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JALEN SAT ON THE NAVY BLUE BEANBAG CHAIR LOCATED IN the corner of Joshua's room, watching the video game that Joshua and Dior were playing.
His fingers were absentmindedly tapping the screen of the cell phone resting on his lap while his friends were talking about his birthday tomorrow.
"If we threw a party, I think it should be here. I can get Caleb to get some of his college friends to come through with bottles and stuff." Joshua was saying.
Jalen rolled his eyes and rubbed his forehead at the topic.
Jalen didn't want to celebrate his birthday, in fact he was more than willing to let it pass without so much as an Instagram post.
He leaned down slightly to pick up his water bottle and began to chug when a call came through on his phone.
Noelani's contact had lit up his screen causing Jalen to choke on his water in surprise.
"Aye, you good?" Dior called to him, not moving his eyes off of the video game, "Cause I don't know how to do the heimlich or nothing so if you're choking you're on your own."
Jalen rolled his eyes as he answered the phone and coughed.
"Baby?" Jalen coughed again, "I mean... Noelani? Did you mean to call me?"
Joshua and Dior both turned to Jalen at the sound of her name.
"I thought y'all broke up." Dior said.
Joshua elbowed him, "They did."
"Yeah, I did..." Noelani mumbled, "I realized that I never really gave you a chance to explain yourself so... Maybe you should start."
Jalen was speechless as Noelani continued to speak, "I think I need closure and the only way I'm gonna get it is if we talk about what happened."
Jalen got up and left the room to stand in the hallway, "You know I wish we that could have this conversation face to face."
She was silent for a moment, "I had to leave, Jalen. I had to go home. Being around you... After what you did was killing me.
"I know. I understand. Okay, first you have to understand that when I made that bet was made, we didn't know each other. I didn't know that I was gonna love you." As Jalen spoke, he walked down the stairs until he was in the empty living room.
