, I hope so too.” He said and we laughed.

              We were up by four and it was the last thirty seconds of the game. It was our ball but they had Aaron and I blocked. They didn’t want us to make another shot but it didn’t matter, we just couldn’t let them steal the ball.

              “Cinderella!” I yelled out a play and it went into motion. The players that were on me eased up and when I was free, I went for the three point shot. It bounced up off the rim and I put my head down, but then the crowd cheered. I looked up and saw that I made the shot. I looked up and watch the replay on the screen. The ball bounced up on the rim, but then when it came down, it went through by some miracle. My teammates were cheering me on and picking me up. It felt great. We were a game away from making playoffs.

              “You must have Jesus’ phone number because only God could have helped you pull that off.” Aaron joked and everyone still was cheering. The stands were going crazy and I saw Simone. She was caught up in the hype as well. It was nice to see someone that happy for me. I looked around for the scout but I couldn’t see him. I kept scanning the court and I finally spotted him. He was talking to the scout. The scout was smiling and then he shook his hand and walked away. The Coach turned and was smiling, so I guess it had to be good news.

              “That game was phenomenal, but we should have never lost that lead,” he told us “We were blowing them away and again our endurance came back to bite us in the ass. I don’t think that we should do this if we cann’t give one thousand percent. If you think that you are giving enough, you have to go further. You have to give and give more.”

              “So in other words, don’t volunteer for the bench,” Aaron laughed, looking at Dwayne and we all jumped in.

              “Alright, enough of thatv” Coach said. “B-Wood!” He called out to me.               “You were top notch form.
              “Thanks, Coach.”

              “But you can’t carry this whole team by yourself. Ease up on the ball.”

              “I pass the ball.” I was confused because I made sure that I didn’t have the basketball all the time.

              “You pass it to Aaron and for this game you pass it to Dwayne too, but you have other basketball players on this team. I keep telling you that it’s a team sport.”

              Just then the scout walked in.

              “Am I interrupting something?” he asked.

              “No, come on in. You can wait for me in the office. I’ll bring the player to you,” the Coach told him and we all watched him walk to the office. The door slammed and we all looked to the Coach for him to tell us who was going to be drafted or at least who the scout was obviously interested in.

              “Okay, you guys hit the showers,” he told us but we didn’t move. We didn’t understand what was going on. “Move it!”

              “But Coach—” One of the teammates started but he cut them off.

              “I said hit the showers!” His yell echoed and we slowly but surely got up.

              Just when we were all about to leave we heard the Coach say… “Dwayne!” Aaron and I looked at each other as Dwayne ran to the Coach’s side.

              “Yes, Coach?”

              “There’s someone that wants to meet you.”

              Dwayne and the Coach walked away to his office. I was so shocked. Dwayne would not have even been in that game if it wasn’t for Aaron and I. I looked at Aaron again and all he could say was,

              “Ain’t that bout a bitch?”

CONTINUE TO PART TWO

Another bonus story is on the next page.

Bonus Story 13 of 24

              The crowd was still cheering in the gym, but for me, there was no reason to celebrate. Even though we just won a big game in front of an NBA scout, Aaron and I weren’t the ones that he chose. The NBA scout instead chose the basketball player that we helped make a success. Life isn’t fair.

              “I cannot fucking believe it,” Aaron cursed, kicking a towel clear to the other side of that room. “Me and you helped that motherfucker and they think that… that... that fucking choke artist is a better player than me!” I gave him a look. “And you? Shit, if it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t know how to drown out all those people in the stands. That man is not built for the fucking NBA – at least he wasn’t until we got to him. Isn’t this some bullshit!” He yelled.

“Come on let’s quiet down,” I sighed.

“Why?’ Aaron spun around. “You worried about that traitor hearing us?” He rolled his eyes. “I don’t give a fuck.”

              I was disappointed and pissed off but I couldn’t explode. I guess it was from my father teaching me about not being a sore loser. There was always a time and a place to express this disappointment and this wasn’t it.

“What’s up?” Aaron was next to me. “You look like you were gone. You were staring off into the distance.”

