Accepted

13.

iko ↑

Evi.

The stare soon erupted into laughs from him.

"Well where the hell are you going to go?" He threw his head back, holding his chest. I rolled my eyes.

"This why I should've ratted your filth ass out." I grumbled, turning my back towards him and facing Trin.

"Do you have to go and leave me?" She asked, folding her arms under her chest.

Before I could answer though, she snapped her fingers and widened her eyes. "Wait, wait I got it!"

"What?" I asked, extending my hands out for her to continue.

Niko remained quiet as Jue spoke saying, "Whew! That was funny."

"University of Chicago. We enrolled, we just have to get accepted. We get accepted, we'll both be there in Chicago!"

I took off my cap, running my fingers through my hair while groaning. I didn't want to jump into college just yet. Besides if I wanted to go, it would be for basketball.

I would need much more practice. I would want to find my dad first, then everything just may fall into place smoother.

"I'm out. Catch you later Niko!" Jue spoke again, chuckling slightly as he gave him a pat on the back.

He brushed past me, trailing off down the sidewalk of the school's campus. Niko gripped his crutches tighter, starting to put them before him.

"Yeah, I'll hit y'all up later too fom." He more-so mumbled, slowly getting away from us.

I looked at Trinity as she had a confused look glued to her face as well. "Um alright." She said before I heard my name being yelled.

I turned to see my mom nearly running up to me in about four inch heels. I exhaled lowly as she came up to me.

She grabbed my face, looking at me. I looked back at her, expecting a common congratulations. Little did I know, that wasn't the case.

" The recital! They're looking for you! Come on!" She said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me towards the direction of the school's auditorium again.

Trin gave me off a small smile as I faced her. I turned back, grabbing away from my mom and walked in myself. I sighed, looking at Ms. Mandy and a few of the others looking at me in their white ballet costumes.

"Hurry! We're on in five minutes."

•° •°

Jue.

I was walking off the campus, dialing on my phone to call an uber until I heard someone coming up behind me.

I turned to face the opposite way and saw Niko crutching up to me.

"Yo, what's up?" I asked. He stopped, then sighed.

"Aye listen I didn't know that's what she was asking for." He started while looking at me. I nodded then shrugged before he continued. "But I think you should help her."

"You're telling me I should just take a person I barely know to help them find another person that I don't know. You know how big Chicago is? Where is she going to stay? She should just stay with her moms and let her help her. Why is she trying to get away from her?" I furrowed my brows, raising my hands along with shoulders.

That's when he begin to explain to me how her mom was. From her being strict to living through her and now even resulting into hitting her. He elaborated on the majority of the situation with her dad and to why she wants to find him.

"And honestly, I need her to find him so I can connect back with him to. He was my like my father figure." He finished off saying, readjusting his crutches and stood up straighter.

Hell, I missed my dad also. We weren't extremely close but we communicated. It was close to time for him to come back anyways.

My phone buzzed inside of my front pocket, interrupting the conversation and indecisive tension that was building.

I removed my phone from my inner pocket into my hand and read the message on my lock screen.

From Bro T :
Jue, I need your help.

I shook my head as I slid it back and faced Niko.

"For my sake. She means a lot to me." He added. I nodded in a slow pace as my right brow rose.

"Alright." I mumbled. He smirked, starting our handshake. He thanked me-even though I haven't even did it yet- and found his mom.

I wandered around on the campus, looking for Evi to tell her about my mind change. I couldn't help but think about the treatment she was getting from her mom.

Looking at her, you wouldn't really think she'd be that type; she favored Evi but with a medium sized cocoa complexion frame, shoulder length frizzy but straightened hair. She was a pretty woman who seemed to have a soft demeanor but I guess not.

I viewed off inside of the glass of the auditoriums window, catching a glimpse of Evi on stage. Just as the rest, she had an all-white ballet attire. I saw her mom with a wide smile recording, sitting in the front row - like any other mom would do.

Peering into Evi 's face though, I could tell what Niko said was true. It didn't seem to excit her and she didn't look happy at all.

I'll admit though, she was good at the genre of dance. She danced with grace and flexibility-something I really wasn't used to seeing-if it didn't involve raunchiness and ass shaking.

My phone vibrated once again. I quickly took it out, reading another message from Terrance.

Bro T:
This is the last time I promise. 💯 If I don't get this done, I'm got man. They'll get Tev and I don't want that. I'm trying to be selfless Jue but I just need help this one last time.

To Bro T :
I've heard it all before. The 'last time' was the time before the last two. Handle it yourself . 👍

My sudden thoughts at the moment got cut off as I heard a crowd of claps. I turned back to the window and saw them standing, cheering as the acts exited the stage. I didn't see Evi though.

I turned to walk towards the back of the school until I ran into someone. I grabbed their arm to keep them from falling and noticed it was Evi. She frowned at me and snatched from my grip, sniffing.

I gripped her arm again before she walked off. " I'll help you." She rolled her eyes.

"Don't lie to me bec-" I cut her off in the middle of her sentence.

"I'm serious. You kept my package for nearly a month so I'll help you for only a month." I replied. She looked at me, no sign of happiness.

"I don't have no job, no money, no car, no where to go when I get there. All I have now is a high school diploma." I widened my eyes.

"What? So you're basically a charity case?" I scoffed. Niko sure fail to mention all of that.

She shrugged. "Sorry for wasting your time Jue." She said, starting to walk off once again and I only watched her this time.