×× Skylar ××
Skylar's next day at university was just as good as her first. She had to take the bus since her mother hadn't come home from work in the morning when she left and she knew she probably slept at the hospital because she hated driving at night.
Skylar felt like less of an attention point because her hair was in a neat bun. Lectures would be better since no one would gossip about it behind her back. She had on a short navy blue and white flowy dress, a cropped light brown leather jacket and a pair of studded light brown combat boots, perfect for the indecisive weather, she'd decided.
Her day would be shorter than yesterday's and that was good with her because she still needed to catch up on the work she missed out on during the first half of the semester. She'd be spending the rest of her day with her nose buried in another book.
"Skylar Miller." She heard a voice say.
She turned around and smiled when she saw it was Romeo, casually dressed in black with her braids up in a high side ponytail.
"Romeo." Skylar smiled. "Hey."
Romeo caught up to Skylar and linked their arms.
"Where are you off to?" Romeo asked.
"Fashion journalism. You?"
"Jewellery design." She smiled broadly and Skylar knew then that Romeo loved that class. That did explain her love for accessories.
"Nice." She said.
"Do you wanna hang out after class? I want to grab something to eat after this cause I was running so late, I skipped breakfast." Romeo pouted.
"Uhm, sure. My lecture's only going to be two hours then I'm done for the day."
Romeo rolled her eyes.
"Brag about it. I still have to meet up with this guy who does photography so he can snap pics of me for his portfolio. It'll be quick," she promised, "so I'll meet you at the coffee shop?"
Skylar nodded her head and smiled.
"Same table, hopefully." She said.
"Alrightie. I'll see you in about three hours then." Romeo smiled and let go of Skylar's arm before racing off to her jewellery design class.
Skylar shook her head and smiled to herself as she headed to her class.
× × × ×
She waited patiently for Romeo in the coffee shop with her chocolate chip cookies and a frappacino. Class went by fast and Skylar was pretty bummed out that it did because she'd actually enjoyed it.
She was unlucky with the window table this time so she sat at the back of the coffee shop at one of the tables with the big cushioned seats. She should've been reading up on some history for her usual class but she knew that trying to read in there would be useless. The coffee shop was a bit noisy and Romeo just walked in.
After getting something to eat, she went to sit opposite Skylar, clearly out of breath.
"Who chased you here?" Skylar asked.
"I ran here so I wouldn't keep you waiting too long." Romeo said, "Troy took his sweet time with those pictures, I tell you. He wanted to change location all of a sudden so we went to this warehouse just a few minutes away."
"It's cool. Did you have fun?" Skylar smiled.
"I'm not that much into having my pictures taken by a guy who moans each time he gets a good shot." Romeo rolled her eyes and Skylar giggled.
"How was class?" Romeo changed the topic.
"Really good. It felt like it ended so quick." Skylar sipped her drink.
"That's good." Romeo took a bite of her slice of milk tart.
"The stuff you said about Justin Bieber didn't make sense yesterday." Skylar said, changing the topic.
Romeo looked up at her from her food.
"What do you mean?" She asked, her mouth full.
"He spoke to me yesterday in the library. And he was reading an architectural book."
"Why is it shocking that he spoke to you? Did he seem interested?"
Skylar shrugged.
"He asked me a couple of questions, that's all?" She said.
"Architectural questions?"
"Of course not. I don't know anything about architecture. He just asked me my name, what I was reading about..."
"He's does business as his major. Maybe architecture is his minor." Romeo shrugged.
Skylar nodded.
"Just because I said he isn't into chocolate, doesn't mean he wont talk to any black person at all, Skylar." Romeo smiled, "I'm sure he's a nice guy. He just keeps to himself often, that's all."
"How do you know all this stuff about him?"
"I went to the same high school as him."
"Oh. Cool."
Romeo smiled and sipped her coffee.
Skylar fiddled with her fingers as she started feeling stupid for questioning Romeo's knowledge. It just didn't make sense at all, she thought.
"You're lucky you get to go home after this. I still have one more lecture." Romeo sighed.
"I'm gonna go to the library for a bit. I need to print out some stuff. So technically, I'll be learning too while you do."
"That's voluntary though."
