I Make Him Happy

As soon as we were off the bus, I posted myself next to the door. One by one the guys got off, but I stayed keen on who I wanted to find. When Luke came off, all he did was give me an apologetic grimace. He moved off to the side to give me a hug.

"He's okay, just take care of him." He whispers in my ear.

I nod as we let go, "Of course I will."

"You're still going to Jacksonville with him right?"

"Yeah."

He nods, "Take care of him, he means a lot to the both of us, do it for the both of us."

"Siempre." I say.

With that, he gives me one more hug, "Enjoy the break Kim, see you two later."

"Bye Luke."

He leaves and I stand at my post next to the door again.

Matt and Amile came off last and saw my concerned look.

"Hey, he's fine. Coach is in there talking to him." Matt says, standing in front of me.

I nod my head, "They might be in there a while huh?"

Matt nods his head and Amile appears next to him. "Mhm, ya know it girl."

This brings out a small smile onto my already frozen face. "Are you leaving tonight or tomorrow morning Amile?"

"I'm leaving tonight, my mom wants the whole family there for something we're doing tomorrow. What about you guys?"

"Leaving tonight too, it's too cold here." Matt says.

I nod in agreement and chuckle, "Yeah dude, I mean all those years as a kid wanting snow like this, I just wanted the temperature to stay the same as in Tornillo."

"Well, obviously it wasn't going to. You're not in the desert no more."

I roll my eyes playfully, "Ya se, pero I just wanted maybe a little this year, pero no. Ahora si nos cayo la nevada."

"You wanted your winter wonderland, so there ya go." Amile says, picking a little bit of snow off the front tire and throwing it at me.

I smile and brush it off my sweater. "Oh my gosh you guys I can't feel my nose."

"He's leaving tonight too right?" Amile asks.

I nod and decide that I should tell him now. "Uh yeah, we're leaving tonight."

"'We?' You're going with him?" Amile asks, motioning to the bus.

I nod, "Yeah, I thought it would be best to just go with him tonight."

"Kim, you can't just alter your plans bec-"

"Amile, it's like you don't even know me. I am not altering anything major. The original plan was to go home for a day then leave the next to Jacksonville with Grayson. It's not like I made the change just right now either. Grayson, his family, K, my family and I talked about this yesterday, everyone's okay with it." I say.

Amile still looked uneasy.

"Bro, it's fine. I think you're more worried about the fact that they're going to be sleeping under the same roof." Matt says, grabbing Amile's shoulder.

I scoff at this. "Really Amile? You think that Grayson and I above all people would be something to worry about in that sense?"

Amile purses his lips and says nothing.

"Amile, I'm not going to do anything stupid, I know better than to do anything that puts my future at risk of what I have planned. Grayson knows that too, he wouldn't do anything to put his in jeopardy either, and especially not in his own parents house." I say.

"Milly, Kim's a big girl. She's not 15 anymore, she knows what she's doing. You trust her don't you?" Matt says.

I look back at Amile, "You trust Grayson, you trust me too right?"

He sighs and stares directly in my eyes. "I do but-"

"If you do, then there shouldn't be a but." I say, softening my expression but keeping my eyes stern.

He sighs and opens his mouth to say something, but the door opens and my tio comes out followed by Grayson.

"What are you guys still doing out here?" He then turns to me. "I told you Mickie's in the car with your stuff already."

"Sorry, Amile and Matt started talking to me and I forgot." I say, glancing at Grayson who had his face up and forward, but kept his eyes averted. I turn on my heel and jog over to Mickie's car. I approach the car and Mickie meets me outside her door.

"Hey Kim, your stuff is in the trunk." She says, going over to it, me on her heels.

"Have a great Christmas, see you when you get back." She says as she hands me my belongings and closes the trunk.

I smile at her and give her a hug, "See you later tia."

                ----------------------------------

After I say goodbye to K, I hustle over to the dorms. I punch in the code and scale the stairs to Amile, Matt and Grayson's room. I knocked and Matt answered the door.

"Ey Kimmy," He says.

I roll my eyes playfully at him and push past him into the room. "Matt, if I told you once, I have told you enough times, staaap." I let the straps of my bags slip off my shoulders and letting them hit the floor.

"Ey, you said I was one of the few people allowed to call you Kimmy." He says.

"Well yeah but you abuse of that privilege way too much." I say as I sit down on the chair next to the desk. I look around at the room which had duffel bags on all three beds and only two people in here. "Where are Amile and Grayson?"

