My Baby Girl.
swish. Another shot.
All of this started on a Tuesday morning.
Billy brought in a box, and he was dragging it towards the living room.
“What’s that?” Steve asked him, sipping on his coffee.
“A little basketball hoop. For Marcie.” Billy grunts while ripping open the box, packing peanuts falling out.
“A..basketball hoop?” Steve furrows his brows.
“Yes, Steve. A goddamn hoop.” Billy eye rolls, taking out all the pieces. It all clatters onto the floor and Billy digs deeper into the box for instructions.
“For…Marcie?” Steve says, even more confused.
“Oh, for fucks sake, yes! For Marcie!” Billy replies, annoyed, and finds the instruction manual.
Steve was confused. Maybe it was just a gift Billy bought for himself, but no. For Marcie.
Once Billy finished putting it together, he placed it outside. He looked at it with awe and accomplishment. Steve couldn’t help but adore Billy when he acts like a child when they meet their favorite superhero.
“Wow. I did that.” Billy smiles, turning to face Steve with proudness.
“Yeah, you did.” Steve sends him a soft smile back, and that only makes Steve happier. “Did they give you a ball? Maybe we can play a game before Marcie comes back from school?”
“I think they did.” Billy shrugs, walking back to the box and pulls out 4 small basketballs. “I can basically palm those balls.” Steve scoffs.
“I can also palm yours.” Billy smirks, and Steve smacks his arm.
…
“What’s that?” Marcie asks, her green eyes meeting Billy’s blue.
“It’s for you, Marcie. It’s a basketball hoop.” Billy says, handing her a ball.
“I don’t like basketball, though. I like softball.” She frowns.
“I know, but it doesn’t hurt to try, right? Here, I’ll help you practice and be the best basketball player ever, yeah?” Billy grins, and now Marcie smiles, “Really?”
Steve comes home from work to see Marcie dribbling the ball and Billy supporting her and cheering her on. He watches and smiles to himself. This was the goof he married, this was the daughter they’d kill for.
“Holy smokes, Marcie!” Billy smiled when the ball fell out of Marcie’s hand, “You’re so good at dribbling, that was amazing!” He scooped her up, embracing her in a hug as she giggled. Billy smiled even more when he saw Steve, walking up to him and kissing him on the cheek, “Hi, pretty boy.”
“Hey.” Steve responds and takes Marcie into his arms now, giving her a tight hug, “Hello, basketball star. I saw you dribbling, your amazing.”
“Thank you, Poppa. Daddy said that, too. I’m the best!” She pumps her fist, and both guys chuckle.
“You have homework, right?”
She immediately frowns and turns to Billy, “Daddy, do I have to?”
“Yes, you do. Go do it now, or else we won’t continue playing.” Billy says, and Marcie immediately jumps out of Steve’s arms and runs into the house.
…
“You’re seriously considering signing up Marcie for a youth basketball league?” Steve arches a brow, taking a swig of his beer.
It’s only been 4 months, and sure, Marcie was getting better, but it still feels so soon.
“I mean, she’s really good for her age! I’m just saying we can try it.”
“What if she still wants to do softball? She’s good at that as well.”
They both sit in silence for a while, just listening to the nature as they sit outside in the backyard.
“Let’s give her the decision then.” Billy sighs, taking a long drag of his cigarette, the smoke filling the dark night sky. “Give her the chance to choose.”
“Fine.” Steve replies, listening to the light breeze and the faint sizzle of Billy’s cigarette when he took a drag of it.
….
“So. Marcie.” Billy’s starts, leaning against the kitchen island as he watched Marcie eat pancakes. “You wanna try playing basketball? You can if you want to.”
“Yeah, I’ll try.” Marcie shrugs, eating her pancake’s carelessly.
“Today after school is the first practice for your team. You wanna go?” Billy asks, and she nods.
“Morning.” Steve yawns as he descends the stairs. Billy pulls him by his waist, spooning him from behind as he kisses his neck over and over again, “Morning, baby.”
“Marcie’s watching, you know.” Steve giggles, but he knows Billy doesn’t care.
“Ah, Poppa you spilled my juice!” Marcie shrieks when Steve bumps into her drink.
“Sorry! Sorry, Marcie.” Steve pushes Billy off of him to clean up the mess. He already missed Billy’s warm kisses on his neck.
….
“Hello, girls!” The coach said in front of the little kids, including Marcie, who was wearing a tank top (even though Steve said no, Billy said yes) and had her hair in a tight bun.
“I’m your coach, Coach Marisa! Today, we’ll be practicing your dribbling skills and shooting.” Coach Marisa said with glee.
Steve is sitting in chairs in the corner of the gym with other parents as they watch the girls play.
“Hi, there!” A woman approaches Steve and sits next to him, “You must be new. Which ones yours?”
“She’s right there.” Steve points out Marcie, who was trying out lay-ups. “What about yours?”
