Our indelible pasts|✔

twenty one - kiana

FOR THE PAST week, concentrating in Professor Chester's lectures hasn't been easy. But I've been through this before. I've had to go through my days in front of people I should be running away from as normally as possible, as if nothing happened, plenty of times. So as much as attending his lectures is a hard task, with time I've been able to control myself, just like in my past.

To my luck, Kayden has made it a routine to sit with me in his classes and he's honestly made the experience a bit easier. He makes little comments here and there that actually make me laugh and because he's actually able to pay attention to Professor Chester without wavering in fear, he makes good notes.

His notes come in handy when we study together. We've done that thrice this week now. It was his idea actually. He noticed I don't make notes that much in class due to obvious reasons that he does not need to know and offered to help after I lied to him, telling him that I don't understand Professor Chester's accent sometimes. In my defence, his accent is not entirely easy to understand. It's like a mix of Australian and British, it's weird. But I actually understand it very well, it's his voice that just sends shivers down my spine, and not in a good way.

"I'm hungry."

I look up from highlighting my notes to look at Kayden. "You didn't have to say that out loud."

"What, why?" He laughs, confused.

"Because now I'm hungry too." I cross my arms.

He flashes his perfect teeth at me. "I'm not sorry because that means enough studying. What do you feel like? McDonalds? Oh wait...there's this great Mexican restaurant not too far from campus."

It's so adorable and entertaining how excited he gets when he talks about food.

"Mexican sounds great." I say, closing my books. "I'm driving."

He's about to protest but I stop him. "No one other than me, is allowed to drive my car." I laugh.

"Fine. Then I get to pick the music." He says and I scoff at his audacity.

"But it's my car." I remind him yet again.

"Please?" He smiles at me innocently.

"Save that pathetic smile for other girls." I laugh as our feet lead us out of the library. "My car, my music."

"But we always take your car." Kayden complains.

"Because I'm the one who actually needs to drive to campus. I live like a gazillion miles away. I'm not going to leave my car here."

"Okay fine." He says and just when I think he's given up on asking to choose the music we listen to in the car, he starts asking again. Unfortunately, I lost the battle. I gave in halfway the distance between the library and where I parked.

***

"See, you're even singing along." Kayden points out when he catches me softly singing along to the song he's playing.

"In my defence, I did not think you would play something from Death Race for Love."

"You were so sure I had bad taste in music, didn't you?" He accuses.

I take my eyes off the road momentarily to shoot him a quick glare. "Because you said you 'don't really feel Michael Jackson's music.'"

"And that immediately made you decide that I have bad taste in music?" He asks. "Oh and take the next left."

"Yes. Cause what the actual fuck?" I sigh exasperatedly before turning into the street. "I mean come on, it's Michael Jackson we're talking about here. The man sold more than a billion records! That's like, so huge!" I exclaim like my life depends on it, and I hear Kayden chuckle from the passenger seat. "And Thriller is practically the best album to ever be released...by anyone, anywhere."

"You're actually obsessed." I catch Kayden smiling at me.

"Proudly so." I stick my chin up and smile proudly. "And with good reason."

He shakes his head, the two-strand twists on his head dancing around as he keeps instructing me to the restaurant.

***

"Okay, this...this is really good." I say with a mouthful of tamale in my mouth.

"Told you." Kayden smiles at me. "My mom's half Mexican, she makes better ones."

"If it gets better than this, I really want to meet your mom." I laugh before stuffing my mouth again.

"Unfortunately for you, she's all the way in Atlanta" Kayden says. "And she'd automatically assume we're dating if I introduced you to her."

"We'll find a way." I shrug my shoulders. "You said she's half Mexican, what's the other half?"

"Nigerian." He says and my eyes widen.

"Okay, you must have had a really good childhood. I mean, the food...I can only imagine how good it is." I say excitedly.

"You have no idea. She actually owns a restaurant back home."

"I really wish I lived in Atlanta right now. I might actually consider transferring to a college there now."

"Maybe one day I'll take you there." He chuckles. "But only if you pay for your own plane ticket, I'm not loaded."

I laugh. "I don't mind. As long as there's good food I don't care about the money. Fuck the money."

We spend the rest of the evening together, walking around the streets of New York while window shopping. We actually ended up getting kicked out of one store for apparently trying on too many items without buying any. I take the full blame for it though, it was my idea. The store just had these hats that Kayden looked so stupid in, plus, the employee that kicked us out was just being snobby for nothing.

"We should go back there again." I grin.

"You do know that mall jail is a thing right? And I don't know about you, but I'd like to stay out of it."

"Come on Kayden, you're no fun."

He opens the car door then turns to face me. "I'm fun, I just don't want to go to jail."

"It's mall jail." I bluntly say.

"Still jail." He points out before stepping out of the car. "See you Monday?"

"Yeah, bye." I wave, a soft smile on my lips. "I had fun by the way, thank you."

'I needed today', I wanted to add, but thought better of it.

"Anytime kiddo."