"And it doesn't matter how much time passed or how much time will pass-it's him. It always has been him and it always will be him...I just don't know how to tell him,"
When it's more than a like, and they're more than a friend. When they know you b...
"I know," she nodded. "Now come on, I know you're starving,"
Sakari sighed briefly, following Jelani out of the room and into the parking lot to find Amber's car.
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After breakfast, Amber dropped the girls back to their dorm, as she was running late to her cheer team meeting and bid them a good rest of the day.
"You wanna just chill for the rest of the day? Or you had something planned?" Jelani wondered, as they sat on their respective beds, scrolling on their phones.
"Um, Khi invited me to the mall with him and Trae, you wanna do that? I can tell him come scoop, he not doing anything," she offered.
"That's perfect! I need to buy my mama a birthday present, chile," Jelani giggled. "Gon' head and call your man," she teased.
"Not my man," she retorted with a chuckle.
"You just wait on it," she pointed and Sakari shook her head, looking for his messages to tell him she and Jelani would come.
Jelani had a habit of instilling this extra confidence in Sakari when it came to her feelings for Mekhi. She always told her friend it could and would happen, when Sakari had been convincing herself otherwise for years—literally.
A few minutes later, she got a text back from Mekhi, telling her that he and Traveon were outside, so the girls gathered their things again and headed out, again. Upon seeing Khi in the front seat of his car, laughing at something with Traveon, she began to feel butterflies in her stomach, which she couldn't get rid even if she tried. And she tried.
It happened in middle school, seventh grade to be exact. The first day of spirit week—twin day. Even in elementary school, Tamika and Tamara made the two go as twins, and they just kept tradition up into middle school.
They walked to the bus together as usual, both wearing the same outfit to the shoes. They laughed and joked like usual, and everything felt normal, at least at first it did.
"Tootie! Come take a picture wit' me for yearbook!" Mekhi called to Sakari while she switched her heavy science and social studies books in her locker for her duffel bag so she could go to gym the next period. She was already about to be late to class, and she had no idea how Khi found her. She glanced to her left and saw him waving her over, with a kid from the yearbook class.
"Khi," she sighed to herself. He was getting much more acclimated to being around people, and while his anxiety still ate at him sometimes, he wasn't the shy kid he used to be. It proved to be a tad difficult for her because she was still way more to herself than he was.
But, she obliged.
He had a huge smile on his face as she walked over, and she couldn't help the small smile that started to grow on her face too, and she shook her head.
