Cruel Summer

Chapter 10

*Same Day*

4:04 P.M.

~Ryan~

"Yeah, I'm definitely swiping left on him. He's ugly." Whitney said as she, Stacee, Toni, and I chilled in my grandma's theater room.

"Girl, Tinder ain't nothing but the devil. Delete it. We gonna have to find you a man in person." Stacee said as we laughed.

"It's so hard to find a guy on campus. All of them seem like whores." Whitney said sighing as she looked through movies.

"Girl, have you seen Marcus? He's cute!" Toni said as she put her dreads in a ponytail.

"Yeah, but I always looked at him as a brother. I don't see what's so sexy about him." Whitney said shrugging.

Stacee and Toni both looked at each other and laughed.

"What? Did I miss something?" Whitney asked as she looked at me.

"Girl, nah. Anyway, what good movies in there?" I asked as I put my phone down and looked through my grandma's box full of movies.

"Ry, I thought you said your grandma bought a new screen projector to watch movies on?" Stacee asked as she sat crisscrossed on the floor.

"She did, but she hasn't had time to set it up."

"Get ya man to set it up. Where is he?" Toni asked she started to pull out a handful of movies to look through.

"He's at home. He hasn't been feeling well again."

"What's wrong with him now? He know he's been sick a lot lately." Stacee said as she looked at me.

"I don't know. He said it was personal, so I really don't know. Honestly." I said sighing.

"Man, what do we need to do to get this projector working?" Whitney asked as she laid on the floor and covered her eyes.

"Ryan?"

We all looked up to see Torin standing in the doorway.

I assume he was still dressed in his suit from the funeral earlier. I didn't get a chance to see him, but Whitney told me he came.

"Hi Torin, thanks for coming! I'm glad to see you." I said as I got up and hugged Torin.

"No problem, Ry. I had to come. Chance was the coolest guy ever. You okay?" Torin asked as he hugged me back.

"I have my moments, but I'm fine. I came to peace with it once I watched him get lowered into the ground. I'll be okay." I said as I nodded my head a little.

"Good. I know you're a trooper. Im always he—"

"Ooooh, um, Toni, can you see me?"

"Um, yeah, Stacee. Can you see me? For a second, I almost thought we were invisible."

"Here y'all go again. Torin, these are my best friends, Toni and Stacee. They go to Clark with me." I said shaking my head as I started to laugh.

"So you're Ryan's ex?" Stacee asked as she shook his hand.

"Ex? I don't know if that's legal to say." Torin said as he laughed and shook Stacee's hand.

"Oh, you're a jokester." Toni said as she shook his hand.

"No, Ry-Ry, is." Torin said as he smirked at me and shook Toni's hand.

"Anyway, big head, fix this projector for us. You ain't doing nothing else." Whitney said as she playfully rolled her eyes.