“My bad,” I apologized. “I guess I was just…” I drifted off. “I was just thinking about what you said.”

“What?”

“You called him a traitor.”

“Dwayne is a fucking traitor,” he said through his teeth. “After all that we did for him.”

“Aaron!” I told him. “Are you really surprised? He’s getting an offer from the fucking NBA. Of course he went. I wouldn’t have done anything different and neither would have you.” He started to nod. “And keep it down and be cool. I see it for us in some different ways. One, we have someone that we know and helped get in the NBA. Maybe he invites us to parties and we meet the right person.”

“True.”

“Two, we have the credit of turning someone into NBA material.”

“Also true.”

“And now, if you continue to throw this temper tantrum, that’s all the NBA scout in there is going to remember and he is going to talk. We don’t need any type of bad press.”

              Aaron just nodded his head again. His shoulders slumped and he walked slowly to the showers. I looked back at the office and saw Coach, Dwayne, and the NBA scout still talking. Dwayne was smiling so I knew it was good news. I just couldn’t believe it but I had to deal with it.

“It is what it is.”

              After the shower, I took my sad self outside. There I saw Simone standing waving some pompoms.

“Can you believe that this school pays for this merchandise?” She smiled and usually I would smile back but I was too down. “Come on, what’s up?” She poked me. “You just won this game, you would think you would be here cheering.”

              I thought about telling her, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t know her all that well and the last thing I needed was to let her in on why I was down. So I did what my father taught me to do after I lost a game. I planted a fake smile and just acted like everything was okay.

              “Do you know how tired I am?” I fake complained with a smile. “It might just look like a game to you but this is work for me.”

“Yeah, but you make it look so easy,” she said, and poked me.

“I try,” I bragged. She smiled again and suddenly it got easier to smile. She didn’t take away all the pain but she made it much easier. “Come on let’s go.”

“Let’s go where?”

“To get something to eat.”

              We went to the pizza place. Back home I didn’t eat much junk food, but the pizza here reminded me of back home. I use to love going to get pizza with my mom and dad. My mom didn’t leave the house much and my dad and I always spent time together. So sometimes after a game, they would take me out for pizza. We would just sit there and swap stories.

              “Hey, how can I assist you?” The waitress would ask me and my parents. My mother would start bragging about how many shots I made that game. My father would then go on and on of how he taught me about the game and that he was the one responsible for it all. Then I would just jump in and tell the waitress to get us one large pizza. One half with pepperoni and the other half with Canadian bacon and pineapple. She’d bring a huge pitcher of juice for all of us and then we’d just laugh. We’d get the pizza and laugh. When I get lonely out here, I just think back to that. If I concentrate hard enough, I can still hear the laughter.

              The pizza place was packed. There were people still there celebrating the win of the game. A lot of the people recognized me. Before we could even get seated, all types of people ran up to me.

“Dude!” one really drunk student came up to me. “You were so fucking awesome tonight!” He congratulated me. “All those shots you made. You’re like LeBron James!”

“He’s better than LeBron James.” His friend added. “You got to take a picture with us. I want to have this when you’re famous and in the NBA.” He was holding up his cell phone.

“Hell fucking yeah.” The original guy said. “Let’s get into this fucking picture dude. This picture will be worth fucking millions one day. When you’re in the NBA…” He went on but I started to drown him out.

              I used the trick that I use to drown out fans at the basketball games. I needed to escape. Everyone kept bringing up the NBA and all I could think of is how I was supposed to be drafted tonight. I was supposed to be the one that the NBA scout called into the room. I should be signing contracts in the morning, not Dwayne. I didn’t want to feel anything. I didn’t want to even think about it, but these drunk fans wouldn’t let up. They just kept bringing up the NBA and I can’t get around it no more. I can’t pretend that I’m fine forever. If only I could get through this night.

              “Thanks!” The drunk fan patting me on the back brought me back to reality. I gave a smile to the rest of the people coming up to us. I turned to Simone.

