Love Me Back

Ch. 5

Ch. 5 // Deja

"It's spooky season witches!" Kiara shouts as she walks into our apartment's common area lounge. She has a large witch's hat on top of her head, brown and orange ringlets spewing from underneath, and in her hand is a large goblet filled with a fizzy orange drink. She lifts up the drink and says, "Don't worry witches, it's just orange mango ICE. It's 100% non-alcoholic."

"Witches?" I chuckle as she takes a seat beside me on the loveseat. To match her witch's hat, she has on Halloween-themed makeup. It's not extravagant like she's dressing up, but it's obviously Halloween themed. Soft pumpkin orange cut crease, bat-winged eyeliner, and red lipgloss with an orange tint.

"Also, when did you dye your hair?" I ask as she takes off her hat.

"You're my witch because it's spooky season, duh," she retorts. "And Chrissy help me dye it on Sunday."

It's been 5 days since I last Kiara in person and that was Friday evening and today is Wednesday. I know she came back Monday evening, but we've just been missing each other mainly because of midterms. Usually, I leave early and come home late because I'm at the library or at some stressful revealing event.

"It looks really nice." I lowkey wanna dye my hair now.

"Thanks, Deja," she takes a long sip of her drink through the black and white curly straw. "So how're midterms?"

"It's still a bitch," I say, slumping back into the sofa as all the stress and anxiety come washing back, "I had Ochem on Monday and it wasn't as bad as I expected. I just had my Bio 2 midterm and I did really well on the multiple-choice, I'm just waiting on the written. My last exam is tomorrow and it's for Stats. I wish I could just get my scores back, it's nerve-racking "

"It really is," Kiara agrees.

"How are midterms treating you?" Unlike me, Kiara is a developmental psychology major. Actually, we both entered college as biology majors and pre-health, but Kiara switched after taking an intro developmental psychology class and falling in love with it.

"Whooping my ass as usual. I had my data analysis exam yesterday and it seemed a little too easy. My social development midterm was today and I'm confident I did well. My other classes require lengthy papers which are due next week." She explains, "And I only look good because of the Halloween spirit and a lot of NARS concealer"

"I love that," I laugh.

"Thank you. Anyways, I knew you'd be down here and we have to talk"

"About what?"

"Our potential Halloween costumes and your study date with Dacre."

"Seriously?" So my heart was racing for no reason, "Girl, it's the 5th. Halloween isn't for weeks, why do we have to plan right now? Also, it wasn't a date and, I already told you, all we did was study."

"We need to plan now because Chrissy will be joining us and it'll be our first trio costume ever! We need to look put together and impress Chrissy with our skills." I have never met anyone who is more into Halloween than Kiara. And it seems as the year goes by, her love for Halloween intensifies. Since we've known each other, she has always done something and I'm somehow always involved.

"Correction, your skills." Some of Kiara's love for Halloween has rubbed off on me over the years, but I could never top her skills. She can decorate houses, create costumes, do elaborate makeup looks, and bake spooky treats. If there was some Halloween contest, this girl would win and be named the Queen of Halloween.

"Whatever, we just need to look good."

"Shouldn't Chrissy help us decide?"

"She's coming over on Saturday for brunch and to go over our costume ideas. So get your ideas together by then."

I groan and roll my eyes, "Fineeee"

"Now you and Dacre."

I let out a long sigh. After I busted my toe and it was bandaged, Dacre left because I told him to. I told him that I didn't want to study anymore because of the pain and he understood. In reality, I was just mortified by what had happened. I was mortified that I busted my fucking toe, ruined his shirt with my blood, and kept crying like a baby.

"It was all good in the beginning. We studied for a couple of hours, then ate some chicken fingers. Then I busted my fucking toe and it kind of ruined everything," I tell Kiara. Before Dacre even came over, I planned on calling Deja to tell her everything that happened after he left. But then I busted my toe and yeah...

"Damn," Kiara hisses, "are you ok? Can I see it?"

"Not out here, you weirdo."

She looks around, "Yeah probably not here."

I bury my head in my hands, "it was so embarrassing."

"But injuries can be hot."

"What? I'm not a sadist, masochist, or whatever."

"No I don't mean like that, I mean someone helping you out can be hot. Remember Eli, my ex-boyfriend in 10th grade?"

"Barely," I admit as a fuzzy image of a lanky dark-skinned boy with a 'fro covering his eyes and a wide tooth gap pops up in my mind. 

Kiara shrugs, "Fair enough. Anyways, one day we were walking after school, and these little middle school boys were playing this weird ass game with rubber balls and scooters in the street. I was an innocent bystander and got hit in the forehead with a ball. It left this long ass burn on my forehead. Eli chased the boys, but they were on scooters so they sped away. We were close to his place, so we went and he took care of me. Nothing scandalous happened, just an intense make-out session. It was that I was helpless and he was saving me or whatever, it was his kindness, focus, and gentle hands. That's was what turned me on."

I think about our study session. At the time I was in pain, but looking back, Dacre was really kind and gentle. The way he softly washed away the blood, the was he kept looking into my eyes and asking if I was ok. I can't forget the genuine concern he had for me.

"Well, when you put it like that, I get what you mean."