Serenity

Sixteen (Part 1)

"Who got you smiling at your phone?" I asked Diamanté as I plopped down in the empty seat next to her in class.

"No one," she said locking her phone. That smiled still played on her lips.

"Must be someone. Got you a lil boyfriend finally?"

"Why you worried about it? You tryna be my boyfriend?" she asked, trying to imitate my voice when I'd asked her the same thing.

"What if I were?" I asked.

She dropped her smile, but her big, brown eyes remained focused on my face.

"You're joking right?" she asked.

"Not at all," I said, licking my lips.

"Malik," she said looking away and shaking her head.

"What?"

"Nothing," she sighed, looking at her phone again.

"You let Alaina get in your head, didn't you? What did she say about me?"

"She didn't say anything."

"Don't lie to me," I said. I already knew Alaina had planted a seed in Diamanté's head the moment she tried to keep me away from her at the party.

"She told you to stay away from me, didn't she?"

"Not exactly."

"Well what did she say?" I asked.

Diamanté shook her head. She wasn't going to budge.

"You're just not my type," she finally said.

"How do you know? You don't know me like that remember. Isn't that what you said?"

"I know what I said," she mumbled not even looking at me.

"So get to know me, and stop going off what someone else tells you."

"I mean, Malik, what do you expect me to do? I just moved here. I don't know anyone. I don't know what to believe."

I thought for a while before responding.

"You know what, believe what you want. I don't know what Alaina told you, but she needs to check herself first before she speaks on my name. She ain't nowhere near innocent herself."

I was starting to get upset. Alaina didn't have a right to be going around saying things about me.

There's things I knew about her that I kept secret. Things that her beloved boyfriend Trey didn't even know. Maybe it was time for him to find out since we were spreading things.