"Grayson's in the bathroom and Amile went to go get something to snack on from the vending machine." He says as he zips up his bag and sits on his bed.

I nod and glance around the room again. "Man, this is the last time you're going to be doing this Matt."

He shakes his head, "Nah Kim, don't start with your depressing comments. It's almost Christmas, you're supposed to be happy."

I roll my eyes playfully, "Ay, pos it's a somewhat happy occasion. Aren't you happy that you won't be taking any classes anymore? That you are attaining a level of education that only 10-20% of the nation has? It's a big achievement."

He smiles, "Yeah, it is, but then again so is having to move on to the next level, the next phase of my life, both basketball wise and trivially."

I nod, "You'd better still invite me to your wedding and other special occasions if you have any."

"Uh duh Kimmy, you're performing at each of them. Plus, you're going to be my kid's 'tía' so it's not like we are going to be saying goodbye forever."

I chuckle and lean back into the chair. "Dang, I knew that getting a head start in college was a great idea, but I never thought that I would be graduating with my Bachelor's with Marshall and his class. I didn't even think that all my EPCC and UTEP credits would transfer."

"You're what, 20 and already getting your Master's? Dang Kim, you're growing up too fast. Last time I saw you, you were like 15, talking about your quinceañera plans and what not, then now you're two decades old. You're making me feel old." He grins.

I laugh, "Ay Matt, gosh that was so long ago. Things have changed a lot."

"Yeah, you did something that we were all waiting for and something you thought you would never be able to do."

I grin and look at the bathroom door. "Yeah, I guess I did, but it wasn't even me who 'did anything.' It was more him who made the first move to being what we are now." I look back at Matt. "Matt, I want you to be 100% honest with me. What did you think about my going and spending Christmas in Florida?"

Matt scratches his beard thoughtfully, "100% honest huh? Well, I thought kind of the same way Amile did. I didn't react that way, but that was the first thing that popped in my head. Yes I know that we can trust G and we can definitely trust you, but I think it's just the fact that we have to trust you now. It's just the fact that you're our not so little sis anymore. You're old enough to make your own decisions, and you have been for a while, but now that you finally made one, we had to come to terms with it. You have been around Amile more, which is why he reacted that way. Not saying that he loves you more than I do, because I know I'm your favorite," he pretends to brush dust off his shoulder, making me laugh. "but in a sense, he has more to let go of. You get me?"

I nod, "What stopped you from keeping that viewpoint?"

"The way things go when you're around Grayson. His face lights up, he gets really excited and nervous when you come around. You should see the way he looks at you, or even the way that he blushes whenever you're mentioned. It's like you guys have innocent love, not puppy love, but just one that you guys are so infatuated with each other that you only want to be around each other to hang out, not make out. After I realized this, my worries shifted to having to let go of you. That we aren't the only men in your life anymore."

"But, you do know that you guys are still very important to me, you guys were there before Grayson, I do love him and he is of different significance to me, but I still love you guys."

"Yeah, and we know that, but we have to realize that you have someone else to protect you, to love you and to treasure you in a way that we can't. He loves you, a lot, and he isn't going to be letting go anytime soon, so it's us who need to let loose."

I couldn't help but grin at this. Matt had a much deeper understanding of everything going on, and I wish that Amile would have thought the same by now. I was very thankful for Matt to have told me this because I was starting to doubt what I wanted to do. Yes I trusted myself and of course I trusted Grayson, but if it was something that Amile didn't approve of, then I don't know if I had the will to go on with my plans.

At that moment, the door to the apartment opened and Amile came in with a bag of jalapeño Cheetos and a bag of almonds. "Hey, I knew you'd be in here." He tosses me the bag of Cheetos and closes the door.

I catch it, "And you decide to get me a bag of these atrocities, who even are you?" I toss them back at Amile, who laughs as he passes in front of me.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. No but for real, I got you these, I know you love them." He says, tossing me the bag of almonds.

"Yay! I love you." I say excitedly as I catch them.

At this moment, the bathroom door opened to reveal whom I could easily call the love of my life. I bring my gaze up to his face and see that it is calm, nowhere near as distressed as it was before. I wanted to go up and hug him, but I didn't know how he was going to respond to it. I didn't want to get him upset again.

He meets my gaze and his eyes light up, his whole demeanor seemed to change and a smile appeared.

