From Bringston, With Love

Chapter 3: You Should Be Here

When Jordan comes back to the room, he sees Simone and Nate in deep conversation. After taking a moment to listen, he realizes that Simone and Nate are talking about Amara and how she had announced that she would be resigning from the university. There had been multiple times Amara had been brought into the spotlight at Bringston. The most recent time was her mugshot being aired out on Yard Yak.

Amara had previously been considering making a career change and fully taking on the journalistic world, but she loves Bringston University and the impact that she has on young black lives so much that she has decided to stick it out time and time again. But this time was different. For the first time in her career, Amara was truly starting to feel defeated.

Simone and Nate stay up most of the night talking about how they can help Amara out with Jordan chiming in every now and again. Finally they decide that they are going to pop up on Amara after they're done with classes the next day. When the time comes, Simone, Jordan, Nate, and Keisha head out of their dorm together. They run into Cam on their way out. Keisha stops to talk to Cam for a moment:

"Where you been stranger? I haven't seen you in a min?"

Cam responds, "I've just been busy with class, football, and Gabby has had the ATLs rehearsing like crazy."

Keisha responds, " Oh, so you been kicking it with Gabby huh?"

Cam pauses for a moment. "Remember when you told me that you wanted to take time to work on you, and there couldn't be an us until you handled all your personal stuff? Has that changed?"

Keisha twiddles her fingers and looks down at the ground not saying a thing.

"Okay well then it's really none of your business what me and Gabby do. I'll catch you later." Cam walks off.

Keisha watches Cam walk away and you can tell by the look in her eyes that she is pining for him, but there is nothing she can do with those feelings at the moment. She shakes it off and goes to catch up with Simone, Jordan, and Nate. Once they all get to Amara's, the girls try their best to talk Amara out of resigning, but Amara is unreceptive. She sounds the most certain that her time as a professor at Bringston is over and it is time for her to move on to a new phase in her life. Amara just wants to leave Bringston peacefully and doesn't want any fuss to be made regarding her leaving. The girls finally accept Amara's decision and silence falls around the room as they try to accept Amara's decision.

JR and Damon, who are still on campus, have a big showcase coming up and they've been helping Coach Marcus with preparations. When they have a break, Celine decides to meet with the boys since JR said that they had some questions for her. JR meets with Celine in the Alumni Hall first to spend a few moments with her alone and catch up on life. Since the divorce, Celine has gone through many changes, so JR just wants to gauge her state of mind before Damon stops by. Once JR gives Damon the thumbs up, Damon stops by. JR introduces the two and lets Celine know that they have some questions for her about someone she may have come across in the past. Just as Damon is about to begin talking, JR gets a call. It's a KEK emergency so he has to leave. He lets them know that he will catch up with them later.

Damon and Celine continue with the conversation.

"Are you familiar with a restaurant called Peach Brew Café?"

"Oh yeah, I used to love that place," Celine says with a nostalgic smile.

"Cool... My adoptive dad used to visit the café a lot. You might know him. His name is Xavier Wilson," Damon says as he eagerly awaits her response.