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noel.tati can you handle it?
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user how does it feel to be god's favorite?
user y'all.... where's the ring?
user oh we outside outsideeeee
liked by 656,012 people
jalen don't got the same mind, you don't know me
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user he deleted the engagement picture....
user if him and Noel broke up, love isn't real
user @noel.tati what's going on???
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february 27th, 2024
3:02 pm
JALEN COULD PINPOINT the exact moment he knew he was going to be with Noelani forever.
When he closed his eyes, he could almost see the memory...
It had been Noelani's freshman year of college, and the early spring air was both floral and rising in temperature.
Jalen waited in a car that was located outside of Noelani's UCLA dorm, his hat low and his sunglasses shielding his eyes.
His phone was held aloft in his right hand and Jalen casually scrolled through instagram, his attention half split between the device and the passenger side window.
"She should be outta class by now..." Jalen muttered as he scanned the courtyard for her.
But alas, it was half empty which allowed Jalen to identify the passerbys, none of who even resembled his girlfriend.
A knock on the driver's side window causes Jalen to jump a little and drop his cell phone next to the gas pedal.
When he looked up, Jalen was met with Noelani's honey brown eyes. He quickly rolled the window down, "You scared the hell outta me. I thought you were in class."
"I was! It ended early so I took the long way. Unlock the door," Noelani smiled. Once she was in his passenger seat, Noelani pecked his lips like it was habit then began to dig through her backpack, "I got you something."
Jalen released his own suspicious smirk, "What?"
"I know how much you love the espresso machine at my dad's so..." Noelani placed a baby blue cardboard box into his lap.
Jalen stared down at the gift, a little stunned. It was true that he makes several lattes when he spends the night at Alejandro's but...
"I didn't think you noticed," Jalen commented, his voice low.
Noelani raised an eyebrow, "Why wouldn't I notice? You made like four in one day. You were bouncing off the walls and driving Erin crazy."
Jalen continued to stare down at the box, unable to quench the growing feeling of adoration inside.
"I was thinking you could put it next to where you keep that one mug your sister made you last year?" Noelani asked in an amused tones "You know she knows you don't use it and now you have an excuse so she can stop asking me."
Jalen leaned his head on the headrest, simply watching as Noelani rambled a little about his younger sister.
"You should do a day trip with her. San Diego or something. I don't know." Noelani began to pull up her mass of curls into a high puff, "She misses you a lot though, love bug."
"I love you so much." Jalen stated in the middle of her taking a breathe.
"I love you too." Noelani matched his solemn tone then laced their hands together.
But that was then and this is now.
For days and days now, he had been trying to figure out when their relationship had soured to the point that she wouldn't want to marry him.
That, unfortunately, wasn't as easy.
Jalen awoke from his overthinking from the sensation of a damp cloth hitting the side of his skull.
He looked down at the projectile, a yellow hand towel, then whipped around from where he was sitting on the silver bench in the locker room to see who had the audacity, "Aye! The fuck?"
"My bad, bruh," Kevin Porter Jr walked closer to where Jalen was sitting at the edge of the locker room with a cautious smile on his lips.
The two had moved together from the Rockets to the Lakers to continue to be a championship winning backcourt.
"You just look like you were staring off into space," Kevin chuckled a bit.
"That's probably cause I was." Jalen rose to his feet before opening the locker with his name and number on it.
"Still thinking about her?" Jalen glanced at his friend, a little taken aback at the question.
"Yeah. I'm always thinking about her." Jalen admitted as he whipped off his sweaty shirt.
"Yeah, well, stop. She's not thinking about you-. Woah-." Kevin had replaced Jalen's spot on the bench, his cell phone in his dominant hand.
"What?" Jalen asked without turning around, a fresh shirt in his hands.
"Look," Kevin stood and shoved his cell phone into Jalen's line of view. It was a picture of Noelani posing against a darkened taupe wall in black heels and a chocolate brown matching set.
"Is... She dyed her hair? Wait, why were you like woah?" Jalen stared at his friend, making sure that he didn't say the wrong thing.
Kevin coughed into his elbow a little, "My bad. Nothing just... She's bad. She always has been."
The last thing he needed a reminder of was how beautiful his ex was. Jalen knew that already, better than anyone he knew that. The countless hours of tracing the outline of her lips, her jawline and running his hands over her hair had been his instructor.
"Why do they always look better when you break up?" Kevin muttered, his eyes hungry and stuck on the cell phone.
"Do me a favor?" Jalen pushed the phone away from him, "Shut the fuck up."
Then he slammed the locker closed, ensuring that the metallic clang rang through the entire locker room.
NOTE FROM KY
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