I smile back at him and get up from my chair, leaving the bag of almonds on it. I quickly go over to him and wrap my arms around his torso. He wraps his arms around my shoulders and leans his head on mine.

"Hey, you loved me a second ago." Amile complains, making us all laugh. "I didn't get a hug."

I turn my head to face him, "Ay Amile, just because I put the almendras down."

"Escuse me," Amile says, mocking my accent. "ju abandon the almonds, ju abandon me."

Grayson's laugh vibrates in his chest. "That was pretty spot on Amile."

I scoff and lean back to look up at him. "¿Sabes que-"

Grayson smiles and looks down at me, "What? What do I know?"

I roll my eyes at him and chuckle, turning back to Amile, "My accent isn't that bad Amile."

He pretends to be hurt, "That was not bad, that was exactly what the accent sounds like."

I laugh, "Ay Amile, leave me alone."

"Okay, I'll 'leaf ju alon then." He says, earning a chuckle from everyone in the room.

I smile and look back up at Grayson. "Do you have all your stuff ready?"

He looks around, "Mm, no, I'm almost done." He slips his arms off me and goes over to his bed.

"Well hurry up G, we're all just waiting on you." Amile says playfully. "The white boy's the one that's late, even the Mexican showed up earlier than you."

I laugh at this as I go over to the chair and get the bag of almonds. "I can take these on the plane right? Like in a carry-on and they won't confiscate them?"

"Nah, they should let you take them. Amile had taken another bag of the jalapeño Cheetos on our plane." Matt says.

"Oh yeah huh? I heard him sucking in air after one chip because he can't handle the so called 'spice' in those chips." I say.

"Hey, they are very spicy. They're so spicy that not even the Mexican wanted to have some." Amile says.

"Ey, the reason I didn't want any is because those are atrocities, okay? They aren't spicy, they're not even good. I've tried them before, not a fan. Those aren't even for Mexicans, they're for all you Americans who can't handle the Mexican heat." I say.

"Because y'all are crazy! Y'all put chile on everything." Matt says. "I had a couple of Mexican friends over in DeSoto and man, they always complained that things weren't spicy enough. Especially when we went to Wataburger, they would clear out all the picante sauce-"

"Ay, no empieces a antojar Mateo. There's no Wataburger in Florida, don't start giving me cravings. Now's not the time."

"Oh damn, my bad, is it shark week?" Matt asks, making Amile choke on a laugh.

I look at him in shock, "Matthew Elliot Jones!"

"Ooh you called me by my full name, yeah it's shark week." Matt says, making Amile go into another fit of laughter.

I grab the nearest thing next to me, which was my bag of almonds, and threw it at him.

Amile stops laughing, "Ey don't treat my shark week gift to you like that." He says, getting Matt to laugh.

"Amile!" I say in the same shock. I glance at my boyfriend and see him grinning, looking between all of us. I felt my face burn as I run a hand through my hair.

"Ey G, you know when shark week is?" Amile asks.

I scoff and kick his leg.

"Ow! Ey, what did I do?"

"Muy payasito eh," I narrow my eyes at him.

"Kim, I don't know what that means." Amile says.

"Que bueno." I say back to him.

"She said that you're being a clown." Grayson says, zipping up his bag.

"I knew I was hilarious." Amile says.

I roll my eyes at him, looking off to the side and crossing my arms in front of my chest. "So are we all ready or what?"

They all nod, getting their stuff and making our way to the door.

"Hey Matt, can I have my almonds?" I ask as he comes over.

"Yeah, here." He hands them to me. "So is it shark week?"

Amile and Grayson laugh at this.

I simply chuckle and roll my eyes playfully, "Andale vámonos."

             ------------------------------

Matt and Amile's planes left before Grayson and I's, so we just sat down on the chairs next to the terminal. Grayson sighed a little as he sat, facing forward and looking at the ground. I look over at him and lean in, planting a kiss on his cheek.

He looks at me and smiles, "What was that for?"

"Because I felt like it," I lean in and peck his lips. "I have to pee." I say as I lean back and get up.

Grayson laughs, "Oh my God Kim."

I smile at him and chuckle, "I'll be right back." I walked in the direction of the ladies restroom.

Once I came out of the stalls, a couple of blondes came in.

"Oh my gosh, did you see that really cute guy out there in our terminal?" the first one said.

"Dude yes, of course I did. He was really tall, I think I saw him on like ESPN or something." The other one said as I took off my bracelet and put it in my pocket.

