8mi Chapter 279: Open Rims
Chapter 279: Open Rims
The next morning, the Dust Dogs were doing their usual practice, kind of. The warehouse did not feel like a training place anymore. It felt more like a place where animals were killed, except the animals were still breathing.Clang.
Tylo’s jump shot hit the back of the rim hard and bounced off weakly toward the edge of the court. Nobody moved. Nobody even tried to catch the ball. Kiel and Kael just stood near the three-point line, their arms hanging loose, their jerseys wet with cold sweat.
Near the hoop, Kej grabbed the ball with one hand. His big face twisted, like he was thinking hard about taking the shot, but then he just let the ball drop to the floor with a dull *thud.*
"Man... We can’t even do a simple three-man pass," Kiel said, rubbing his forehead with his arm to wipe away the sweat. "The game is in three days. We are completely finished."
A thick, ugly silence spread across the uneven court. Kael swallowed. His eyes flicked nervously toward the sideline, where Saya and Rin were standing.
"So... what do we do?" Kael asked. "Are we... going to have to depend on the girls again to win this game?"
"At this point, why the fuck are we even pretending to practice?" Kiel snapped back. "Let’s just stop the drills. Let the girls handle the bookies, let them go back to the rooms and do what they gotta do to secure the bracket, and we take the payout. At least the money’s real. We’re just wasting our time out here."
BOOM!
The ball hit the floor like a gunshot. Tylo had snatched it up and slammed it down with both hands, sending it flying all the way up to the rusty ceiling beams.
The whole warehouse went quiet. Everyone stared at Tylo. He was shaking, his face red, breathing fast like a broken machine as he stood at the top of the key.
"Until when, huh?!" Tylo yelled, his voice cracking with frustration. "Until when does this stupid circus keep going?! We cannot win one single game normally? Just one?!"
He grabbed his hair with both hands, pacing fast around the court.
"Why is this so hard now? We used to be good! Before we joined this trash league, we actually won games on our own! Now we look like useless beginners! What happened to us? Are you guys really that scared? You just stand around waiting for the girls to get messed with by everyone so we can keep pretending we are a team? I’m sick of this dog-shit life! I want a real career! I want normal sponsors, real fans! We don’t even have a single fan out there for fucking sake! You want so bad to see the shrimp laugh at us?!"
Roam stepped forward, his scarred chest puffing out as he tried to get real close to Tylo, way too close, like he wanted to make him uncomfortable.
"Shut your mouth, Tylo," Roam growled, his hands curling into fists at his sides. "You’re just barking loud because you’re useless yourself. You missed every open shot today. You want a career?" He leaned in, nose almost touching Tylo’s. "Hit a damn shot first."
"Fuck you, Roam!" Tylo shoved forward, chest bumping against Roam’s. "You still think you’re the leader here? Look at us!" He waved a hand wildly around the empty warehouse. "We have to walk home after practice to save money for the subway! We can’t even buy cigarettes!" His voice cracked, rough with frustration. "Meanwhile, the whole internet is obsessed with Nash. People compare him to the best players, talk about his stats every damn day. Screw that! I don’t even give a fuck about Nash, I just want to win normally! I want a real career! And you?" He jabbed a finger into Roam’s chest. "You’re letting this team rot in the gutter!"
The two of them were just about to throw punches when Rin’s laugh interrupted them. She was leaning against an old, rusted cart, one of those big metal ones they use to move heavy stuff around.
Her red twin tails were wrapped around her finger, twisting as she stared at Roam like he was something gross stuck to the bottom of her shoe.
"Oh, look at the big tough guys," she said. "So what’s the plan, captain? Should Saya and I go buy morning-after pills right now, or did you suddenly grow a real pair overnight?"
Roam’s face changed color fast—from pale white to a deep, ugly purple, like a bruise spreading under his skin. He turned around sharply, he was about to yell at her, but the moment his mouth opened, his eyes met Saya’s.
Saya didn’t say anything. She just stood there, staring at him with eyes so cold they could freeze fire. And right then, Roam remembered everything, what she had gone through, what she had suffered, what she will have to suffer again and how he had done nothing to stop it.
He had been a coward, and now that truth hit him like a brick to the head.
His anger vanished, just like that. He gulped like his own breath was choking him, his shoulders slumping as he looked down at the dirty floor. With a weak, miserable sound, he walked away and cracked a warm beer, the can hissing like it was laughing at him.
Rin, watching the whole thing, let out a loud, mocking laugh. She loved seeing him like this, totally broken, totally defeated.
