Chapter Thirteen.
"Do you even want to be married?" —Reese Wilson.
Louisiana State University
Citrus sat in her self-assigned seat with her body slightly tilted towards the door.
It was a Wednesday, during the mid-day hours, her last class of the day and she was set to be picked up within the next hour or so.
As always the Professor was in the middle of one of his many lectures and though Citrus should of been paying attention...her mind wouldn't let her. She had been anticipating the arrival of Yair, who she had yet to speak with for a little more than a week now. Since that day he kicked her out of Eden, he had been finding ways to ignore and blow her off, and it had been killing her. She didn't know why....but it did. It killed her.
"I just hope your ass don't ask me for these notes since you wanna' be watching the door and not the board."
Citrus looked over her shoulder and sighed at the look Reece was giving her.
His hair was out today which was rare considering he always had it pulled back or braided down. He wore a simple light blue tee and some grey Nike sweatpants. His feet were protected in some male moccasins and Citrus couldn't help but to notice the very expensive Cartier watch on his wrist.
She blinked hard and swallowed the lump forming in her throat. For whatever reason she felt as though she needed to explain her actions to him.
"Sorry," She sighed, "I just was—
"Looking for that nigga," He scoffed and turned away from her.
Citrus frowned at his choice of words and looked down at her blank notepad. He was right but there was no reason why he had to be so harsh towards her.
"Did I do something wrong?" She cautioned.
She hated for anyone to be upset with her.
"All I'm saying is if his ass got you not paying attention in class than that's how I know something is wrong," Reese eyed her, "You're not fucking him are you?" He whispered.
"No!" Citrus declined a little more louder than she expected to.
Reese sucked his teeth at the fact that the whole class managed to pause and look back at the two. He watched as Citrus sunk down into her seat in embarrassment, while Miranda looked towards them with her expression unreadable; she was doing the usual, preparing to ask a question right before she was interrupted.
"Is there a problem Miss Hayes?" The professor removed his ball framed glasses and eyed her.
His dark blue irises caused goosebumps to rise upon her skin.
"No," She faked a smile, "My apologies Professor Robinson."
"Let's not make yelling out like that a routine. Got it?" He raised a daring brow.
Citrus simply nodded next burying her embrassed face back into her notebook.
Reese nudged her, "Your last name isn't changed?"
"Legally, no," Citrus declined, popping her head back up, "I never went to get that done."
"Do you even want to be married?" Reese spat out.
Citrus looked to him in shock. Of course she wanted to be married, she never would've accepted Nahiem's proposal if that was the case. So for Reese to even insinuate such a thing was disrespectful in its own.
"So then what is it?" He continued to press. Reese couldn't understand why Citrus was willing to throw so much away for someone she hardly knew, "What happened?"
"Leave it alone Reese," She exhaled, "Please?"
Silence fell between the two as they eyed one another with fueling tension. While, Reese thought that Citrus was being a pure dumbass—Citrus felt like he was overreacting and needed to mind his own business. There was and never would be anything between her and Yair. She loved her husband, he had her soul, and she could never see herself stepping out on him.
However, Reese saw the complete opposite. He saw the path Citrus was headed down, and though he hated to see a friend of his fall—he was going to do exactly what she told him to do.
He was going to leave it alone.
After that small ordeal, lectures went by quicker than usual, and before she knew it Citrus found herself exiting.
"Citrus? Hey girl!" No one other than; Keishawna Michaels, collided into her just as she emerged from the classroom door, "I didn't know you were enrolled here."
"Hey," Citrus tucked her bottom lip into her mouth, searching around Shawna for her ride.
Keishawna was the last person she had expected to see, though they texted here and there— Citrus never planned for the relationship to go outside of that. Unlike the girl, she was not looking for a friendship between the two. Though, Keishawna was extremely persistent and Citrus was up and ready to just stop playing the run around game.
