I turn over stretching seeing my roommate and some girl in his bed sleep. I get up and go to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth so I can head to breakfast. I slide on my sandals and pull over a hoodie before grabbing my keys and heading out to the dining hall.
It's sorta chilly this morning so I pull my hood on walking down the stairs towards the building.
"Good morning handsome" Gilda, the lady who swipes us in says. "Good morning ma'am" I smile as she waves for me to walk in. I'm always nice to school officials because a simple greeting can be the reason you don't have to use a meal swipe, like I didn't have to today.
I walk toward the breakfast bar grabbing a banana and asking for a plate of bacon.
"Excuse me" I hear as I see hella hands on both sides of me start grabbing plates and stuff. The football players and other athletes rush the food bar as I grab my plate walking off. I go sit my food at a table near the waffle maker, as I grab a cup to pour the pancake batter in. I leave the waffle unattended heading to the drink machine to get a cup of orange juice, but as I return I see the guy from last night taking my waffle.
"Excuse me that's my waffle" I say walking over to him. "You don't mind right?" He smiles as I take a step back. "I do, you can make your own" I say looking up at him.
he sits the waffle down grabbing a cup and putting batter in it. "You can make another one" he says walking off laughing.
I make another waffle going to take my seat at the table cutting my banana up and pouring syrup on my food. As I take a bite Isaiah sits across from me with a pleading look on his face.
"Babe can you please stop avoiding me" He says looking at me.
I don't say anything, I'm honestly trying to ignore him so I don't break this plate on is face. I look at him as I continue eating my food and he starts tripping over his words.
"I didn't mean it" "I can explain" "man can you just listen to me" He says.
I guess my face reads louder than words because before I knew it the guy from last night comes and sits at my table.
"Wassup Issac" he nods as Isaiah straightens his posture. "Wassup Keith."
I look at Isaiah and he is clearly uncomfortable while the guy who's name I'm assuming is Keith, begins eating his food.
"Why you sitting over here bro?" Another football player says sitting at the table. "What's good Isaiah" he says dapping him up as he looks at me. "Wassup" "Hey" I say looking at everyone.
"I'll catch ya later" Isaiah says walking off as I look at the guy Keith next to me eating his food unbothered. The other boy gets up and goes to get more food as Keith says "you're welcome."
"For what?" I say eating more of my food,
"You looked like you were ready to stab Issac with your fork" he laughs.
"His name is Isaiah" I say
"And I'm Keith, nice to meet you" He says holding his hand out. I shake it as I say "London" as his friend returns.
"Man these lines be long as a bitch" he says digging into his food.
I watch as they eat and I eat my food as the boy asks me "aye, don't I got class with you? your name Lauren right?" I laugh as I correct him, "it's London. You can call me Don for short."
"Bet bet, I'm Tyler" he says as I can't help but laugh. We sat at breakfast for a little over an hour as more of the football players came and we were talking. Jamel and Shelly came to breakfast and that's when I left the table to go sit with them.
"Bitch! What are you doing sitting with them?!" Jamel screams over the table.
I laugh telling him "relax, they say next to me" as Shelly drinks her water mumbling "mhm like you was next to 44 last night" as I swear Jamel soul left his body after she said that.
"Bitchhhh! Where was I?!" He shouts, as I'm hold my ear laughing. "It's not even like that. But I'm going to go, I'll catch you guys later" I say as I walk back to the table to collect my plate and drink.
"You out Brodie?" Tyler asks me as I say yeah and I see Keith gather his stuff.
"I'm bout to go toss this and get more food, I'll be back" he says walking off.
I say bye to most of them as I walk to the tray disposal and Keith is putting his stuff on the conveyer belt.
"Where you bout to go?" He asked me while I sat my food on the tray.
"Back to my room, I have homework"
"Back to me rue-m" he laughs mimicking me as I stormed off walking.
"Aye I'm sorry, come get your necklace tho"
"I told you to throw it away" I say heading towards the exit door.
"You got money talking about throw a gold necklace away" he laughs as we see Isaiah burning a hole between us.
"I don't want it back" I say looking back at him walking off.
Once I get outside I take a deep breathe. I think I handled seeing Isaiah well.
-
Walking into my room, I hear my roommate in the shower so I decide to do some homework until he's finished, then I can do my hair for this upcoming week. I grab my laptop and begin doing my work as my roommate comes into the room.
"You ready to talk now?" He asks me as I look at him and laugh.
"I'm okay Josh" I say looking at him. He begins drying himself off as I go back to my school work.
