Sweetener

two | we meet again

It had been a week since Drew had last seen Imani, and she was still the only thing on his mind. He hadn't run into her on campus like he had hoped. He didn't even know she went to his school up until last week! Drew was feeling like the unluckiest man in the world. But still, he was determined.

As he sat in his chemistry lecture that Wednesday morning, he found himself scrolling through Jade's instagram. Luckily for him, she had a public account and since Imani's was private, this would suffice for now. She had two photos of Imani there, and he found himself staring at those ones in particular. She was still the same girl he used to know, but Drew couldn't help but notice that she had matured over the years. She looked great in every picture which didn't surprise Drew. She was still very beautiful. He had been staring at the photos all weekend and probably looked creepy as hell to the classmates that sat around him, but he didn't really care.

Soon enough, his chemistry professor walked in and Drew tucked his phone into his backpack as he pulled out his materials for the class. He lifted his head up to look at the front of the class and almost fell right out of his seat.

Imagine Drew's surprised when the girl he couldn't stop thinking about stood right in front of the lecture. He'd never seen her in the class before so he concluded that she had probably just transferred in. She looked aimlessly around the room until her eyes lit up and she made her way towards the back.

Drew watched as Imani climbed the steps two at a time before stopping in front of some brunette haired boy. He couldn't see the guy's face since his back was towards Drew. He stared at the back of Imani's head as she sat next to the guy and turned to talk to him.

As class went on, Drew found himself completely distracted. It wasn't like him at all. He tried to pay attention, he really did, but whatever the teacher was saying fell on deaf ears as he watched Imani. She was taking notes and occasionally turned to talk to her friend, a laugh escaping her lips every now and then. It left Drew's speechless and his heart hammering against his chest. He almost wished that he was the one sitting next to her.

It was then that Drew decided he didn't just want to watch her from the sidelines. He wanted to be her friend again. And the first step to accomplishing that was to talk to her.

So when class was finally over, Drew rushed to stuff his notebook in his bag to catch up to Imani at the front door. When he finally stood behind her, he felt his palms grow sweaty. He quickly took a deep breath and tapped her shoulder.

"Hey." Drew said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. Imani turned around with a scowl on her face before it transformed into a smile. He was glad she recognized him because that would've been embarrassing.

"Yo! Drew, right? Hey!" Imani stared up at him. She was surprised to see that he was in her class but she was happy to see another familiar face. When she had come back to her dorm after her encounter with Drew last week, Jade was quick to explain the real reason why he was at their dorm. She was so embarrassed that she had jumped to a conclusion like that. Even more so because of the fact that Drew and Jade were practically strangers. She had been meaning to apologize to him.

"Hey, I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions with you and Jade last week. I guess that teaches me to mind my business." Imani laughed and Drew did too.

"It's fine." Drew continued to walk by Imani's side before looking over at her friend.

For some reason, he looked kind of familiar. Of course! He was the guy in Imani's pictures on her bedroom wall! Drew had recognized the boy next to her to be Jasper. He was one of Drew's recurring customers and he couldn't help but to size Jasper up as they walked on either side of Imani. He was tall. That was for sure. But he wasn't taller than Drew and he secretly laughed at that.

Imani turned her head to him. "By the way, this is Jasper." She pointed to the blue-eyed brunette next to her, "Jasper, this is Drew."

Jasper held out his hand towards Drew with a slight smile. "Nice to formally meet you, dude."

Drew just stared at Jasper's hand, making no move to shake it. Instead, he shoved his hands into his front pockets and turned to Imani. "Yea, we've met."

Jasper tucked his hand away with a small chuckle. Imani looked between the two with a raised eyebrow but just chalked up their awkward encounter to a masculinity thing.

"Anyways, we were just on our way to the dining hall! Why don't you come with us? Only if you want to though." Imani looked up at him with her big brown eyes. How could he say no to her?

Drew didn't even hesitate. "Yeah. I'd like that."

And so the three of them made their way to the crowded dining hall. They quickly grabbed their mediocre lunches and Drew watched as Imani's head whipped around while looking for someone in the crowd.

She must have found who she was looking for because the next thing Jasper and Drew knew, Imani took off. This earned her a light chastising from Jasper about her safety and a frustrated stare from Drew as they approached the table.

As they grew closer, arguments from another one of Imani's friends and Jade grew louder. Drew recognized him to be Sir. He was a football player on campus who Drew had had a short conversation with during his first semester. He was also another one of his customers.

"—the fuck up Jade! Damn, you're so annoying sometimes." Sir said in between bits of laughter.

"And damn, your dick is small! Keep talking." Jade retorted with her own laugh. This caused Sir to glare at her and Jasper and Imani to laugh loudly.

"What the hell are y'all arguing about now?" Imani took the seat next to Jade.

There was only one seat beside Imani and when Jasper had reached for it, Drew glared at him. Jasper just shrugged and took the one near Sir, leaving Drew to pull his seat even closer to Imani's side.

"Nothing much, just filling up the time." Jade said, taking a bite out of her apple. She looked around the table before her eyes finally locked on the new guy sitting with them.

"Drew? Damn, I never expected to see you here, much less sitting at our table." She raised a brow.

Drew just leaned back into his seat and said, "I was invited."

"By the way, Drew, this is Sir and Sir, this is Drew." Imani introduced the two. Sir gave a simple nod at Drew and he did the same.

"Bro, I swear Professor Jackson is pissing me off! She's going so fast in my computer science class. Like damn! It's only the third week of the semester!" Sir groaned, shoving his pizza in his mouth.

Jade smirked. "She's not going too fast, you're just slow as hell."

Jasper leaned into Jade's side saying, "But aren't you the one that cheats off my engineering homework?"

This earned a laugh from Imani and an unexpected chuckle from Drew. They both turned to each other with a silent smile in their eyes as the rest of the table continued to argue.

"I'm sorry about them." Imani laughed, "But I guess you gotta get used to it if you wanna start sitting with us at lunch."

Drew knew that it was more of a question. He was happy that there were people that still wanted his company even though he was pretty much a loner. And even better, he could be close to Imani and get to know her all over again.

Drew laughed at her and leaned closer, nudging his shoulder against hers, "I guess I do."

~*~

Chapter two guys! What do y'all think? I hope y'all are enjoying the story so far. Don't forget to vote!