Saya couldn’t care less, she leaned against a peeling concrete wall, her eyes glued to her phone screen. Her thumb was slowly, softly caressing the glass over a fresh video feed. The screen showed Nash driving a sleek, luxury sports car through a wealthy, high-class residential zone, looking completely untouchable.
Was that the Spires? That place unreachable for street rats like herself, yet here, Houdini had made it again, another impossible feat.
A toxic, suffocating mix of deep anger and a strange, painful longing was swelling in her chest. She hated him with everything she had for succeeding in life while they were left in this dirt, but she was becoming completely obsessed with his shadow.
She was tracking his highlights, studying his lifestyle, her fingers tracing his face on the screen as if she could pull his strength back into her current misery.
Suddenly, Rin rushed over and snatched the phone straight out of her hand.
"Look at this!" Rin shrieked, jumping straight into the center of the court and turning the glowing screen toward the guys. Her own intense frustration was completely boiling over into pure malice. "Look at how your little girlfriend is drooling over him! While you bums are crying over subway change, the guy you threw away is living like a literal god!"
"Fucking bitch, give it back!!!" Saya shouted as she stood up from the bench, her voice dropping into a register that made the twins step back.
"Stop that shit, Rin! Give her phone back!" Tylo yelled, running forward to grab her arm, while Kej reached out to stop the drama. "We don’t need this shit today!"
"Get the fuck off me!" Rin screamed, easily dodging Kej’s hand as she danced away on the timber, her laughter turning hysterical and wild. She pointed the screen right at Roam’s face. "Look at his car, Roam! Look at his life! He drives a luxury beast, while you’re nothing but a pathetic, washed-up cuck who can’t even protect his own women! You perform worse in bed than the disgusting trash I have to fuck just to give this team a chance to survive a match! Bet he’s better at that."
Roam looked like he had been hollowed out, his face completely pale as he stared at the floor, unable to even lift his eyes.
Rin turned her fiery, venomous gaze straight back onto Saya, her smile twisting into something truly demonic.
"And you, Saya! You actually abandoned Nash for this asshole? That thing watched you having your guts rearranged lol, that’s yout BF?! The one you ditched Nash for??? Lmao you’re so fucking dumb!"
Saya’s face froze and then paled with horror, leaving her looking white as snow. This time the embarrassment didn’t feel like a sting – it felt a lot worse.
She had never been more pissed in her life, and the pain of it felt as if it had just been doused in poison and poured right into her heart. Rin was still barely halfway through her laughter when Saya attacked her.
SLAP!
Her slap echoed in the warehouse, Rin’s face was forced to the side as her red hair whipped across her face from the impact.
For a second, there wasn’t even a breath taken. No sound came from the warehouse except for the silence following the slap. Not even Tylo and Roam moved. Everyone had frozen in place out of shock at the viciousness of Saya’s action.
Rin remained frozen as well. For a few seconds, she just stayed standing there, before lifting the back of her hand to wipe away the mark on her cheek, now red and irritated.
Something inside her had broken. The awful truth that the opposing team was going to screw them over again had twisted her feelings into something darker. She didn’t care about the pain anymore. She didn’t care about anything.
When Rin finally looked up, she was smiling, baring her teeth like an animal. Her eyes locked onto Saya’s, and the glare she gave her was pure hate.
"Tell me, sweetie, are you even ready for the deal today? Or is your fucking anus still wide open from the last time the Raptors ripped it apart for you?"
Something inside Saya completely snapped. The remaining ice in her veins turned into pure, murderous fire. Every boundary, every ounce of control she prided herself on vanished in a fraction of a second.
"I’ll fucking kill you, you whore!" Saya shrieked in rage as she lunged forward with her nails bared.
Rin threw the phone as hard as she could, not caring where it landed before the two girls crashed together. They hit the floor like a pile of angry cats, clothes ripping, hair flying everywhere, fingers clawing at whatever they could reach. The sound of their screaming filled the whole warehouse.
"Stop it! Get them apart!" Tylo yelled, rushing into the mess with Kej right behind him. They shoved their bodies between the girls, arms pushing, legs stumbling, like trying to separate two fighting dogs that really, really hated each other. The whole place had turned into complete madness.
Then, BANG!
The heavy metal gate flew open so hard it smacked against the brick wall. Jinzo and Mac burst inside, breathing like they’d just run a mile. Their faces were pale, sweat dripping down their necks as they stared at the fight happening right in front of them.