“Ughhh, I’m so glad that’s over,” Gem breathed, smiling as she exited the station. Caleb and Josie were giggling silently to themselves, “So what exactly did they say?” Caleb questioned. “The officer I talked to said something about the store clerk already reporting the robbery. So, other than the description of the person, there’s really nothing much they can do right now. Problem is, I don’t even remember what dude looked like besides a silver necklace; since I took the liberty of turning stuff off already, it’s up to insurance or whatever to give me the money to get new stuff ya know?”
Caleb simply nodded and the trio went back to walking in comforting silence. “Oh, but I did talk to my mom and she said she’d get me a new phone so that’ll be here Friday,” Gem finally spoke after a while. “Well, that’s something positive. I’m glad,” the boy replied. Once they made their way towards the path that split towards their respective dorms, they said their goodbyes and parted ways for the moment.
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4 Weeks Later - Friday
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“Hey guys, guess what?!” Josie exclaimed. “What?” the two playfully giggled as their friend was about to tell them another story of her ‘infamous’ dates with Murphy. ‘I wish those two would get together already. Maybe I wouldn’t have to hear about all of her activities every time she came back to the room as often,’ Gem thought to herself. “I think Murphy might ask me soon. He keeps acting all weird every time we’re together, real fidgety and shit whenever I look at him sometimes.” The girl crossed her arms as she became deep in thought. “J, you’re beautiful, you’d think his punk ass would’ve asked you already. But hey, who am I to judge?” Gem laughed.
“Mmm, why do you always gotta be like this Gem? He’s a really sweet guy, he’s just being careful with me; as he should be.” Caleb smiled happily at the two girls as they bantered back and forth. For the past couple of days, he’d been hanging out with them as they brought about a strange comfort to him. He treasured the time he’s spent with them, after all, college was meant for making lifelong friends and he wasn’t too keen on people so they helped him a lot.
As the trio made their way back across campus, the wind whipped as the leaves fell from the trees. Walking, Gem noticed Murphy walking towards them as Josie practically shouted with glee at the sight of her potential beau. But unlike a few days ago, he was not alone this time. The girl squinted as she tried to make out the figure traveling with Murphy as the two slowly started to come further into view. Then, at that moment, her face grew pale.
"Gem." "Gem?!" Caleb whisper yelled as he tapped on her shoulder. Shaking her head slightly, she looked up at him, "Hm?" "You good? You look like you've seen a ghost or something." The girl gave him a warm smile and nodded, returning her attention to the other people that were now with them.
'Wait a minute, that looks like-' Gem's thoughts began to connect at the same time Murphy spoke, "Niro. This is my girl Josie... and her friends." “Your girl?! Crazy how you say that when you haven’t even asked her out yet,” Gem snapped. “Gem-” Josie started to say something before Murphy cut her quickly, “And this, this is Germ. Our class’ most… uninteresting character to say the least.” The jock rolled his eyes and Josie hit him, cursing at him for always being like this towards her friend.
Niro scoffed, “Yeah, we’ve met… she got quite a mouth on her.” He looked her up and down like he did that night as the side of his lip slowly curled upwards, “She’s definitely a character alright.” Startled by his comment, Gem was at a loss for words and all she could do was stare up at the tall figure. Scanning him with her eyes, she noticed a lot of things she hadn’t previously paid any attention to the first time they met.
Niro was built, in many of the right places and was very smooth with his words. He dressed nicely which can be rare to see in college- especially during exam week. ‘All black must be his thing or something, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in much else. Not that I’m complaining…’ Other than that, all he had was a silver chain that he kept tucked into his shirt that hid the lining of his abs.
Gem’s face flushed as she thought of all the things he must do and have done with other people, as he’s apparently so well known. She was so busy thinking that she hadn’t even realized that she had still been staring at him when Niro coughed before grinning down at her. She quickly turned her head to avoid him seeing the pinkish tint on her face.