"You know you can talk to me right?" He says putting on his boxers as I look up from my computer.
"I know" I laugh as he side eyes me.
"You checking me out?" He asks me as I laugh out loud closing my laptop, I laugh louder than I expected but its my natural reaction to his outlandish question.
"No! You're not my type" I say behind tears as he laughs too. "There we go, finally you're laughing."
"Thank you" I laugh wiping my eyes as he throws on a t shirt and shorts.
"No problem, catch you later" he tells me finishing up.
-
I don't remember falling asleep but I wake up to my phone ringing.
"3:16 am" I say looking at my phone before I answer it.
"What do you want Isaiah" I say rubbing my eyes.
"I want you to talk to me"
"I have nothing to say to you" I say about to hang up as I hear a knock on my door.
"Can you open the door?" I hear before he hangs up.
I get up opening my door as I see him standing in the hallway with his hood on. He tries to walk in as I push him back, "my roommate is in there sleep."
"I just want to talk to you" He says as his voice cracks and I get a good look at his eyes. I tell him hold on as I walk in putting on my sandals, grabbing my keys walking with him outside.
The halls are empty while I'm locking my door and he starts walking down the hall way. We take the stairs and walk outside as he walk in silence to the gazebo behind my building. He takes a seat putting his face in hands as he begins crying.
I'm watching him break down in front of me as I cross my arms looking at him. "He died man" I hear him say.
"Who died?" I ask uncrossing my arms as I step forward to console him.
"My pops" he cries even harder as he grabs onto me and pushes his face into my stomach. I get really cold as I start crying myself.
"Babe, my grandfather wants to talk to you" He says walking into the bathroom holding his phone up. I look in the camera at this older man who's squinting at me.
"Hello" I laugh waving as put the comb down. "Well hello to you too" He says laughing. "Why aren't you pretty" He says laughing sitting back as I smile at his response.
"Thank you" I smile again. "What's your name son?" I look at Isaiah as he nods for me to answer, "I'm London, Sir" I smile as he shakes his head. "Boy I thought you said you liked boys, this young man is as pretty as they come!" He shouts to Isaiah.
"Pops I do! I can't help I'm attracted to him" he says kissing my cheek in the camera walking off.
I hear them talking more as his grandfather says "don't hurt that boy! I can see in his eyes he loves you."
Isaiah's crying gets louder breaking me from my thoughts as he holds me tighter and I wipe my eyes off. I pull his head off of me causing him look up at me.
I take my hoodie sleeves and wipe his eyes and nose off. "Babe listen to me. I know it hurts, trust me I know this hurts! But he's better now."
Saying that he breaks down crying again as I pull him to stand up. "Listen! he's not suffering anymore. Any pain that he felt is now gone away, any problems he had, aren't bothering him anymore. I know it hurts and you want to say goodbye, but any second more would have caused him more pain." My tears are falling and my anger toward him is replaced with the hurt I know he's feeling. I didn't know his grandfather well enough, but I knew about him. I knew he raised Isaiah alone since his dad passed when he was younger, and his mom is in jail. The times I spoke to his grandfather on FaceTime he was a genuine soul and I genuinely wanted to meet him one day.
Isaiah's tall frame now resting on my shoulder as he cries harder and I rub his back. I kiss his forehead telling him it's going to be okay as he leans down and kisses me. I kiss him back in efforts to take his pain away but I feel nothing but more hurt.
Once we get back to my room and we strip down to our under clothes, we climb back in my bed and Isaiah starts crying more clinging onto my body. His sniffling and sobbing causes my roommate to stir in his sleep before he sits up and looks over at me and then goes back to sleep.
I rub Isaiah's back for him to fall asleep but he kept me up all night, crying on and off.
- the next morning -
My roommate gets up to get ready for bed as he looks over at me and Isaiah sleeping with his arm over me.
"I can explain" I mouth to him as he looks at me confused before going to take his shower. Since he's finished he opens the door for me and I walk in to brush my teeth.
"Who is that?" He asks me taking his durag off brushing his hair.
"My friend, he found out his grandfather died last night" I say looking at him in the mirror.
"Oh damn" he says, "is that your boyfriend?"
I wait before answering as I spit my toothpaste out, "no he's just a friend who needed someone to talk to" I say rinsing my toothbrush off reaching for the mouth wash.
"Okay" He says leaving the bathroom as I look at myself in the mirror. My eyes are puffy and my hair is unkept as if I was the one who is grieving. Last night I cried because his grandfather died, but I cried even more for myself because I don't know what I'm going to do with him.