Irreplaceable (DAVE EAST)

37

"Her and her kids just nasty, trifling hoes. Staying under the same roof as them is freaking ridiculous." Zaidee complained as she poked at her salad while talking to Deja.

Deja shook her head. "I hear you. I know you can't wait to get away from them."

Zaidee rolled her eyes, just thinking about them irritated her. "Yeah you're right. I still got a few days until my little "2 weeks" is up. Just wondering what she's gonna do, because she can't survive without my check." She finally stabbed a piece of lettuce and ate it. "Oh my god, did I tell you about finding Mikey and Nia having sex in my bed?" Zaidee's eyes landed on Deja's. She told Deja so much, sometimes she forgot what she told her.

Deja gasped a little and her eyes went wide. "Girl hell no!" Deja shook her head, giving Zaidee a verbal answer, although she had already gotten her answer when Deja's eyes grew.

"Girl. First of all, it smelled terrible. Then the hoe had the nerve—" She was cut off by a soft tap on her shoulder.

She looked over her shoulder, her eyes landing on a designer belt. She became confused and her eyes roamed up.

"Can I help you?" She didn't mean for it come out sounding as rude as it did.

"Yeah... Can I talk to you real quick?" Kofi asked with a nervous look on his face.

She almost wanted to laugh because she had rarely ever seen anything other than his aggressive attitude.

"Talk to me about what?" She asked him.

He rubbed the back of his head and his nervous expression never left his face. It was priceless.

"I need to apologize about some shit." He had debated on if he wanted to say that in front of Deja where possibly someone else could hear him admit that he was apologizing.

Zaidee couldn't help the smirk that slid on her face.

"Is this nigga okay?" She asked herself.

"Go for it." She responded with a shrug.

Kofi stood there silent for a few seconds. He had planned out a confident approach, but he was acting like a shy kid talking in front of a crowd.

"In private?" He mumbled the question.

Zaidee glanced over at Deja who had her attention placed on her phone. She let out a sigh before standing up.

"Lead the way." She encouraged him with a closed mouth smile. After he began walking, she followed him.

She was a little mad at the fact that he had led them all the way outside of the school building, just to talk to her.

After taking a look around at the semi-empty bleachers, she looked at him, looking as if she was waiting patiently, although she was ready to sit back down at the cafeteria table and finish telling Deja all about what went down in her bedroom.

After about two solid minutes of tense quietness, Kofi cleared his throat, preparing to speak up.

"So, Uh... Umm... I-I just wanted to say s-s-sorry for what happened between us.. you know." He made eye contact with her and Zaidee felt like she could feel his nervousness, but she just didn't understand why he was so nervous, or where he got all this nervous energy from.

"I don't know, could you enlighten me though?" She smiled. She knew why he was apologizing, but she wanted to hear him say it. She wanted him to state out loud what he was apologizing for, not only for her, but for him as well.

Kofi sighed, breaking the eye contact. He had almost cried the night before, thinking about how things could've played out if he'd done things differently and treated her differently, and how hurt his feelings would be if she fell in love with someone else. He let a few tears slip that night, but he didn't sob.

"Well... I wanna apologize for cheating on you, with Nia... That was dirty of me, and you ain't deserve that at all. I also wanna apologize for the way I treated you while we was together, treating you like you was just another one of my hoes when you really wasn't. It was unappreciative of me to not give you the respect and attention you gave me. And, I wanna apologize about that night at the party when it was like I was pushing you to the side and shit. That was dirty of me too." His eyes were locked with hers throughout his whole little apology. He wasn't expecting her to want to get into a relationship with him, although that's what he wanted, desperately. But at the moment, he would just be content with her forgiving him.

Zaidee sucked her teeth while basically replaying his words in her head for a second time. She came up with her opinion about all of it, and nodded.

"That was nice." She responded. "I accept your apology and forgive you. But of course, you know we're not together. Although, if we work on it, we might be able to be friends. That'll help me get rid of some of the negative energy I have towards you." She smiled, she was proud of him. He was starting to show her a different side. One that wasn't rude and arrogant.

Kofi couldn't help the smile that came on his face. He was honestly just glad that she didn't hit him with a "Boy Bye." Or anything close to that.

"Aight. That's cool. If we friends that mean we can hang out right?" He asked her with a hopeful smile.

Zaidee bit her lip and looked to the side. "You pushing it a little. Let's just see how friends goes. Because I'm not talking about close friends or best friends, I'm talking about a hey and bye every once in a while friends." She shot down his hope, causing him to frown just a little. She kind of felt bad, but she was still giving her self some room to grow and see how she could do without him.

"That's cool I guess." He mumbled.

Zaidee laughed. "I know. I'm too generous." She gave him a smile and a pat on the back before walking off.