Chapter 54 She Defended Me
Chapter 54 She Defended Me
Malik’s POV
The room went dead silent as I gripped the papers. As though everyone was heavily scrutinizing and waiting for the type of reaction I would have to whatever the papers said.
It couldn’t be that bad, right?
I mean, I had been a Los Angeles Lakers player for five years and in those five years, I had been careful to come clean to the management whenever issues that concerned my professional life arose. I was clean and was not on any form of drugs. My depression had been there, but I did not let it consume me. I was hanging by a thread, though.
“Come on, Cross. Do us a favour and read it out so that the whole room can hear you.” Tony said, and I looked up at him in surprise as though I had just seen a ghost.
Maybe his main reason for calling me here was simply to humiliate me in front of everyone because let’s be honest, Tony never really liked me. He was among the minority that believed I was overhyped and was not going to make it so far in the league.
“If you’re nervous, just hold my hand.” I heard Sloane mutter. For a minute, I had almost forgotten that she was there.
I extended my hand to hold hers, but then, it replayed in my mind again.
Leave my room, please.
I retracted my hand immediately. On her own volition, I knew she wouldn’t be here. The only reason she was here was because I had no one else to accompany me. I would have reached out to my best mate on the team, Matthew, but I wanted there to be some level of privacy between us.
I saw the look of hurt flash on her face for a total of a second, but I didn’t care. She kicked me out of her room when I needed her to acknowledge me the most.
I cleared my throat, smoothed out the papers on the table and flipped through the pages. The first thing that caught my eye made me freeze.
THE TRUTH: The Dark Past Of Basketball’s Golden Boy
“What is this?” I demanded.
“Malik, please read it out for everyone to hear, come on.” Another member of the executive team that I never seen or spoken to in my life demanded. As though he wanted to see me make a fool of myself.
“I’m not doing that shit.” I shook my head, anger coursing through my veins and my emotions getting the better of me.
“If you don’t, you’re simply confirming what the papers say.”
“Oh, so you mean to tell me that you’ve read it. You all know what this is about while I do not have the slightest idea, and so you brought me here to humiliate me in front of everyone.” I snapped.
God, I hated that these people were bringing out this side of me. Oh well, I guessed it was the dark side of sports entertainment that people didn’t see. Far away from all the glitz and glamour.
“Malik, do us all a favour and read it. We haven’t got all day. The press would soon be outside and you might need to address them.” Mildred, the only female executive in the room said and immediately, my head began to spiral.
Press? Everyone knew I hated the press.
“The only way we can help you is by reading it, Malik.”
My hands began to shake as I gripped the stack of papers. I could not believe that I was even doing this.
“THE TRUTH: THE DARK PAST OF BASKETBALL’S GOLDEN BOY.” I read out loud when the room was dead silent. If a pin dropped right now, it would be audible to everyone.
It was the most awkward thing I’d had to do in a long time. Coupled with the fact that I was a jittery and nervous mess.
“Go on, Malik, we’re all listening.”
“Everyone en-en-envies these athletes that grace our screen.” I swallow the lump that forms in my throat, willing myself not to stammer. “The same is the situation for popular Los Angeles Lakers power forward, Malik ‘The Monster’ Cross. It is not new that the twenty-five year old basketball star lived a reckless life up until a month and some weeks ago when he suddenly ‘fell in love’ with an unusual woman. This article does a deep dive into the past of the star player and young talent.”
“Yes, go on.” Mildred said.
I was quiet. Why did it feel like this article whether true or fake would open a big can of worms about me.
My whole posture screamed reluctance.
“You can see he’s not comfortable doing this.” A voice said and the whole room went silent.
It was Sloane who spoke.
“Sorry, who are you?” Tony asked in a mocking tone.
“I’m his girlfriend.”
“The girlfriend that he asked to be with or the one that the club arranged for him. Help me understand.”
“Because you hold the reins here does not mean you should abuse it. You can see he is nervous.”
“Oh, what they say about the Brits is very true. They are so confident they don’t know when to shut the fuck up and sit down.”
It was like a bomb exploded in my head.
“Don’t tell her to shut up!”
“And I did. What are you going to do about it?”
“I’m the one you should be addressing, so just look away from her.” I snapped at him before turning to look at Sloane. A look of disgust was plastered on her face.
“This one’s quite confident, I’ll give her that.” Mildred spat and all the members in the office laughed. If the floor could open right now, I would go in. Genuinely.
“Well, we should have thought it through before we brought in a highly educated person. He’s dumb. His girlfriend should be dumb like him.” Tony smiled.
“Yes, Dumb and Dumber.” Mildred laughed across the room and in that moment, Sloane got up from her seat.
“Sloane, please sit down.” I begged her, muttering.
“You know, when my supervisor asked me to change my project topic and do this, I didn’t think it was that serious. The Psychopathology of Elite Athletes. I mean, what fucked up mental states could they be in if they’re getting paid such large amounts, but it’s because of executives like you! You all are a bunch of power hungry, disgraceful miscreants who will stop at nothing to show that you hold the power.”
Oh God.
“Let’s get out of here, Malik!” Sloane extended her hand for me to take.