Pride

Chapter Twenty-One

Trevante Rhodes

"I feel it coming, times is of the essence...I tried to teach you, but I might need some lessons..."

-Essence; WhizKid

Wendell Ellis looked like he could blow a gasket at any moment each time he saw me standing next to "his" girl. I enjoyed looking into "his" girl's eyes and seeing them brighten up upon laying eyes on me for the past couple of days. I enjoyed listening to "his" girl's voice every time she spoke. Her soft yet strong timbre calmed me down. Watching her walk towards me whenever she saw me always bought color into my gray scaled world. If another girl were present in my space, she automatically knew to step back because Shakyra Smalls came before all others.

We hadn't switched numbers but we switched Instagram handles. I looked through all her pictures, liking the ones that suited my fancy. I would leave an ambiguous comment here and there. My hanging out with her angered the other girls I had on the side for entertainment. It was pretty obvious that if the pretty lady gave me the word, we'd be together and that was that.

However, she hadn't. I knew it wasn't for the lack of attraction. That pull she had on me had only grown tighter and it both exhilarated and scared me shitless. The thing was, I wanted her more than I didn't want her but I easily saw at the present time that actually getting with her would do us both more harm than good.

It was easy to see that she still had feelings for Wendell. I honestly didn't care about his thoughts and feelings. Even if I had, even a little bit, every time I laid eyes on Shakyra, none of it mattered in the grand scheme. If he had respected their relationship enough, there would be no room for a picture to be the breaking point of such a relationship. Kofi was hard on me about how I treated girls but I could see that Wendell wasn't much better. He just hid better under an overall good guy persona. That was my take, anyway.

Either way the wind blew, I was pretty sure that he was feeling regretful at this point. The first couple of days back to school, he'd blown her off as coldly as she'd done him. I might've respected his swag except I caught him looking back after her a couple of times when she'd walked past him. More often times than not, it was to walk towards me. It was a hilarious case however. He wanted the same thing from her that I wanted yet, neither of us could tilt her chin and kiss those juicy lips of hers.

"You're quiet."

My thoughts were interrupted by Shakyra as we'd driven away from the school. I risked a glance in her direction and rose a brow.

"I've never been a showy nigga, so..."

She giggled, "That's not what I mean, Tre. This is a different kind of quiet."

I chuckled in return, "Yeah, I was thinking kind of deeply. School was the pits today..."

"It felt extra long but I don't even know why."

"I couldn't tell you. I'm so tired I don't even wanna talk."

"Not even about the new book I came up on?"

I smirked, "You talk, I'm out of words."

It was then Shakyra gave me a summary of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. I'm taken in by her summary and suddenly wanted to run to Barnes and Nobles. I also ached to grab her and the book in my arms and read the rest of the day away.

But.

"That sounds pretty deep." I said, "Maybe I'll pick it up later."

I pulled up to her doorstep and looked into her almond shaped eyes. She stared back at me and the way my chest tightened made no sense. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to drag her on my lap or push her out of my car. Either way, the choice to keep her around won.