T R U C E

Chapter 5

Jamal disappears to the back, leaving no one but me and him in the room for a moment. I quickly shift my attention back to the shoes and attempt to reach for the shoe, but I can barely reach it. I didn't even have to turn around to know I had caught his attention, but his low chuckle at my struggle confirmed it for me.

"Here you go." Jamal comes back and hands him the box.

"Preciate it." He starts talking in a lower voice, and then Jamal slightly turns up the speakers in the store.

My mouth drops but I keep my back turned to them because what was that?! Am I being plotted on?! And how could Jamal just switch on me like that?!

I wait for a moment before struggling to reach the shoe again, using the tip of my tippy toes.

"I got it" Jamal suddenly appears behind me, scaring me and making him laugh. "Those are dope. I just bought some green ones like em."

We both look at the pair of Airmax 97s in my hand. "Yeah they are. Do they have them in blue?"

He nods his head. "But we don't have your size in stock yet. You can preorder it though."

I simply nod and hand him the shoe back. He places the shoe back on the wall and turns to me with a sly grin.

"So uh.."

"What Jamal." I instantly laugh, already knowing it's something.

"I got a friend that wanna holla"

"And who might that friend be?"

He points to No Name behind me and I chuckle.

"Not interested."

"Dammnnn it's like that? Alright" He shrugs and starts to walk away.

"How do you know him?"

He smirks. "I thought you weren't interested."

"I'm not." I laugh. "I just wanna know."

"He's really more like a friend of a friend. He's the brother of the girl i've been kicking it with. Well technically the uncle, you know black families go, but they claim as brother and sister and he always be at her house."

"Oh."

"You still not interested though right?"

"Right" I smile and move to a different wall of the store.

Not even 2 minutes after Jamal makes it over to him, he pops up by me.

"So you not interested?" He instantly questions.

"No." I try to say in the driest voice possible.

"Word? You right.." He pauses for a second. "I thought by now you'd grow some balls and drop the hard to get act. Chasing you is getting old fast."

I turn to him with my face scrunched up. "I never asked you to chase me."

"You don't always need words to ask for something." His words combined with the way he was looking at me was sending my body through an unexplainable wave of heat. For a quick moment, everything gets really tense. He looks me up and down slowly, with the same slightly stern slightly lustful look he gave me last night that nearly made me lose my breath.

"See." He says smoothly. He walks back to the counter, finishes his transaction, and walks out the store without even giving me another thought.

I quickly finish up in the store, not knowing if I felt embarrassed or turned on, which made me feel embarrassed regardless.

"I was told to give you this." Jamal chuckles as he staples another piece of receipt paper to mine.

Vince
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