"I'm dropping my God-daughter off wit' her father,"
Keishawna pointed towards her car where her eight year old son, and a little girl around seven months or so were strapped in and minding their business.
"That's nice," Citrus smiled.
"You busy this weekend?"
"Um," Citrus cocked her head to the side, "I probably have some things to do with my husband," She lied straight through her teeth, "But I'm not sure."
"Mhmm," Shawna read right through the lie, "I'm having this kickback at my spot if you two wanted to come through," She pulled out her phone, "I'ma text you the address."
"Kei?" Yair exited the classroom with his brows furrowed at the sight.
He arrived when there was only fifteen minutes left of the lecture, which to Citrus was pointless but she understood because she knew what game he was playing.
"Jai!" Keishawna hugged him.
Citrus felt her jaw dropping as a million thoughts ran throughout her mind. It really was a small world. She looked at the side of Yair's structured jawline as he tried his best to ignore her. Then like that, it happened. A lightbulb went off in her head as she slyly smirked to herself. She had questions that needed to be answered and if Yair wouldn't come to her, she would just go him. In that moment, Keishawna's kickback wasn't sounding all that bad.
"Where is Ameera?" Yair cleared his throat.
"She's in the car with LJ, I was jus' saying wassup to my girl," Shawna motioned towards Citrus, "You two know each other?"
"In passing," Citrus cut her eyes at Yair, "When's this kickback Kei?"
"Saturday."
"Cool," Citrus looked at Yair, "I'll be there."
"Great," Shawna clasped her hands together. "Well it was nice seeing you bitch," She took Citrus in for a hug, "I better see you there too, like for real. I'm sick of you bullshitting me," She referred to all the plans they had made but Citrus had failed to come through on.
"Oh I'll be there," Citrus agreed, just as Braelin's Toyota Camry pulled up, "Bye," She waved to the two as she pranced off to Braelin's car.
"Hi," Braelin whispered as Citrus slipped inside, "That was that bitch Kei?"
"Hmm," Citrus hummed.
"Oh," Braelin deadpanned, "You still mad at me?"
"I'm not upset with you Brae," Citrus revealed, "Never was I ever upset with you," She brought a hand up to her head, "I just was disappointed that you really believed you were the one always left out. Both of you are my best friends, my sisters. I would never or have ever pick sides or one over the other. We were raised together, everything we do is together."
"I know," Braelin pouted, "I've just always been a little jealous and I allowed that to get the best of me."
"Jealous for what?"
"I don't know Cici," She exhaled. "Just I've always felt left out, even if I wasn't," She scratched her ear, "There's always been a stronger bond between you and Brix and maybe that's because you guys took to each other faster than we did. So at some points, I would just sit back and feel like my twin was being taken from me, and my best friend was too. Then it just amplified when you guys went off and fell in love with yo' significant others. I was all alone and dat' hurt."
"You should've said something sooner," Citrus grabbed for her hand, "I hated seeing you explode like that. I do apologize for making you feel that way."
"I hated it too, I thought I lost you guys."
"Never," Citrus dramatically gasped, "We're not going anywhere sissy, you know this."
"Guh who is that?" Braelin looked out her rearview mirror at the very attractive man that was staring into her car, as they pulled off.
Citrus looked over her shoulder and scoffed, "Reese."
"The funny one?" She raised a brow.
"Yeah," Citrus rolled her eyes.
"Oh yeah, put me on," Braelin licked over his lips and beeped the horn, "He is a beautiful sexy piece of meat."
"But what about Ohaji?"
"I'm still single," Braelin eyed her, shrugging, "So like I said."
"You got it," Citrus raised her hands in a surrendering manner, "Have you talked to Brix?"
"We're on our way there right now," Braelin took the car off park and placed it into reverse, next carefully backing out of her parking spot.
"Good," Citrus leaned back and relaxed into her seat, feeling a strong sense of relief.
Though, so many aspects of her life were still broken at the moment, it felt good that at least one of them had been repaired....or so she thought.