From August to Mae | an August Alsina Fanfic

XXI

Necessary Disclaimer: I forgot to mention in the last chapter but Whitley is now in her 2nd semester of college. I know it seems I kinda just threw in Chris out of nowhere but from the last chapter onward, Whitley is in her 2nd semester of college and has not been in contact with August since fall semester ended in December.
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"The basketball team is throwing a party tonight. Y'all tryna go?" Shalice asked, showing her friends the Instagram flyer.

After an uneventful holiday break, the spring semester had finally begun and the girls were already two weeks in. As usual, the first and second weekends of the semester consisted of numerous "welcome back" parties, which Shalice refused to miss due to Jayda's anti-social personality or Whitley's concern for Corinne's absence. However, to Shalice's surprise, Whitley had stopped keeping Corinne in mind when she made decisions. If Corinne didn't care enough to think about how her unannounced absence would affect them, she didn't care about not including her in things she evidently didn't want to be included in... including the friendship.

"I'm down," Whitley shrugged.

Shalice smiled before cutting her eyes to Jayda. Jayda wasn't the type who liked to go out, so getting her to was difficult, and her agreeing to go was extremely rare. So much so, everyone seemed to hold their breath in preparation for either a disappointing "no" or a shocking but triumphant "yes". Jayda chewed on the inside of her lip nervously, which sparked confusion in Whitley. Jayda was someone who was very sure of herself and wasn't afraid to say "no". Her sudden apprehension was quite unusual.

"Actually, I can't," Jayda began before hesitantly continuing, "I have a date tonight."

"Excuse me? Come again," Shalice said furrowing her eyebrows.

Whitley's eyebrows raised at Jayda's remark. She was the main one in the friend group who seemed to be disinterested in relationships and men in any capacity. School and family were her only focus.

"Since when have you actively been dating?" Whitley asked as she took a sip of her Starbucks refresher.

"Yeah, we just got here," Shalice remarked, scrunching up her face.

"Since last semester," Jayda said matter of factly before forking her salad, "September."

The other girls' eyes widened in shock. Jayda had always been the secretive one, but even still it would be hard to consistently date someone under the noses of two nosy friends for nearly four months.

"I mean, shit. Were you gonna tell us?" Shalice asked with her face even more scrunched up than before.

"I mean, y'all would've seen him come around at some point," Jayda shrugged.

Shalice squinted her eyes and opened her mouth in preparation for a sassy response before Whitley interrupted.

"Well, since the cats out of the bag, what's his name?"

"Why do y'all always have to be in my business?" Jayda said rolling her eyes.

Whitley and Shalice groaned as if to say "here we go again". Jayda was someone who was very strategic about friend groups and where each friend group stood with her. The unit she had with Shalice and Whitley was a fairly new unit that began that summer before college despite knowing all of the girls for some time prior. Jayda had another friend group that also attended the university which she'd been a member of since sixth grade. However, once these girls got to college, they met new people and began to unintentionally shut her out. Jayda saw this act as intentional, so she decided to let her loyalty lie with Whitley, Shalice, and Corinne.