After the game, we all went out to Tops Yogurt to celebrate. Yogurt is probably the last thing I should be eating, but it’s so good. I put kiwi, strawberries, caramel and almonds on mine. Others’ treated themselves to more elaborate toppings that looked equally delicious, but I’m not trying to make myself sick.
We took up the seats outside and there still weren’t enough seats, so I sat on Quincy’s lap. Ever so often I’d catch Drew watching me from where he sat with Kim. I did my best to ignore him, but it’s easier said than done.
For the most part we were having a good time, being silly, laughing, and carting on without a care in the world. Time flew while we were having so much fun, and before I knew it, it was time for me to go home. I did my rounds to say goodbye to all of my friends.
“Why do you always have to go home so early?” Patrice pouted.
“Her dad keeps her on a tight leash,” Drew sniggered.
“He just wants what’s best for me.”
“When you turn eighteen you’re gonna go buck wild. I better be the first person you call,” his lips curled up in a crooked smile and his eyes washed over me. I blushed.
“By then she won’t even remember your name,” Quincy shut him down.
Several of Drew and Quincy’s teammates exchanged glances, and then they burst into laughter. Drew seemed unfazed. Amused is more like it. He cocked his head to the side and smiled.
“Oh, I get it,” he laughed, “she finally gave you the time of day and now you think you have a real chance. That’s adorable man.”
“Whatever you and Sidney had is over.”
“Is it?”
Quincy motioned for me to tell him and I froze. I liked Quincy, but I wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel on my relationship with Drew yet. Hence why I haven’t broken things off with him. Not that there was even anything there between Drew and I anymore. I just…I wasn’t ready to close that chapter of my life, and now I’m being put on the spot.
I shook my head at Quincy and he reeled back. I’ve been stalling this whole time and now he knows it. He and Drew stared each other down for a moment before I pulled him over to his car. I needed to get home before I broke curfew.
Once we were in his car, I could feel the irritation coming off of him. Every time I tried to speak, the words would die in my throat. There was no easy way to apologize to him.
“You don’t want to end your relationship with Drew, do you?”
“Do you want the truth?”
“Of course,” he glanced over at me.
“I’m not ready to.”
Quincy sighed and shook his head. “You barely even talk to him anymore because he spends all of his time with Kim, so why wouldn’t you want to break up with him?”
“I know its going to sound stupid and cliché, but I don’t want to break up with him because I’m still in love with him. He’s a jerk, and he doesn’t deserve me, but I still love him.”
“You’re right, it does sound stupid. Sid, he’s slept with damn near every girl on campus, except for you.”
“Look, I don’t expect you to understand it. I don’t even understand it myself, but I’m not ready to end things with Drew.”
“So all that talk about not distracting him from his game, what was that? Was that all just talk?”
“No. I thought I could do it, but I couldn’t.”
“Then maybe we should cool it for a bit. I’m not trying to be made a fool of.”
I didn’t want to break up with drew, but I didn’t want to end things with Quincy either. It upset me that he wanted to put our relationship on ice, but I respected his decision.
The rest of the ride back home was silent. I stared out the window to keep from looking at him until we pulled up to my house. He cut off the engine to his car, but neither of us moved. A part of me wanted to give into him, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to stick to it. My choices were giving Drew up for a chance to be with Quincy, or giving Quincy up to ride things out with Drew. Either way I lose.
“For what it’s worth, I do like you. I think we’re great together, I just…I’m not over him yet.”
“I knew that when we I asked you out, but how long do you expect me to wait Sid?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged, “As long as it takes.”
Quincy slid his eyes over to me and sighed. He liked me and he showed me more attention than Drew at the moment, I just wish he’d give me more time before expecting me to just cut myself off from Drew cold turkey. It’s much easier said than done. We live across the street from each other, which means I see him every day.
Speaking of the devil, Drew pulled up to his house. I half expected Kim to be with him, but he was alone. He waved to me and I waved back.
“You have three minutes left, I’ll walk you to your door,” Quincy sighed. We climbed out of his car and he walked me up to my front door. “What is it about him? Why can’t you walk away from him?”
“We’re…connected,” was all I could think of to say.
Quincy nodded, kissed me on the cheek and left. I wanted to follow up my previous statement with ‘and he doesn’t kiss me goodbye on the cheek,’ but he was long gone by then.
“Hey honey, your dinner is in the oven,” said mom, heading to the laundry room with a basket full of dirty clothes.
