Masked

Chapter Nine

I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt his body lean in close to me. I could feel his breath against my neck. Then I heard him stifle a laugh. I slowly open my eyes to see him getting up from the bed and grabbing his laptop from his desk.

"Calm down, I'm not doing nothing like that to you," Phoenix chuckled.

He plopped the laptop on the bed and situated himself next to me.

"At least not yet," he winked while opening the laptop.

"So what are we doing?" I asked feeling very stupid.

"We're gonna just chill and watch a movie. Then I'll escort you back to your dorm, unless you wanna sleep here again," he teased. I immediately pouted. Sleeping in his bed was not a habit I wanted to pick up.

"You'll take me back after ONE movie," I asserted before readjusting my position on the bed.

"Whatever you want baby girl," he grinned as he searched for a movie.

——————

Two weeks passed by and I was "kidnapped" by Phoenix a few more times. I guess you could say I was enjoying my time with him.

Little did I know that things were going to shift gears when homecoming came around.

I was sitting in my bed trying to write a paper for my English class when Athalia burst into our room. She was breathing hard like she had just ran a marathon.

"Are you okay?" I asked concerned. I started to get up from my bed, but she held up a finger. She took a deep breath before she spoke.

"The group...chat...check the chat," Athalia huffed as she tossed her bag into her bed.

I grabbed my phone and saw my messages were blowing up. It had already accumulated over 500 texts and reactions.

WHAT IT DO BAYBEEEE

Naima: y'all are nothing but a bunch of hating ass bitches

Tati: ain't nobody hating on you. We don't hate on other's sloppy seconds sis.

Brianna: Tati, dont even speak on what you don't know about

Tati: Sis, my whole major is about knowing the tea and this is a piping hot cup! So fuck you.

Naima: maybe if you had just given it up, he wouldn't have come crawling to me

Tati: it's on sight sis. Keep saying shit and it's on sight

Anaya: you ain't doing shit sis, calm it down

"Athalia, what happened? I don't understand?" I asked as I tried to read back.

"GIRL. Naima has been involved with this dude from University of Miami and apparently Tati was with this guy till a few weeks ago! Like he was with them both at the same time. They've been going at each other for the past 20 minutes in the group chat!"

I look back at my phone and see the argument was still going.

WHAT IT DO BAYBEEE

Tati: fuck all this. I hope you enjoy his toxic Ass.

Naima: oh don't worry honey, I'm going to enjoy EVERY inch of him

Ike: alright ladies, let's calm this down. John 16:33

Anaya: now is not the time for scripture Ike....

Ike: there's always time for scripture

Hachi: are y'all done now? Can we get back to what's important? Do y'all got your alcohol money ready? These bottles need to be bought for Homecoming.

Jovan: aye man, send your cashapp real quick

"Wow, that was....something," I finally said after catching up.

"Crazy right? Welp, now I know that Tati will figure out any kind of secret," Athalia chuckled as she wrapped up her hair.

"You're going to bed now?" I asked confused.

"No not right away. I just don't want to ruin my hair laying down. Dante might come over a little later and I'm not about to look busted," Athalia smiled ever so sweetly.

"That dude scares me with his philosophical speeches. But at least I know who to run to when I gotta take intro to philosophy next semester," I sighed, flopping back into my bed.

Not even a few seconds later, there was a knock at the door.

"Mar, you get it. It might be Dante!" Athalia squeaked as she quickly sat up in bed.

I got up from my bed rolling my eyes and walked over to open the door. There stood Phoenix and Dante on the other side.

"We came to make a swap," Phoenix grinned at me.

"You're taking me again??"I groaned.

"Would you rather stick around to see what they get into?"

I shook my head and Dante brushed past me to enter the room.

"You might want to grab an overnight bag. From what I heard from Dante, it's about to be a long night. Might as well just stay at my place," Phoenix whispered softly.

I sighed and marched back into my room to grab my laptop and other things.

"Thanks Mar," Athalia giggled as I left our dorm.

"Still don't see how those two are a likely pair," I puzzled.

"Some questions will just never get answered," Phoenix replied.

We got to his dorm, there was a few people in the kitchen. I recognized Brianna and Anaya from the chat.

"Oh well surprise surprise. Little Marsai has been caught again," Anaya teased.

"We're doing a little midweek drinking. Wanna join? I promise it'll be fun," Jovan exclaimed as he exited his room.

He walked up behind Anaya and Brianna and wrapped his arms around their shoulders.

"Nah bruh, we're just chillin' tonight. Y'all have fun though," Phoenix smoothed over, nudging me towards his room.

"Yalls loss. Don't beg to join when you hear the fun we're having," Anaya called out after us.

Phoenix closed the bedroom door behind him.

"You can change in my bathroom if you need to. I have to get something from my friend real quick," he offered.

I nodded and then he exited the room and I felt like I could finally breathe again. I changed real quick into the tank top and athletic shorts i grabbed and washed my face. I walked back out into his room to set my stuff down. Phoenix reentered the room right then.

"So what now?" I said looking around. I turned around to see my eyes at his chest.

"It might be a long night for you too."