DEUCE CHRISTOPHER TATUM
I had been sitting outside of my aunt and uncle's house for about 30 minutes to an hour waiting for Aunt Asia to come home. I knew that she gets off of work at 3:30 and usually gets home by 4:15 and it is now 4:10 so I was expecting her to come home in the next five minutes.
I knew that my aunt wasn't completely pleased with me at the moment, but I really needed someone to talk to—and I could talk to my dad or Amour about this because, well, it was about them.
Plus, I had to apologize to her and Uncle Juan about the entire Jelena dilemma that they had recently found out about.
At first I was going to go to Aunt Angel about it but, I remembered that she had went to Paris on business, Auntie Maria and Uncle Klay weren't back from their vacation yet, Auntie Sara was in New York with Kidd and Moody, Killian is in Detroit along with Aunt Tasia and James.
Basically, Aunt Asia was my only—and my scariest option.
When Aunt Asia's Porsche pulled into the driveway, I instantly stood up and tried my hardest to not look as scared as I actually was.
"Deuce?" Aunt Asia said, looking at me in confusion as she got out of her car.
"H-Hey, Auntie..." I said nervously, waving at her and shoving my hands into my pockets.
"Hey, what are you doing here? Don't you have class or something?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.
I nodded my head. "Yeah, but, uhm, it ended early and I kind of wanted to talk to you about something."
"Sure, what's up?" She said, sitting down beside me on the steps of the porch.
"Well, first off, I wanted to apologize for how you had to find out about the whole Jelena situation. We all held back a serious situation from you guys and it was wrong so, I apologize for that on behalf of all of us gremlins."
Asia grinned and nodded. "I accept your apology, but if you hide something like that again, I won't hesitate to get Juan on all of your asses."
"Noted." I chuckled. "The other thing is...what do you do when you're afraid of fully letting someone in because you've seen so many people walk out on you?"
Asia raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Where is this coming from, exactly?"
I shrugged and shook my head. "You can't tell them that I told you this, okay? Promise me..."
"Uh...okay." She said. "I promise."
"Amour and my dad have been arguing lately," I finally admitted. "I can tell she's getting sick of him. They've been on and off for years and my dad hasn't even brought up marriage or anything and I know Amour is tired of waiting around."
Asia nodded, "Okay...but, Deuce what does this have to do with you?"
"Because...what if she leaves him?" I mumbled, looking down at my feet. " What if she leaves him, finds someone new and starts a new life, a new family and forgets about me, just like everyone else has done when they've had enough of my dad's bullshit?"
Asia's eyes widened and she nodded her head, understanding what I meant and why I was feeling the way that I was feeling. She stayed silent for a moment while she figured out what to say and the right way to say it, while I stayed silent as well, just looking down at my shoes.
"Deuce, when you think of Amour...what's the first thing that comes to mind?" Asia finally asked me.
Good question...
"A lot of things come to mind..." I said truthfully.
"Like what? Give me the first three." She instructed.
Without hesitation, I said "Mom. Supportive. Feisty."
"The same way you see her as your mother, is the same way she views you as her son. She loves you entirely too much to leave you behind. Whatever goes down between her and Jayson it's never on you. It's on them two." She assured me.
"And, truthfully, if you feel this way, maybe you should have a sit down conversation with the both of them and let them know how you feel. You can do it with them separately or together, whichever makes you feel comfortable."
I nodded my head, thinking of what Asia had suggested, and it was a good idea, it might also help me to understand what was going on with them and show them how it's affecting me.
"I have one more question..." I said, looking down at my hands.
Asia nodded and gave me a sad smile. "Okay."
"Do you...do you think...do you think that I was a mistake?" I asked.
"Not at all," Asia replied. "Why? Do you?"
I shrugged. "Sometimes, yeah..."
*****
HARMONIE ELISE POOLE
"So, you can cook, you love animals, you love soccer, and you want to be an artist?" I said, going down the list of things Mikah liked to do as we walked into Study Hall.
Mikah chuckled and nodded his head as we took our seats in the back of the classroom. "Yeah. I actually do volunteer work at the animal shelter during the weekends. You should come with me one day, it's fun."
"Sure!" I giggled, opening my Chemistry textbook. "I'll uh, ask my parents if I can go."
"Hiii, Mikah."
I rolled my eyes discreetly as Cameron and Kiyana walked over to Mikah and I's desks and hovered over Mikah who automatically looked uncomfortable, but despite his discomfort, he remained polite.
"Hello." He said with a small smile.
Cameron grinned. "So, Mikah, I don't know if you happened to hear, but there's a formal coming up, and I was wondering if you wanted to ask a certain someone to be your date?"
