Just A Girlfriend (BWWM) ✅

seventeen

"How much of it was true? Or do you just hate Harvey that much?"

When I left the building I figured I'd only have to not repeat myself because maybe she got the hint in the moment. This reassurance is making it difficult for me to keep a steady breath. The look she gave me and the way her hands rested on her hips. I couldn't back track and it's not like I wanted to. I want Nova to know how I feel just as much as I want her to feel what I'm feeling.

"I do hate Harvey. I gave him the benefit of the doubt more often than I should have. Regardless of the anger I hold for him, everything I said was true. I had such high hopes for our future but I knew you had to go. Now look at you. You're the person I wanted so desperately for you to see yourself as. Confident. Opinionated. Standing up for yourself with no hesitation."

"I spent so many years wondering why I allowed those things to happen to me. I too realized that it was meant to happen. I was supposed to meet you in order to feel what true friendship was like." She diverted her eyes away from mine and to the ground. "What true love was like."

I let out a sigh of relief as all the weight slid off my shoulders and into a burning hole in the ground. "So this is it right? This is the moment we've been waiting for?" With hopeful eyes I watched her nod. "I'm going to need you to be my girlfriend so I know for a fact that you're not running away or just saying things because I've been worried about that."

"Kit... you weren't the person I ran away from in the first place." She grabbed the collar of my shirt and forced me to bend down and meet her face to face. "And I'm going to need you to be my boyfriend also."

I didn't hesitate to wrap my arms around her waist to haul her up from the ground. Her hands moved from my collar to the cheeks on my face. Our lips went from smiling ear to ear to connecting with the pure intention of leaving no space between us. Her lip gloss was sweet and sticky but I had no issue with it. I'd rather taste everything on her than spend another second ripping my hair out trying to get to her.

Her hands tangled in my hair and legs wrapped around my waist. I wasn't thinking about coming up for air. I loved her soft lips morphing with mine and the grip she had on my scalp.

"What the hell." Both our heads snapped to Edith who stood in the parking lot with her duffel bag in hand and a grimace on her face. "All a guy has to do is say a couple words and you're fucking him in public. I thought we talked about this."

Nova tapped me to put her down and I didn't waste a second getting her back to her feet. "Coming from a girl who promised to be a better friend because she couldn't find anyone who could stand her long enough to room with her. I've given you so many chances Edith and I still don't know why. Maybe I think the girl I knew was still in there or maybe I thought you'd mature and change. I was wrong either way. I already signed a lease with Ghana. I meant to tell you but you didn't deserve to know so soon."

She stood there with her jaw on the floor and duffel bag barely hanging in her hands. It wasn't my place to clap and cheer and do a backflip even though Nova deserved every praise there was. It's about time she put Edith in her place.

Nova then turned and wrapped one arm around my waist and I draped one across her shoulder before we walked away. I didn't bother looking back to see if Edith shit a brick cause it was already on her agenda for today. "I'm going to text you an address and you just be there okay?"

"Whatever you say, Kit. As long as it's got nothing to do with swimming."

There are things I knew Teshia needed more than me. The couches were hers to begin with, I bought the bed but I never liked it. No way I was leaving without my flatscreen. The pictures of us that were scattered around the house can stay in her possession. Also the note I left on her favorite shoes belonged to her. The break-up was very clear. No texts, calls, visits, nothing. It didn't take a genius to know she left me. It's crazy because I would have never done that to her. There are a lot of things I simply wouldn't have done to a lot of people yet they didn't hesitate to do it to me. It's about time I learned from my mistakes.

Which started with Harvey.

"You unblocked me to tell me to meet you out front of our old high school?" He chuckled while walking across the parking lot until he stopped at the bottom of the stairs while I stood at the top. "What is it, Kit? You got the girl. You got to choose your life. What could you possibly want from me?"

I took a deep breath in and a long breath out before holding out my hand. He and I both looked at the baseball that was outstretched before me. The look of confusion on his face was perfect. "You might not know this ball. It looks just like every ball you've thrown or hit at. But it's not that way for me." He shifted his weight to another leg in boredom of what was to come. "This is the ball of the first game I lost. The game I lost because you were so jealous of me that you made me believe that everything we did the night before was in my best interest when in reality... it was in yours."

"I apologized for that years ago-"

"No. You apologized the way Nova wanted you to. Not the way the person you pained wanted you to."

"My fucking God, Kit. Then what do you want me to do? When are you going to get past this?"

"There is only one way, Harvey." My smile was devious as I pulled the ball back towards my body. "I get the first choice."