‘Why does he keep looking at me? He’s probably wondering how someone like me could be friends with someone like Josie, of course. This isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last.’ Gem tuned out the conversation that was going on until Josie turned to her with a hopeful look on her face.
“Please say you’ll come with us!” Confused, Gem stared at her brown-haired friend trying to figure out what she missed receiving a frown from her friend. “There you go spacing out on me again, what would you do without me?” Josie questioned facepalming. “Murphy’s having a party tonight, Caleb said he’d come, you should come with us.”
Gem frowned. She wasn’t good at socializing because of how people treated her and now her friend wanted her to come to a party with her. And what’s worse, she felt like she couldn’t get out of this one, especially since she promised Josie she would go with her this year. The girl grimaced, “Fine I’ll go, but don’t go too crazy. I don’t wanna have to beat somebody’s ass and end up back at the police station.”
Josie squealed in delight and quickly walked up to her friend, embracing her tightly. “I promise that I will be as normal as possible.” “Until she’s with me,” Murphy smirked, causing Niro to chuckle quietly. Gem refrained from rolling her eyes and looked down at the ground as she felt as if she looked up, Niro might be staring holes into her soul again.
Because of her personality, she’s used to being able to read people, that’s how she’s helped Josie avoid all of the ‘ain’t shits’ as they call them. But Niro was different. She couldn’t get a real read on him, never knew what he was going to say or what he was thinking- she was drawing a blank. This man she had only met a few nights ago had been on her mind as she’d occasionally see him in passing around campus. Every time it seemed as though they’d make eye contact before Gem turned away and walked on.
Before she knew it, the conversation had ended and the boys walked past them, on their way to the dining hall. The tall boy- no- man that had stood before her seemed to have glanced back before continuing to discuss the party with his friend. Her ears then soon started to focus back on her friends. “Shit, I meant to ask but does this thing have a theme or something?” Caleb asked. Josie had been looking at her phone before looking up at him to respond, “Yeah, camo. I hope you have some because we gotta make sure we get drinks before they’re all gone and I don’t wanna be kept out because somebody forgot their outfit.”
Puzzled, Caleb cocked his head to the side a bit. “Is it really that serious? It’s just a part-“ “Nah Caleb, you don’t wanna say that. J loves to party, always has and while I’d love to be as free as that, I just like to sit and nurse my drink.” The girl paused for a moment before speaking again, “Long story short, if you’re not dressed and ready to go when she is, you might as well stay in your room.” “Damn straight,” Josie co-signed as she put her phone away and laughed.
“Yall are crazy, you know that?” The boy crossed his arms and started walking again. “Yeah,” the girls smiled and walked after him.
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Later that night
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“Geeem, what do you think I should do with my hair? Half up, half down orrr all down OR side-part,” The girl exclaimed modeling the different options. The girl hummed to herself quietly while as she applied light makeup to her face. “Side part,” she said unmoving. She heard a slight squeal from Josie in delight as she pranced back to her own desk. “I’m so excited. This the first party we’ve been to all year,” the girl said fixing her hair, moving over to her side of the closet to see what shoes she’d wear.
Gem practically forced herself to keep from rolling her eyes. This was the first party she’d been to in a year whereas Josie had been to one a couple of times throughout the year. “Make sure you wear your black converse, those are the most fucked up and you don’t want someone to accidentally spill something on it,” she finally said after a moment. Josie nodded, knowing her friend couldn’t see her and pulled the shoes down from her shelf. As they continued getting ready, a knock was heard from the door.
“Got it,” Gem sighed. Arising from her seat, the girl sauntered slowly towards the door opening it to reveal Caleb in a regular black shirt, camo pants, and black vans. He quickly scanned the girl as she adorned a black and white camo crop top with black pants and beat-up all-white converse. “Okay, yall look good,” he said excitedly, walking into the room. Josie had on a short, camo dress that rested just above her knees with her black converse. She shot Caleb a look. “You don’t clean up too bad yourself nerd.”
