Walking down the hall with Rocky, I listened intently to what she was telling me she was doing with the student government. With our help and rallying, she was able to secure her rightful role as sophomore class representative. And knowing how determined she was, it wasn't surprising that she got the ball rolling with all these different ideas and concepts.
"So what do you think?" She asked, looking to me, hopefully.
"I think... if you keep this up, you'll for sure have to be Student Body President." I couldn't but hype her up just a bit, watching the smile that came on her face at the sound of that.
Our school had a rule that the overall President of the school couldn't be an underclassman. The current Student Body President was a senior, who was heading to law school and kept the title since his junior year. With that spot free, Raquel could most definitely fill the void. I had faith that she could do it. If she was able to keep our crazy group of friends in line, she could do it for the whole school.
"You really think?" She asked doubtfully.
"Yes. Rock, you're incredible, and you managed to find some crazy ass way to get Mr. Garrison to be a full-time teacher. People owe you."
"I just had to explain to him how much we all like him. and he handled it from there." She shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal, and I just smiled, shaking my head.
"I think you can do it. And you know I'm always gonna be here to support." I spoke as I opened the door to the library.
"Thanks. I'll see you later." She gave me one last smile before leaving me to enter the library for my study hall.
I found Q sitting at a table by the window, and I just set my bag down sitting across from him. "Sup."
"Hey." He greeted back, looking to me with a smile. "I like your shirt."
His compliment made me look down at my Tupac t-shirt before looking to him slightly embarrassed. "Shut up." I covered the celebrity's face with my hand, a tight smile on my lips as Q chuckled lightly.
Through our many different conversations, one of the things he couldn't help but tease me about was my crush on Tupac. After I let it slip I had a poster of him in my room, he found any reason to poke fun.
"Hey, I appreciate a Pac fan."
"Uh-huh. Sure you do." I playfully gave him a dirty look. "You're judging, I know you are. You always do."
"No, I'm not." He smiled. "I'm being serious."
"You sure you're not judging?"
"Yes!" He let out a laugh. "When do I ever judge you?"
He placed his hand on the table and looked at me intently, making the soft smile on my face dim slightly, seeing I had to get serious with him.
"You judged the girls, who I hang out with. You judge me." I pointed out quietly.
"I told you I was out of line for that, and I apologized." He reminded me. "I didn't know that was still an issue."
"It's not." I quickly assured. "But I don't know, I just feel like you're judgemental of me. Which is weird 'cause you should be the one to talk."
Quincy instantly furrowed his brows at my words. "What's wrong with the people I associate with?"
"What's wrong with the people I associate with?" I challenged.
"Didn't Will almost get into a fight at the basketball game? And who was standing up ready to jump in? You and your friends."
"We were not going to jump in!" I instantly exclaimed outraged. "If anything, we were gonna go down and stop her from doing something dumb. 'Cause that's what responsible friends do."
"Uh-huh, yeah."
"And there you go judging again." I rolled my eyes as I crossed my arms across my chest.
"Why is it that you think me caring about you is me judging you?" He responded, giving me a look.
"How is saying stuff about my friends, who are like my sisters caring about me?" I leaned forward slightly, looking at him as if he was dumb.
"Cause you're special, Nae. You're not like everybody else. You could be somebody, go somewhere. And I would hate to see you end up like every other girl around here."
That comment was enough to shut me up and leave me stunned.
I saw in his face how serious and sincere he was. As I struggled to think of what to reply, I looked into his eyes. His gaze not once faltering from me, increasing the intensity I was feeling.
"And for the record, I don't dislike your friends. I think they're pretty cool. I just don't want you doing anything stupid."
And then I said something.
"Oh."
Out of all the things I could've said, the only thing that came out of my mouth was that one word. As soon as it left my lips, I felt flushed with embarrassment. Quincy Walker just made me speechless.
The smile that came on his face just confirming how dumb I must've looked.
I instantly looked away from him, trying to distract myself by fishing out my books from my backpack. "So, uh, I have homework to do," I spoke up as I pulled out my pencil. "Gotta concentrate."
"Okay, that's fine." He replied coolly and I just nodded, getting started and trying to act like he wasn't there.
Only to look up and see he was still looking my way.
I blew out a breath, trying to push some of the nerves and anxiety from my body so I could focus.
It was then that I realized I could no longer remain oblivious. The lines were blurring between friendship and romantic feelings. And as I sat there I could only think about how I had a gut feeling that there was a chance Quincy's feelings were leaning more towards the romantic side.
🖤
"What do you think about this?" Kelly asked me as she held up a shirt to her body.
"I like it," I told her.
"I'mma get it." She stated, throwing it on her arm without a second thought.
It was her payday, so I wasn't surprised that by the time I got home, she was ready and waiting to take me to the mall and spend a little. Even though we had an age gap and didn't see each other as often as we would like, she never failed to visit randomly, requesting to spend time with me. As the oldest, she often pushed for all of us to bond more, wanting to maintain a close relationship no matter where life took us.
"Why haven't you picked anything out yet?" She questioned me as she looked through the rack next to me. "I told you I'm paying."
"I just don't know what to get," I admitted softly.
Kelly swiftly turned away from me, spotting something that caught her eye, pulling out a baby blue summer dress, presenting it to me. "You'll look good in this. Do you like it?"
"It's okay." I decided to simply agree with her, and I watched as she let out a sigh placing the dress back.
"You gotta start making more of your own choices, Nae. You get nowhere agreeing with what everybody else says. You're almost out of your sophomore year. Do you know what I was doing when I was your age?"
"What?"
"Tryna figure out how to hide my boyfriend from Ma and Daddy. And spending any money I scrapped up to come to places like these and buy shit that made me look good."
That confession made me smile softly.
"You're telling me you have no one you're trying to impress?" Kelly just crossed her arms, staring me down.
The first thing that popped into my mind was Q and our conversation in the library. Something that instantly filled me with a mess of nerves and fear.
My apprehension was clear in my expression, making Kelly look at me with some hesitance. "Okay... just focus on impressing yourself then."
"Okay." I instantly agreed, nodding with a smile.
Kelly placed a hand on my shoulder, pushing me to start walking forward. "C'mon. I gotta pay, and then we're changing stores. We gotta get you looking good and feeling confident. You're getting older, and you're starting to look like it." She poked at one of my breasts, making me instantly swat her away from me.
"Kelly."
She snickered, finding herself funny. "You ever wear a thong before?"
A gasp escaped my lips. "Kelly!"
"It's like a wedgie but on purpose. It's not that bad." She assured me, throwing an arm over my shoulder. I just gave her the side-eye knowing this would get on the level of embarrassment I dealt with when shopping for a training bra or when I had to tell Mama I got my first period.
"This is gonna be fun. I promise. Don't you trust me?"
As much as I wanted to squirm and not go underwear shopping with my sister, she had a point. I was getting older and needed to start acting older, make my own decisions, being mature.
I had to start evolving into the person I wanted to be one day.
And with that in mind, I realized I the person I wanted to be was someone who Quincy had feelings for.
'Cause I no longer had to question whether I had feelings for him.