𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 || 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝗺.

four.

four.

The second week of school was going pretty well. I was settling into my friend groups and gaining more acquaintances, it was nice.

I never ended up telling Tatum or Sidney the truth about Stu's breakup. Instead, I ended up spending the weekend with Tatum and learning about some school drama.

"So what are we here today for?" I asked, placing my book-bag into one of the auditorium seats. "I thought y'all said Wednesdays at the community center."

Rue and Kevin followed behind me and sat their bags in the seats behind mine. Kevin walked towards the stage and Rue began to put her braids up. "We just wanted to chill. Kill some time before you run off to practice."

"Ruby wants to see you dance!" Kevin called from the stage.

While narrowing my brows, I turned to look at Rue. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "I heard you learned to whine and I wanna see how."

The both of us cracked a chuckle as I took my jacket off. During the process, Kevin placed a stereo on the stage before coming back over to us.

"What songs you got?" I asked while pulling my hair into a ponytail.

"Well I got a lot. Dancehall, Reggae, a lil R&B, hell, I even got jazz." Kevin said. "Check my bag."

Rue and I burst out laughing. "You hear that?" Rue put her hand on my shoulder. "My nigga said including jazz."

We continued to laugh and poke fun at Kevin. It was nothing harmless, really, we just found it funny that he went from everything popular and vulgar stuff to Jazz of all things.

By the time our laughter died down, I reached for my bag and began to search for a few tapes. While looking for them, I heard loud cackles come from behind me. It wasn't Rue or Kevin, they were almost as confused as I was.

When I turned around, I saw Billy, Stu, and the spikey-haired kid Randy. I had no idea what they were doing here either, last period Billy was talking to Stu about going for burgers and chilling before practice. I kinda wanted to know why they were here.

"Soleil? What are you doing here?" Stu called.

I turned around and waved at the trio. "We're just messing around."

I didn't owe them the truth or the full extent of my business so I wasn't going to tell them. Especially Billy.

"Just chillin my ass." Rue nudged my shoulder.

I shrugged it off and handed the CD to Kevin. The CD I handed him had some of my favorite songs that I'd play in dance class, my cousin—that danced with me—and I burned it together a few months ago. "Skip to track five."

Kevin nodded and walked back to the stage.

"Can you dance, Rue?" I asked.

"I ain't no Whitney Houston, girl!" She scoffed before we both laughed again. "Not no Janet either but I got a lil sum-sum."

"Can you move your hips?" I got in position and did a little hip circle and whine. "Like this."

"I can, I had someone show me how." She winked.

"Awe hell, Ruby! Shut the hell up!" Kevin cried out in disgust. "Here's number five, Lei!"

"Come on Rue, follow my lead and I'll teach you more later." I signaled for her to come with me on the stage. While running up the stairs, I heard Stu say something about a "free show". It kind of caught me off guard as I had thought they left.