I went to the kitchen to retrieve my dinner and sat at the kitchen table eating alone. Going over everything that happened tonight I tried to reason with myself. In every way Quincy was the better choice, but Drew has his hooks in me.
Damn those hooks.
After dinner, I went up to my room, showered and changed into my nightgown. By that time my parents were already in bed and so was Em. Josh and Trisha were night owls who didn’t go to bed until sometime after midnight.
Turning off my bathroom light I stepped into my bedroom and gasped. Drew was sitting on my bed in the dark and scared the crap out of me.
“Are you crazy?” I quickly closed and locked my bedroom door.
“I’ve been sitting here asking myself that same question for the past ten minutes,” he chortled.
“What are you doing here? Does no one in your harem of girls need attention tonight?”
“You win,” he eyed me from head to toe.
“What?”
“Seeing you with Quincy…it…um…I get it.”
“I’m not with Quincy to make you jealous. I like him Drew.”
“I know and that’s why I’m here,” he swallowed hard. “I love you Sid.”
Several chickenheads ago his words might’ve had an impact, but his alleged love for me has never stopped him from seeing other girls before. He took both my feelings for him and me for granted.
“So you say,” I folded my arms across my chest.
“I’m serious this time.”
“I thought you were serious all those other times too.”
“Damnit Sid, this isn’t easy for me. Look, I’ve had my fun and do you want to know what it did for me?”
“What?”
“Nothing,” he laughed, “It did absolutely nothing because the time I spent with those girls were just moments. Those moments weren’t even real. They were the shallowest, loneliest moments I’ve ever experienced in my life. I mean sure, it felt good, but once the girls were gone and I was alone at night…you were all I thought about. I’d wake up thinking about you, and I hated it because I didn’t get it. I can literally have any girl I want except for one. Except for you. And its not because you’re not willing, its because you mean something to me and I don’t want it to just be one night with you.”
I swallowed hard. From his tone and the conviction with which he spoke, I knew he was being real with me, but where was this going?
“Well that’s a pretty speech Drew, but I really need to go to bed. If I don’t get my beauty sleep I turn into the wicked witch of the west.”
He stood and closed the space between us, taking my hands into his. And his eyes…they froze me where I stood. It wasn’t fair what his close proximity could do to me. My breath hitched in my throat. He locked his fingers with mine and his eyes kept flicking from mine to my lips.
“Will you shut up and listen,” he smirked.
It was hard, but I stifled my retorts so I could hear him out.
“Let’s go exclusive,” Drew unlocked his cell phone and handed it to me.
My eyes went wide with shock. Was he serious or did he just want to keep me away from Quincy? It didn’t matter. Quincy basically called it quits anyway. I grabbed my phone from my nightstand and handed it to him. I texted all of the girls he was talking to and he sent a text to Quincy. We let everyone know we were once again going exclusive and then I handed him back his phone. Kimberly immediately tried calling him, but he put his phone on do not disturb.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I’m positive,” he nodded.
“Why?”
“I’m pretty sure my pretty speech covered all of that,” he laughed.
“Say it.”
He cocked his head to the side and smirked, but he obliged, “You’re the only girl for me Sid. From this point on I just want it to be me and you.”
I grinned from ear to ear and he laughed. Climbing onto my toes I kissed Drew for the first time in what seemed like forever. I tried kicking him out and sending him home afterwards, but alone time in my bedroom wasn’t something he was willing to pass up on. And apparently his parents were arguing again. I went to my closet to get him a pillow and a blanket so he could sleep on the floor, but he had other ideas.
We made out for a good portion of the night until I fell asleep on him. When I woke up the next morning he was cradling me in his arms.
Covering my mouth to shield him from my morning breath I nudged him, “You should go,” I whispered.
Groggily he climbed out of my bed and sat up. It took him a minute to wake up and he stretched himself out like a cat. I grabbed his phone off my nightstand and handed it to him.
“See you in a couple of hours.”
I nodded and he tried to kiss me but I turned away, “Ew, no…I have to brush my teeth first,” I grimaced.
Apparently he wasn’t taking no for an answer. He gently turned my face back towards him and slid his tongue in my mouth.
God I love him…
He smiled when he pulled away and captured another small piece of my heart. “You’re right. Make sure when you brush you get the back of your throat real good,” he teased.
My mouth dropped open and I smacked him, “Go home jerk. And you should probably gargle with some bleach yourself,” I stuck my tongue out.
