BABY LOVES ✗ fezco

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"IT'S SO CUTE!" Lexi exclaimed. Mina was standing in the middle of the closet in her bra. "But you don't have to be in the closet, if Cass comes in she won't care."

"Lexi I know you're not talking about a closet right now."

She pursed her lips at her best friend. "Okay, yeah. You can't be too careful I guess."

Mina slipped back into her crop top. She'd had to pull her bra up a little to show Lex her tattoo, that'd already begun to scab halfway into the week.

"I'm not even worried about Cassie knowing I just don't want your mom walking in and saying something."

The pair laughed, imagining all of the weird comments Lexi's mom would say. She had a knack for saying the most inappropriate things at the worst times.

Mina walked back to her spot on the bed where she'd been studying with Lex.

"It sucks that Kat didn't wanna come," the younger Howard girl lamented. She placed her pen in between her lips habitually.

"Can you blame her? The whole school thinks it's her in that video going around."

"Well, do you think it's her?"

Mina thought about it for a second. It did look like her, and the video had started going around after Kat had told her she'd lost her virginity, but Mi wasn't sure if Kat had told Lexi that yet.

"She said it's not her so I believe her."

Lexi seemed to agree and placed her pen in the spine of her biology textbook, flipping it shut. "High school's annoying."

"I would argue my household is more annoying." Mina slid her school materials into her backpack, dreading the second she got back home. But they were done with their homework and eventually her mom would be calling, and she hated when either Jacobs parent called. At least at home she could avoid them in her room.

"You should ask to sleepover soon," Lexi offered. She always tried to give Mina a safe space.

"I'll ask, but you know how my mom's about yours."

The Howard girl rolled her eyes. Marsha Jacobs was highly critical of Lexi's mother Suze, as if she had room to talk. But that's how it always is in a small town, everyone thinks that you know someone just because you know of them.

"If not then let's go to the cute bookshop downtown."

Mina lit up. "Yes! Oh my God. I' ve been wanting another true crime book. Let's go on Saturday so we can make it a thing, like have a picnic afterward and just read our books at the park."

"Aww, I love us," Lexi gushed, and they laughed together.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Truthfully, Mina had every intention of heading home after leaving the Howard house, but the liquor store was on the way there and she just couldn't shake the feeling that she needed to talk to Fezco.

When she pulled up, he was seated outside on a lawn chair smoking a blunt. If he was surprised to see her, he didn't show it.

"Hey," she said casually.

"Wassup?"

That was all she'd come up with. She hadn't really thought this through at all.

"Uh, I was just on my way home and I thought I'd say hi."

He took a hit, inhaling as he thought of what to say to her without fucking it up. She was standing there, blocking the sun but somehow it was brighter than ever. He exhaled the smoke.

"Listen, I don't want you to take this the wrong way or nothin' but if you not buying something then you should go."

Mina's airflow paused in her lungs. "What? Why?"

He stalled again.

"It's nothin' personal, it's not you bruh. Nate comes here all the time and if he rolls up while you here, it won't be good. He a regular customer and I ain't want no beef."

Her jaw clenched. "It's nothing personal? You keep saying that but we literally fucked and that's not personal?"

Fez glanced inside the store, where the pair had caught Ashtray's attention. When they locked eyes, Ash took it as a sign to mind his business and walked into the back room. Fezco turned back to Mina, who was visibly growing irritated by the second. He stood up, reckoning he'd look like an asshole if he didn't talk to her eye to eye.

"Ion want you to think that's all that was." He rubbed his neck, searching for the right words to say. "I ain't the type to just fuck around like that, you feel me? You're a chill ass person but we can't keep doing this shit."

"We can't even be friends?"

Fezco looked away. Her facial expression pained him in a way he didn't understand. It shouldn't have been this hard to tell a girl he hardly knew that he couldn't keep seeing her.

"No. I'm sorry."

Thankfully, Fez still wasn't meeting her eyes, which had started to water. But Mina wasn't going to let anyone see her cry, much less Fezco, so she blinked them away and swallowed the stinging in her throat.

"Okay. Well thank you for the tattoo, I appreciate you going through that trouble."

He finally locked eyes with her again, not breaking it as he brought the blunt back up to his lips. "How's it healing?"

Mi tried not focus too much on his lips when he took another hit. "It's fine. It's peeling but it's not too itchy."

Fez blew the smoke out, making sure he wasn't blowing it in her direction.

"You never told me what it means."

She shuffled on her feet awkwardly. "Oh– uh, it's just to symbolize the divine feminine. It's a whole thing but for me it's a reminder to love and respect myself and my energy. I wanna grow to be a woman I'd be proud of."

For the first time during the whole conversation, Fezco smiled. "You take care Mina."

With that, he stepped back into the store leaving her out in the sunlight.