"Because I want to graduate soon."
Romeo smiled and teased Skylar, "Whatever, young Anna Wintour."
"Aye, it'll happen soon. You'll see.", Skylar smiled.
"Well don't judge me too harshly when I make it as a designer then. Otherwise I'll tell people your secrets once I find em out." Romeo joked, "All of em. Baby pictures included."
"My baby pictures were cute as hell." Skylar defended herself.
"We'll see."
Skylar smiled and had one of her cookies.
"Ooh, look who just walked in. Skylar's boo-thang." Romeo grinned as she looked over Skylar's shoulder.
Skylar quickly turned around and found Justin waiting in line to order something to eat. She looked back at Romeo and tried to keep a straight face.
"He is not my boo-thang." She said, rolling her eyes.
"You wish though." Romeo teased.
"No." Skylar tried to hide her blushing.
"I could be wrong, you know? About him not liking chocolate. You might be the one that leads him to the dark side." Romeo widened her eyes before laughing.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"I'm just trying to imagine your little mixed babies." Romeo blinked repeatedly.
"Don't you have a class to get to?" Skylar buried her face in her hands.
Romeo checked the time on her gold watch.
"You're lucky I do. I'll see you tomorrow then. Ciao." She got up, giggling.
Skylar shook her head and waved Romeo off then she sipped her frappacino.
She was crazy, that Romeo, Skylar thought, but she liked her.
As she sat alone at the table, Skylar figured that using the coffee shop's wifi to surf the net would be entertaining. She wasn't ready to leave for the library anyway and, quite frankly, she felt lazy to walk all that way. Procrastination.
She nearly jumped out of her seat when someone who walked passed had dropped something. Skylar glanced up and found that it was Justin. He gave her an apologetic look, picked up his iPhone and walked off to a table that seated a guy with a rather big smile.
He felt embarrassed that he'd did something so silly in front of Skylar. His hands were full anyway, he consoled himself, and seeing Skylar at the coffee shop at that time of the day was something he hadn't expected.
Skylar sighed and put her phone down, deciding it would be best to actually get some information into her head to help her with her school work. She got her glasses and laptop out and started reading up on the emails Romeo had sent about their shared course.
Justin and his friend weren't seated far from Skylar. If she paid close attention, she could hear what they were talking about.
The two boys sat together and feasted on the doughnuts Justin had bought and they laughed about some pictures Xavier, Justin's friend, had taken with his phone.
Skylar noticed how happy Justin seemed to be with his friend. They laughed loudly and cracked jokes that had Skylar smiling slightly when she caught onto them.
"Look at this one." Xavier showed Justin an edited picture of a baby that he'd found on Twitter.
Justin chuckled and quickly glanced at Skylar.
She was writing down some notes and Justin thought it was crazy how so into her work Skylar was. He'd never seen someone so fixed on their course work and it made him decide that Skylar was a nerd. A cute nerd, at that.
"You like em black now?" Xavier nudged his friend when he caught him staring at the girl with the glasses on who sat alone, a couple of tables down.
"What?" Justin looked at Xavier and pretended not to know what he was on about. He took a bite of his doughnut.
"It's about time, bruh. You've been my friend for how long? And I've been telling you about this type of booty but nah." Xavier smiled. "You thinking about getting it?"
"Getting what, bro?"
"It!" Xavier threw his hands up. "She's cute too."
Justin shook his head and dismissed what Xavier was saying. He hoped Skylar was too into her work to even hear what they were saying. They spoke softly too so he counted on it.
Xavier took his phone and snapped a picture of Skylar as she worked.
"What are you doing?" Justin snatched his friend's phone, shocked that he even had the guts to take a picture of a girl he didn't know.
Xavier took his phone back.
"It's to show Alfredo so he can give his two cents." He explained. "If you don't make a move on that girl, someone else will. I might."
Justin looked at Skylar and she caught him. He quickly looked down at his doughnut and it amused Skylar how quickly the tables had turned.
When she was done reading up on a chapter that Romeo had emailed her, Skylar got up and started packing up her things.
"It's Mister Steal Yo' Girl..." Xavier sang as he and Justin watched Skylar leave the coffee shop.