Finishing up in the dorms, the trio walked to the lot where Caleb’s car was parked and drove to the party at Murphy’s apartment off-campus. “I find it interesting you got a dude that has his own place, must be nice to have all that time alone,” Caleb commented as they arrived. Josie smiled as she started to blush at the moments she’s had and might have later with Murphy.
Exiting the car, music could be heard blasting from inside as people adorning camo flooded in and out of the apartment. The group walked on until Josie spotted Murphy in a group of guys and happily jogged towards him, shuffling through the crowd of people as she went. “Hey babe,” Murphy greeted her, placing a kiss on the girl’s forehead. “Hii!”
Caleb recognized some of the guys and started dapping them up as they went. Gem, now sort of left to her own devices, stood as she watched her friends smile and laugh with glee. ‘I want that… people to smile at me whenever they see me and I believe them. I want someone to kiss me as a greeting simply because, but that’ll never happen. I don’t even deserve it,’ she thought. Lost in thought, she almost didn’t realize the figure that now stood before her— Niro.
“Is spacing out your thing or are you just in the clouds?” he snorted. Snapping out of her thoughts she crossed her arms, “Are you always this rude or is it fun for you to harass people?” Raising an eyebrow, Niro chuckled again. “Whew, ouch! Your mouth reckless to a tee huh?” “Gotta be, can’t let people talk to me crazy. I’m not thick so I might as well have thick skin.” At that, Niro burst into laughter which caught the attention of Josie and Caleb who hadn’t realized how far they had drifted from her. As if reading each other’s minds, they both gave the girl a look asking if she was okay, to which she nodded.
“You’re something you know that?” The boy shuffled a bit, switching the drink he had in his hand to the other, putting a hand in his pocket. Gem smirked, “Tell me something I don’t know.” A small awkward silence followed as the two stood there staring at each other as if trying to figure the other person out. Niro nursed his drink, occasionally greeting people that would walk by us before he spoke again. “You wanna go somewhere real quick?”
Gem raised an eyebrow, “I don’t know you like that. Where is ‘somewhere?’” Niro gave the girl a small grin before lightly taking her arm and walking over to the drinks, “Chill, I just wanna talk. The roof is the best place to go, do you drink?” The girl was confused as to why he felt the need to talk to her, let alone somewhere she’d never been or without others. Nonetheless, she let Caleb and Josie know that she’d be back before being led to the drinks where she politely declined. ‘Not taking chances, he already scares me enough as is,’ she thought to herself.
‘When I agreed to come to this, I thought it’d be Josie being dragged away by a cute guy, so what the hell is happening right now?’ Gem and Niro were now sitting atop the roof of the apartment building watching the night sky and listening to the music pour out through the walls. Gem kept a safe, yet awkward, distance from the mysterious man as she methodically fiddled with her fingers.
“So, what’s your story… the other night? Do you always do that when you talk to a guy?” Niro suddenly questioned. Gem knew this was coming, why else would he ask her to come out here alone? She continued to look down at her fingers, taking slow deep breaths, collecting her thoughts as she did. Patiently waiting for her answer, Niro continued to sip on the drink he refilled before they came up, looking into the night as if it had the answers to his questions.
“I- No. I don’t always do that, guys don’t necessarily talk to me if you haven’t noticed. But, you could say I’m not exactly comfortable around them,” Gem spoke. Niro nodded to himself, he knew not to press the issue given he didn’t have the right, so to even it out he gave an interesting response.
“I don’t blame you, the females I’ve been around haven’t exactly been gentle or nurturing.”
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TO BE CONTINUED...
Thank you all for reading this chapter of 'Stolen Romance'. I hope you enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next chapter which will be released next week so be on the lookout for that. We've started to dive more into Niro as a person as well as some other small dynamics within the group.
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