A Diamond In The Rough

Changes

"Nah bruh, she ain't stupid.... she just... Man look," I spoke, not able to get the words out. I walked back towards my desk for my phone and pulled up her new Snapchat to show him pictures.

Apparently she forgot the login to the one I'd made her once she got a new phone—an iPhone at that—and made a new one. It explained why she hadn't opened any of my snaps or posted any of her own the entire time she was gone, and why after a while, she stopped replying to my texts and answering my calls. I didn't think too deep into it because I knew we'd see each other once the semester started again, but I can't say I wasn't a bit worried. Cassie had started being distant right before she passed and... it just made me uneasy to feel Ren was doing the same but now that I knew why, it all made sense. Shorty was going through a whole transformation down to the smallest details and it's like the longer I take to notice all the new shit, the more I get hit with. And I still had this anxious feeling in my chest like I'd barely even scratched the surface.

"Look, bruh. Tell me who that is," I spoke, tapping her story and showing it to Marc as he stood next to me. He peered down at my phone, eyes squinting as he tried his hardest to figure out who he was looking at. Still confused, he grabbed it from my hand and stared for a few seconds before his eyes went big.

"Hell nahhhhh, that's Ren?! When she get that damn fine?!"

"I'm talking fine as a muthafucka bro," I spoke, slightly shocking myself with the words coming out of my mouth. That had to be the first time I'd ever made a comment like that about Ren. I never failed to call her pretty in passing conversation, but that was from a loving place for a girl I cared about like a sister... this was different.

"Bruh, Ren always been cute but GAH-DAYUM!" he emphasized, staring lustfully at my phone.

"Same shit I said, bro. You just seeing a picture though, shit is even crazier in person," I spoke watching as he watched the rest of her Snap story in awe.

"What the fuck, bro? All this was hiding inside Ren?! Tomboy, makeup-hating, stay-on-a-nigga-ass-about-studying-ass Renolds?! How was it talking to her?" he asked, pulling out his phone. I watched as he opened his Snapchat and followed her before handing me my phone back. I couldn't help but shake my head as I searched for the right words to describe how I felt.

"Shit was weird as fuck. It's like talking to a stranger who knows all your business. Same ol baby girl, just... different. Hard to even concentrate when she talking cuz she look so damn good doing it..." I trailed, my mind getting lost in visions of her again. All I could see was her laughing and smiling as we cracked all of our same inside jokes. Shit that wasn't funny to anybody but us for the dumbest reasons, but because it was ours, it would always be funny. That same warm feeling mixed with a newfound flutter in my stomach whenever her laugh lines appeared, whenever her eyes caught mine, whenever she said my name. 'What the fuck' hardly captured how I felt.

"Damn.... I'm proud as fuck of her. She always wanted to get in shape and she finally did it. God knows dragging her to the gym for our early morning workouts wasn't helping. She could barely keep up with us," he chuckled before continuing, "But she finally did it... and I know that's sis but... I'd beat the brakes off that. I can already imagine the amount of niggas that's gonna try her. We ain't shit so we already know how it go. You ready for that?"

I couldn't lie, his question caught me off guard. Was I ready to sit back and watch while Ren figured out how ruthless niggas could really be? I mean she'd witnessed how ain't shit me and the other guys were. We didn't hide our bullshit from her for the simple fact that it was Ren. She was a special exception to the bro code, always around and mostly well-informed whenever we talked about or carried out our debauchery. There wasn't a girl I'd fucked on campus that Ren didn't know about, and the same was true for just about all the guys. The only one who seemed to keep his sex life on the hush was Miles and that seemed to be because he was always ducked off somewhere with his shorties. Not even we knew who he was messing around with, and had we ever shared girls, we'd never know it because he never talked about em other than to say he was going to kick it with one. As for me, I never spared details when talking to her about all the females I'd dealt with. I even had the intention to tell her about Shae once we met up today, but because seeing her new and improved self had my mind gone, I hadn't even given it a second thought. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to tell her now, which was strange in itself. I never cared before, why was I so apprehensive now?