"Yeah me too, they were showing it in our terminal, I think his name was Grayson ."

My blood ran cold at the words the first blonde said. I start my actions slowly to hear what they were to say.

"Oh yeah! He's frickin' hot dude, but I heard that he did something really bad in a game." The second one said, coming over to the mirror. "I think he tripped someone and everyone is saying he needs help. Like, mental help."

I roll my eyes at this, waving my hand under the soap dispenser and lathering it onto my hands.

"Damn, there's always a flaw. He's too hot to be that perfect." The other one says, coming to the spot next to my sink.

I run my hands under the sink, getting the water to rush out.

"Callie, how cute would you and him be? I just looked him up, he's 6'5 and from Jacksonville, we are going to spend Christmas in the same place as him." The first blonde says to the second.

"Kendall, you do realize that I have the whole Brad dilemma to resolve." Then she suddenly seems to acknowledge my presence.

I quickly finish rinsing my hands of the soap and walk over to the paper towel dispenser.

"Don't worry she probably doesn't speak English so she probably didn't understand our conversation." Callie said.

This made my blood boil, I had experienced some racism and xenophobia before, but every time it happened, I was held back by Grayson and the guys. This time, I was alone, no one to hold me back and realize it isn't worth it. I wanted to say something, but by the time I made up my mind, they left the bathroom.

I roll my eyes and throw the wet paper towels in the trash. I put my rings and bracelet back on and walk out of the bathroom. Once I'm out, I see the two blondes sitting in the row across from Grayson, who was staring at the ground again with his elbows on his knees. His admirers whom I met in the bathroom were taking conspicuous glances at him and whispering things to each other, biting their lips and laughing every other second.

I roll my eyes again and shove my hands in the pockets of my sweats, walking back over to my chair. I pass by the girls, making them stop laughing and sit down next to my boyfriend. I lean back and cross my arms over my chest. I turn to look at Grayson who meets my gaze.

He smiles, "How was your pee?"

I chuckle, "Bien, until those rubias said something about my nationality."

He scrunches his eyebrows together and tilts his head to the side. "Which ones?" he whispers.

I quickly glance at them.

Grayson leans back and looks forward, trying to take an inconspicuous glance at the girls. Knowing that these girl's actions really irked me, he made it seem like it was the smoothest thing in the world to run a hand through his hair, bring it to cover his forehead and look at me through it. "Ya sabes como son los güeros," he says in his really bad "white" accent, which in turn makes me laugh. "Son idiotas, y no saben...wait how do you say that they don't know how to appreciate things?"

I sit up and laugh, leaning my head on Grayson's shoulder, covering my face and continuing to laugh. "Ay mi amor," I lace my fingers with his and rest my chin on his shoulder "tas bien loco."

He smiles and brings our hands up to kiss mine. The white girls audibly gasp and scoff, but at that moment, I didn't care about them anymore. Grayson had an ability to make me forget that I was living in a world with other people; that it wasn't just us two, that there were people around us watching. In this case, he made me forget that I was just racially profiled, that stereotypes like that make me beyond aggravated. It was an extremely difficult thing to do because of my "fiery" and "proud" Latina nature, but Grayson did it so effortlessly, it amazed me.

"Yeah, you're not that far off either." He says, making me laugh again, burying my face in his shoulder. Grayson laughs a little then says. "Sorry, she's a bit crazy."

I scoff and lift my head up to look at him. "Mira nomas quien habla."

"Who you?" He says as he turns back to me from the two blondes.

I roll my eyes and smile, shaking my head at him, "Como eres conmigo."

He smacks his lips, "I love you though. You want me to stop?"

I roll my eyes again and peck his lips, "No."

He grins and pecks my lips, "That's what I thought."

I grin and lean my head on his shoulder, shifting my body so that I was more comfortable and facing him. I felt happier and more relieved knowing that he wasn't thinking about what happened earlier today, that he was in a good place right now. What I saw on the court hurt me, I hated seeing complete strangers in pain, seeing the love of my life in pain like that physically hurt me.

I don't believe that Grayson deserves any of this, who he is on the court doesn't define him off the court, but that's the only way people will take it. If only they knew what I knew, if only they saw what I saw, then I wouldn't have to worry as much as I do about his mental health. But seeing his expression now, seeing what and how he feels now makes me feel like I am doing what I can to help him and to keep him happy. It made me happy to see that I made him happy enough to forget his past, even if it would haunt him for much time to come.