He laughed, climbed out of my window and went home. I toyed with going back to sleep for another hour or getting ready for school. In the end, I fell back asleep on my bed and woke up to Em banging on my door telling me I’m going to be late.
Looking at the clock next to my bed I realized I had 15 minutes left before I was supposed to leave. I jumped out of bed and sprang into action, brushing my teeth, pulling on my clothes and making sure I had everything I needed. I was five minutes behind by that time and quickly put my hair into a ponytail. I raced downstairs to scarf down my breakfast and raced to school. When I pulled into my spot, Drew stood outside next to his car arguing with Kimberly. Obviously she wasn’t taking he and I going exclusive too well.
I started walking over to him when he motioned for me not to. He pulled out his phone to text me and told me he’d meet me in class.
Kimberly was in tears and it looked like she was demanding answers from him. Patrice and Nicole walked me to class. I told them about Drew and I going exclusive again.
“Shut the front door! Are you serious?” Patrice practically shouted.
“Wait, weren’t you and Quincy just at Tops together? When did this happen?” Nicole asked.
“Last night,” I smiled, “Quincy put our relationship on ice because I wouldn’t break things off with Drew and then Drew came over and basically told me he wanted to be exclusive.”
“Do you believe him?” Nicole asked.
“I do.”
“Well it explains why Kimberly went off on Drew earlier. You should have seen her face. She looked like she’d been crying all night and I thought she was pregnant or something.”
“Hopefully Drew was smart enough to use protection.”
“Holy crap…Sidrew is back in affect,” Patrice nudged me, “he better treat you right this time.”
“We’ll see,” I shrugged.
“I need to talk to you,” Nicole seemed nervous.
“Can it wait? I have to get to class.”
“Sid, I’ve been sleeping with Drew,” she confided.
Did I just hear her correctly…?
“What?”
“I mean…I was up until a month ago.”
Narrowing my eyes at her I clenched my hands into fists. She and I were friends now. How could she sleep with Drew knowing how I felt about him? And how could he sleep with her knowing we were friends now?
“You slept with Drew? For how long?”
“Don’t be mad at me okay? It was only a few times and it meant nothing,” she began to ramble, “I was mad at Bobby and we were at a party at Xerxes house. I was drinking and things got out of control.”
“So all of that talk about Drew packing…were you sleeping with him then?”
“Yeah,” she nodded.
“Are you stupid?” Patrice shouted at her, “what about your loyalty to Sid?”
“They weren’t exclusive then.”
“Yeah, but you knew she was in love with him Nicky.”
“Sid I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
I didn’t want to hear anymore. I headed to class and Patrice followed. Drew was still outside talking to Kimberly and truthfully I’m glad. I’m at a loss for words at the moment.
“Here comes your man,” Patrice, climbed out of his seat and headed to class.
Drew sat down next to me and he looked irritated. His mood isn’t about to get any better with what I have to say to him. I turn to him and fold my arms across my chest, “You’ve been sleeping with Nicole?”
Drew looks over at me like its no big deal, “I’ve been sleeping with a lot of girls Sid,” he shrugs, “At least I was until last night.”
“I know, but why her? We’re friends Drew.”
“Okay, but she was my girlfriend before she was ever your friend. Or have you forgotten that?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten that, but I figured since we’re friends now it’s obvious that sleeping with her is off limits.”
“No, you and Nicky being friends should be off limits. Why would you want to be friends with someone I slept with anyway?” He looked at me like I was the one who was crazy.
“Well…because she’s nice. Out of all of the girls you were seeing she was the only decent one,” I shrugged.
“Nicky isn’t decent Sid, she didn’t even hesitate,” he scoffed, shaking his head, “You…you’re decent. You’re a good girl and I know you want to believe everyone else is good too, but do yourself a favor and don’t befriend any more of my exes. She approached me by the way, I didn’t approach her.”
He laced his fingers with mine beneath the table and held my eye contact to assure me that I was the one he wanted. Reaching into his pocket with his other hand, he slid me the platinum chain with a diamond hoop pendant I gave back to him when we broke up a while back.
A smile tugged at my lips as I picked it up and put it on. “I can’t believe she did that. All of the smiling in my face and pretending to be my friend when she was secretly plotting to sleep with you behind my back,” I shook my head, “I’m genuinely hurt.”
“Forget about Nicky. At least now you know what kind of friend she is. The only reason she told you is because she’s hoping it’ll drive a wedge between us.”
“Do you really think she’s that conniving?”
“She really did a number on you didn’t she?” He chuckled, “You’re too nice.”
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