And she points out a more taller girl, who was dribbling around the half-court mark. “My names, Dana.”
“Steve. Nice to meet you.” He smiles, and she smiles back.
Billy finally arrives from work, sitting on the opposite side of Steve, “Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Oh, is that your daughter’s older brother? Or her uncle, or just a friend? I’m Dana.” She introduces herself to Billy.
“Im Billy. And no, I’m none of those. I’m her dad.”
Dana widens her eyes a little, looking back at Steve, “But..isn’t he your daughter’s dad?”
“We’re both her father.” Steve points out, and both men can feel everyone’s glare at them. It’s painfully weird and clear to feel it.
Dana gets up from her chair and sits across from them the rest of the practice.
…
“What’s your favorite number?” Billy asks one day.
“9’s my favorite.” Marcie answers.
“You want that to be your jersey number?”
“Yeah!”
…
During her first game, Steve and Billy cheer her on. Marcie was doing really awesome for a 6 year old. And then, there is 5 seconds remaining in the last quarter, and the score is tied, 24-24. Marcie shoots a 2- pointer, and it goes through the net. The loud buzz comes right after.
“Marcie made a buzzer beater.” Steve repeats until it finally hits him, and he couldn’t be more excited. Billy shouted out to Marcie, not caring about the other parents sitting around them, “Hell yeah! That’s my girl!”
Marcie kisses the tip of her pointer finger and middle finger and pretends it’s a gun, and points to Billy and Steve as she pretends to shoot them both. She smiles while doing so.
…
5 years has passed by, and Marcie moved from public league, to private travel league. Even though she had just turned 12, she traveled across the country, playing against teams that were sponsored by Nike or Gatorade.
Hell, she even played against a team sponsored by the New York Knicks, in New York!
Softball was now a thing of the past.
And no matter how much the plane tickets costed, or the hotels, Billy and Steve were at every single game. They loved showing off their love for her, and Steve could only reminisce about one time during Marcie’s game, Billy got kicked out because he was mad at the ref for a bad call and nearly started a fight with him. It was stupidly funny, because
This was the goof he married, this was the daughter they’d kill for.
“Good job, Marcie!” Billy hugs his sweaty daughter after a back-to-back game.
“Thanks, Dad.” She grins, but was really exhausted.
“Are we not going to talk about that awesome 3 you made?” Steve smirks, and Marcie shrugs it off as nothing, “Oh, it was nothing. I didn’t even try this game.”
“You sure about that?” Billy points to the scoreboard, which the score was 134-98.
“Yeah, but that was mostly my teammates!”
“Okay. Sure.” Billy says playfully while eye rolling.
…
Steve couldn’t believe it. Marcie had graduated high school already.
How the goddamn time flies.
“What college do you plan to go to?” Steve asked her one day, slinging his arm over her shoulder as she scrolled through colleges on the computer.
Marcie shrugs, “UCLA, hopefully. I want to play in the basketball league there, and then the WNBA.”
“Oh. That’s not that far.” Steve says. The doorbell rings, and she immediately jumps out of her chair. She turns to Billy, who was just walking by after doing chores, “Dad, how do I look?”
“As beautiful as you can get. Which is galaxies beyond galaxies of beauty.” Billy says, “Why are you asking?”
“Daniel’s here. We’re going on a date.”
Both guys stop in there tracks, and Billy looks at the door and back at Marcie, “Daniel? Date? You? Oh, hell no.”
“Billy-“ Steve sighed, but Billy cut him off by opening the door loudly, seeing a tall man with black wavy hair at the front porch.
“You’re Daniel?” Billy glared at him.
“Yes, sir. That’s me. You must be Mr. Hargrove-“
Billy closed the door behind them, so now they were both outside before Billy pinned Daniel against the door, “You hurt my little girl, I’ll make sure your parents get no grandkids.” He spat, “You lay a fucking finger on her, and I swear I’ll make you fucking regret it, you got that?”
“Yes-yes sir!” Daniel gulped.
“Good.” He loosened his grip and let go of Daniel before opening the door again.
Billy held onto Steve’s hand tightly as he watched Marcie and Daniel walk away.
“She’s in good hands.” Steve said reassuringly.
Billy took a deep breath. She’s going to be okay.
…
Billy and Steve entered the LA Sparks gym, which is packed with people. They sit front row and watch the game start. Number 9 makes basically all the shots, and they cheer on with the crowd.
The game is tied 144-144, fourth quarter, 5 seconds, and number 9 gets the ball, showing off their dribbling skills as they go in-between their legs and does a power-drive to the side of the court, before shooting it at the three point line. It goes in. The crowd cheers and yells.
Number 9 kisses the tip of her pointer finger and middle finger and pretends it’s a gun, and points to Billy and Steve as she pretends to shoot them both. She smiles while doing so.
“Yeah, that’s my Marcie!” Billy yells out.
Yup. This was the goof Steve married, this was the daughter they’d kill for.
21 notes
·
View notes