Pride

Chapter Six

Shakyra Smalls

"Daydreaming and I'm thinking of you...Look at my mind, floating away..."

Aretha Franklin; Day Dreaming

I was floating.

Jay was on my mind heavy as I walked out of my next class. I was on my way to see if I could catch him on the way to my next one but had gotten side-tracked by a couple of girls on the way out of my Math class. After that, Kofi and I spent a couple of moments talking but remembering Jay I had excused myself.

I stopped at my locker since it was on the way to the next class and opened it, checking to make sure I still looked fresh as I had an hour ago. I fixed my bun in the little mirror that I put in this morning and smiled a little at my reflection, enjoying the glow I saw. As I reached up to close the locker, I saw a face appear behind me. Frowning my face, I realized who it was and then slammed the door, turning to face my visitor with a raised brow.

"May I help you?"

Davida smirked and looked me up and down slowly. I grimaced wondering if she were bisexual or if she had an eye problem she was aching for me to fix. I was about to open my mouth to ask when she cut me off.

"I'm just taking a look at the competition."

I sucked my teeth and shook my head.

"Competition? There's no competition here."

"You sure of that? You sure were staring at us earlier as if there were."

I rose a brow, trying to understand what she was saying. I then caught on and shook my head at the audacity of the girl in front of me.

"You have balls, coming in my face...attempting to intimidate me. You did what you did to get DeMarcus and honestly, I'm not here to fight over him. If I had wanted to fight I would've done so the day I walked in on you sleeping on his chest..."

I started to see red as I remembered the moment my ex-boyfriend stared at me with a devil-may-care look on his face. I remembered almost hearing the split of my heart sounding exactly like the beat of a frenzied rhythmic drum player. I remembered looking at the girl before me sound asleep on my ex's chest as if she were at perfect peace. Her peace was the disturbance that caused me at least three nights filled with tears. DeMarcus hadn't run after me to plead his case. DeMarcus hadn't even called my cell phone. I hadn't seen DeMarcus until the first day of school. Ketara had seen him. I believe she cursed him out when he tried to ask about me.

"...get out of my face, bitch." I shook my head, pushing past her, "Ain't nobody pressed over DeMarcus except you. Leave me the fuck alone."

"Come to my face and say that shit!" she challenged me, forcing a slow smile to come across my face.

I slowly turned around, backtracking the two steps back to Davida with my hand raised to slap her across the face. I had connected but not with her face. It'd been on someone's chest. I blinked my eyes when I looked up at the face of one Trevante Rhodes. The look on his face hadn't been pleased.

"Move the fuck out the way, Tre!" Davida screeched,

Trevante had been ready to address me first but turned around to look at Davida.

"We don't know each other well enough for you to refer to me as Tre, shorty. I think you need to head to class while you're ahead though."

"This isn't your business."

"It's not but it's goofy shit. I'm not going to say it again though. Make your move before I move out of her way."

I prayed he did, even as my mouth was salivating at the same time. If I hadn't been so angry, I might've bitten my lip.