“There’s no way that we are going to get any alone time tonight. It’s going to be nothing but people coming up to us.” I sighed, “Believe me, I’m talking from experience. I’ve won games before and I couldn’t even go to campus.”

“Where do you go?”

“Sometimes I go off campus and stay at a friend’s house. But I have another place to crash.”

“Where is that?”

“I crash at the motel.”

              Her eyes open wide.

“I don’t like staying here around the games because I never get peace. Sometimes, I just want to be alone.”

“Is this one of those times?” She asked. Her eyes were soft and she was just so beautiful.

“I do want to be alone... but with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’d like to hang out with you.”

“On campus.”

“No, at the motel off campus.”

              Her eyes looked away. I could tell that she was freaking out. She was trying to practice abstinence and here I was offering a motel room with us alone. I just didn’t want to be on campus. I didn’t want to be here while everyone was going to come up and congratulate me. If they kept going on and on, I was just going to be constantly reminded that I wasn’t picked by the NBA scout.

              “I’m sorry,” I found myself apologizing. “I don’t want you to think that I am trying anything. I just can’t deal with all this noise but at the same time, I don’t want to end this date with you.”

“Is this a date?” she had her joking on. “I must be a cheap date.” She laughed. “Just pizza and that’s it?”

“What are you talking about? I am getting you soda too.” We both laughed. “But I just need to be away from the noise. If you want to come and crash in the motel room along with me, then that’s cool. But if you don’t, I will understand that if you don’t want to.”

“You’re so admirable,” she kissed my cheek. “I’d love to go hang out at some motel with you.”

              When we got to the motel room, I sensed that she wasn’t impressed. I couldn’t blame her, though. The motel that I chose wasn’t the fanciest place but it was the closest. It was those typical rundown motels that you would see on those TV shows. You know the type. It was the type that the criminals went to go hide out in. When I first saw it, I liked it for that fact. I could just come here and hide out, if only for a night.

              “So this place isn’t the Ritz,” she commented taking off her jacket. “But at least the room is clean” She looked around and sat down.

“Yeah it’s not the best place in the world but it’s so quiet. I may have a full scholarship but I can’t afford a nice hotel. Plus all those hotels are too far. I need to be close to campus just in case I need to get back to class.”

“So you just come here by yourself?”

“Is this your way of asking me if I have brought other girls here?” She slightly nodded. “No.” I truthfully told her. “I don’t really mess with a lot of girls, but I never brought anyone here. This is honestly my place I come to be alone.”

“Then, why am I here?”

              Instead of answering her question, I placed the pizza box on the desk. I walked over to her and kissed her. She was surprised, but she still wrapped her arms around me. She pulled me in close. With one big sweep, I picked her up. I placed her on the bed and began kissing on her neck. She didn’t say anything. She just would moan in pleasure and dig her nails into my back.

“Yes,” she mumbled. I kissed her more and started to take off her clothes slowly. I got her clothes halfway down her body and then kissed her neck and shoulders.

“You taste so good. I bet you taste even better if I go further.” I said and she moaned to that. “Can I just get a little taste?”

“All you are going to do is taste?” I nodded to her question.

              I pulled the clothes down to her ankles. She was wearing this red lacy underwear that hugged her big beautiful hips. She kept trying to hide herself.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“I’m so fat,” She said with one tear rolling down her cheek. “I’m so big.”

“Yes you are big... and you’re so beautiful.” She looked away when I said it. “Look at me, you are so beautiful. You are so gorgeous and I don’t want you to ever doubt yourself for a second. You keep walking around here like the beautiful Queen you are.”

“Kiss me.”

              I did as she told me with my body pressed against her. She pushed me off of her.

“We can’t do this,” she whispered.

“Huh?” I was confused. “What’s wrong?”

“I said... I want to wait.” She sat up. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

“No, it’s my fault.” I got up and stood up across the room. “I should have respected your space and your wishes.”

“No, I should not have come here.” She was getting dressed and was already at the door. “I should leave.”

“You can stay. You can trust me, I’m not going to do anything.”

“It’s not you I don’t trust,” she sighed and then left.