Oh gag me with a spoon.
"And if you don't," Kiyana said in her helium like voice. "I have the perfect person for you to ask.."
Shoot me in the head with a nail gun, please. SOMEBODY!
Mikah nodded his head and grinned widely. "Actually, I did have a person in mind, and I'm sure you're going to love who I'm asking."
Cameron smiled widely. "Oh really? Well, I'm looking forward to finding out who it is you'll be asking."
"Oh, I bet you are.." I mumbled to myself as I began working on my homework.
"Excuse me, what was said?" Kiyana snapped, narrowing her light brown eyes at me.
Cameron turned her head to me and looked at me as if I was the scum on her shoes. "If you're going to say something, say it with your chest, Poole."
"I just find it funny how you think he would waste his time on people like you, but hey, if you like it, I love it." I said with a shrug.
"What? You think he'll ask you?" Kiyana scoffed, shaking her head laughing.
"I think he'd ask me before he'd ask someone like you." I spat, narrowing my eyes at Kiyana.
Cameron frowned and sniffed the air and gave me a pathetic smile. "Uh-Oh. I smell jealousy."
I shook my head. "I'd tell you what you smell like, but you won't like it."
"The fuck—."
I rolled my eyes and ticked my jaw, going back to doing my work. Mikah, on the other hand smirked and looked over at me, placing his arm over the back of his chair.
"Actually, Cameron, I was wondering what you would think about me—."
Cameron let out a happy shriek as she clapped her hands and hooked her arm through Mikah's. "Of course I'll—."
"—Asking Harmonie to be my date to the formal? Don't you think that we'd look good? What color would you think look best for us? Red? Or all black?" Mikah continued.
Cameron instantly got an embarrassed look on her face as she looked between Mikah, who had a wide grin on his face, and myself looking shocked as ever.
Well, this took a turn.
"Excuse me?" Cameron exclaimed. "You're asking her to the formal?"
Mikah shrugged and looked back at me. "I mean, if that's okay with her. So what do you say, Harm? Wanna go to the formal with me?"
No. Freaking. Way.
"Uh...y-yeah...I'd love to..."
Just wait till I tell my parents!
*******
LANDON LEE DIVINCENZO
"Hey, Landon." Daija said walking up beside me as we walked down the hallway.
"Hey, Daija," I said with a grin. "How are you?"
Daija grinned. "I'm good, how are you?"
I shrugged. "Pretty good. What's got you in this peppy mood this afternoon?"
Daija laughed and shook her head. "Nothing, but I do have a question."
"Shoot." I told her.
"Do you think it's normal for a girl to ask a guy to a certain event? Or even ask a guy out?" she asked with a smile.
I shook my and grinned. "I think if you want something, you should go after it. Let me guess, you're thinking about asking Adrian to the formal, huh?"
"How'd you know?" Daija grinned.
I shrugged, laughing. "Oh, you know, I've got a sixth sense for things like this."
"Do you think that he'll say yes?" Daija asked nervously.
"Hell yeah. As far as I know, he likes you a lot, and if y'all step up, y'all gon' show out!" I said with a grin, playfully mushing her shoulder.
Daija smirked. "Yeah, whatever. What about you? Who you gonna ask to the formal?"
I shook my head. "Ain't nobody gonna want to go with me, man. I'm going solo."
"Damn," Daija said with a laugh. "You really are as blind and stupid as I thought you were, huh?"
"How?!" I chuckled.
"Melody has had a crush on you since freshman year and you just been gawking after Ava for so long that you haven't noticed it." Daija said with a grin.
Daija and I walked into the art classroom and set our things down on the table before walking over to where the paint and paintbrushes were. "So what? You think I should ask Melody to the dance?"
"I ain't stutter." Daija said. "If you don't ask her, trust me, I'll knock your head off, Landon."
Grinning, I grabbed three paints and four paint brushes
and a blank canvas. "I'll think about it."
"Less thinking and more doing," Daija said, lightly punching my arm. "The formal is literally in two months. I know that seems like a long time, but time flies and believe me when I say that no girl waits forever."
"Hey guys..." Melody's soft voice said from behind us.
Daija and I quickly turned around and smirked as if Daija hadn't just threatened my very existence if I didn't ask Melody to the formal.
"Hey." we both said with wide smiles.
"Did you guys hear about the formal?" Melody squealed excitedly.
Oh hell.
Daija grinned. "We sure did. So Landon, who are you thinking about taking?"
No she did not.
********
𝙴𝙽𝙳 𝙾𝙵 𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝟷𝟻.
𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙳𝚒𝚍 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝙶𝚞𝚢𝚜 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔?