Kiona's POV
+ not edited
"Yes mom! I'm graduating today!" I say excitedly through the phone.
"Hold on imma hang up and FaceTime you back." She says and I hear buttons click.
Shortly after I get a FaceTime call.
"Everybody, Kiona's graduating today!" She says and everyone in the house shouts excitedly.
"I wish we could be there, but your graduation date is weird, like why's it in the middle of March?"
"It's fine, I understand but I'll see y'all soon." I say flipping the camera to show them my cap and gown for the occasion.
"What shoes Kiona Rae?" My mom asks sternly. She knew me too well.
"It's fine I have boots on, not tennis shoes." I reply giving her a sarcastic smile.
"I say she can wear whatever the hell she wants." My stepdad's booming voice comes over the phone.
"Shut up don't encourage her." My momma says smiling in the camera. Big ass heads run in the family.
"Anyway, I'm going to the auditorium soon, I have to be there early." I say. I shouldn't have done that well in college. They wanted me to speak for my major and all that shit. I didn't have anything nice to say, it was pure hell, late nights, lots of skipping breakfast and naps to get though this shit. But yea I'll make something up.
"Wait," sister says. "Who's bathroom is that, that don't look like your apartment." Kiera asks. Shut the hell up nosy ass.
"It's Ziya's, nosy ass." I lie and she smacks her lips.
"Okayyy..." she drags out narrowing her eyes handing the phone back to my mom. I say my goodbyes and as soon as I hang up Jackson's comes in throwing me over his shoulder.
"Aren't you excited?" He asks placing me back down.
"You scared the shit out of me." I say being dramatic holding my hand over my heart. "What is my wig fell off?"
"That's a wig?"
"I know right! Fire lace front." I say and he furrows his eyebrows. "Anyway white boy let's go." I say pulling him by his tie.
"If we didn't have somewhere to be, I would've taken this sexually, because you pulling me by my tie is kinda sexy." He says following me down the stairs.
"Everything's sexual to you."
"No, you do everything sexually." He counters and I roll my eyes. I pull up my knee high boots trying not to break my nails, I would've been pissed.
"I only have two extra tickets. Why are y'all all dressed up?" I say watching as Liam, Luca, and Adrian walk out in dressy clothes. Wow didn't know it did that.
"Cuz it's me and I get what I want." Jackson says twirling his keys. I make a face walking out to the garage.
"Hmm what car for the special occasion?" He ponders dramatically.
"Y'all are going to draw so much attention." I say watching as the three stooges all run to their super cars.
"Let's get in the blue McLaren." He says opening the door for me. These cars are unbelievably low to the ground so I hated getting in and out of them.
"You literally picked the brightest car." I glare at him as he starts the car.
"You wanna get in the neon green lambo?" He asks and I quickly shake my head no. He chuckles pulling out of the garage as someone closes it for him. My eyes go wide seeing the that the three stooges have bright color cars as well. Oh my. We were being followed by purple, green, and orange, all of them were Lamborghinis. So I guess black and white aren't popular colors anymore orrr?
"Promise me this," I say turning to him.
"Hmm?" He mumbles briefly staring at me before turning his attention back to the road.
"That my graduation at Tulane University does not get shot up?" I beg.
"I hope not babydoll." He says and that didn't calm my nerves. I was nervous about giving an acceptable speech, I'm nervous about crossing the stage even though I did it four years ago in high school, I'm nervous about getting shot up...thanks to Jackson and friends. My nerves were shot. Trust me, I'm not an extrovert at all, but I wasn't a complete introvert, I just liked to be alone sometimes. I hated presentations and speeches and everything that I had to do by myself or that involved large crowds.
But anyway, I was grown now and somehow those feelings were just supposed to disappear. Not to mention, they were streaming this live for the families who couldn't come. So even more people to worry about.
I felt like crying if I'm going to be honest, but I held my tears in for now. Let's hope I don't stutter because then I'd walk off the stage in the middle of my speech and out the doors.
"Babydoll? You're going to be fine you hear me? I'll be in the crowd, close as I can be for you, trust me nothing bad will happen. As for your speech babydoll, you got this I watched you write it and rewrite it and revise it late at night for like three nights. I think you'll be fine." He says chuckling at the end intertwining our hands. I really wasn't going to cry in the car, but the simplest forms of affection kill me. My throat began to burn from the tears so I just let some fall, drinking water to help.
He glances at me and brings my hand up to kiss it. Still holding his hand I lean against the window as he rubs the back of my hand with his thumb for reassurance.
***
"Now we'll have Tulane University's very own Miss. Kiona James who has managed to keep a 4.0 in all of her classes throughout her years. Give her a hand." This lady says but I wasn't paying attention enough to know who she was because I was thinking about a lot of shit.
As I walk out I hear applause. Lots of it, and some cheers. I really hated crowds and lots of attention. Focus on walking! You'll fall if you don't and you'll be embarrassed as fuck.
I clear my voice before putting my extremely long speech on the podium and lowering the microphone some. I look out trying to find Trece and Ziya in different sections with their majors up top but I couldn't. I look in the front to see the three stooges and Jackson smiling brightly which reassures me.
My heart was beating extremely fast. Calm the hell down. Bitch please, don't have your voice crack either.
"Hello guests, staff, and graduates, I'm Kiona James and as she said I've maintained a 4.0 in all my courses. I major in software engineering and have a minor in computer engineering as well as tech design."
Shit. I can't look down at my paper the whole time I have to look up.
Looking up at Jackson I begin to speak. "Uh, maintaining a gpa like that was not easy at all, I'll be the first to tell you, but it payed off really well. I'm proud to announce that I was offered a job at a high position for the company Apple-" I got cut off by loud applause making me stand there awkwardly.
"PERIOD SUS!" I hear from the top making my eyes go wide. Anyway. I really bullshitted my way through this speech like everything else. Talking about how great and loving the staff were was an act! Bitch give me an Oscar because I just lied my ass off and gave the performance of my life. One of my classes my sophomore year we had to teach ourselves! I've done that plenty of times in highschool though.
Talking about campus life and the facilities was effortless. Yea that was bullshit too. It was a hard university to get into, so I thought it'd be all that and then some.
I only went here because I got a full ride and baby! If I don't have to pay that's where I'm going to go. I wasn't going to say that though.
"So basically what I'm saying is to anybody listening, if you set your mind to it, you can do it. Make a plan to achieve whatever it is that you want. Believing in yourself is the number one key. Thank you for listening, once again I'm Kiona James." I say getting a long applause. That speech was exhausting and I was ready to go home...Jackson's house.
"And das on period!" I hear Adrian shout from the front and I bite my lip so my mouth wouldn't fly open. Can't take niggas nowhere! My eyes shoot to him to see all of them cracking up and Jackson winks at me. That's my cue to sit the hell down. I shake some people's hands that were on stage, taking my seat on the stage with all the old 'important' people.
"Thank you Miss. James." The lady says clapping and smiling at me. I give a smile back. "We will now announce degrees by major starting with software engineering. I'd like to ask Miss. James to come back up here to help me announce these." Oh fuck I forgot about this. There were only like 20 other people majoring in this so I'd be back sitting quick.
"Aaron Adams." I say into the microphone. I was so tempted to flick him off with his ignorant ass. Going through the list it was over fairly fast. "And Hailey Walters." I say into the mic seeing the last girl come across.
"Now as we come to an end in this major, we'd like to congratulate Miss James once again for getting her degree as well as present her with the highest honor scholar award we have here at Tulane University." Oh shit.
My smile was so wide, I was shocked taking the plaque as well as my degree. Applause rang out through the auditorium and I was walked off stage to the back. I was tempted to do a motherfuckin' cartwheel. I call my family basically screaming at them to go watch it on YouTube. They all scramble telling me that they'll call me back soon.
Sitting through another three hours was torture except for when Ziya and Trece got called I went crazy. Finding them outside we all started screaming at each other.
"We did that hoe!" Trece yells grabbing us into a hug. "I'm hungry though let's go out to eat at let's say 8?" I nod and Ziya does too. I pull them in a tight hug again squeezing them to death. I walk off to find Jackson and the stooges.
I run to Jackson as he opens his arms picking me up. "Oh my god Jackson!" I shout smiling from ear to ear.
"What'd I tell you?" He smiles and I reach up to hug him. Staying like that for a few he pulls away reaching down to kiss me. It was really hard to stop my smile from coming through the kiss.
"Here babydoll." he says holding my waist with his left hand and holds flowers in his right.
"When did you get these?" I ask, taking them out of his hands.
"Ki, we were literally here almost two hours early because of your speech and all that other shit I don't understand. Trust me, I had time." He laughs.
"Awh, thank you," I smile as he leans down to give me another kiss.
"Ahem...ah-ahem!" Adrian fakes coughs as the other boys join. We both roll our eyes before I change the subject.
"Adrian! I should really beat yo ass!" I say jokingly pulling the three stooges in for a hug then pulling away.
"What I do?" He says innocently.
"And das on period. Really Adri." I laugh.
"Aye I had to! You showed me that yesterday so I was like why not?" He says explaining himself.
"Hey! You didn't tell me you got hired for Apple!" Jackson exclaims.
"I guess you didn't read my speech thoroughly." I stick my tongue out at him while he pulls me in for another hug. We sway back and forth for awhile until I hear people talking louder than before. I turn to see their cars all lined up and people gawking at them. Attention, I told them. People were taking picture with them and I raise my eyebrow at Jackson.
"Okay okay." He says putting his hands up in surrender. "Now let's go." He says kissing me again then pulling me to the car. I was really addicted to his kisses now.
He opens the car door for me, I should say lifts up the car door. They were wings so they went up and not out like normal. He presses a button and it closes by itself. The windows were tinted so I was pretty glad for that. He gets in starting his car revving the engine to get a kick outta the people standing there.
"You motherfucker." I laugh as he speeds off.
_______
A/N:
So I was trying to edit this somewhat, but some changes saved and others didn't but I still posted this anyway, sorry if it has a million mistakes
As Adrian said: das on period!
Anyways this chapter was 2,000 words long and I don't even write that much for my school essays lmao.