Yeah, Whatever

Chapter Sixteen

CoCo's POV

I'm in a comfortable sleep when I suddenly feel the foot of my bed weighed down. It's probably my weighted blanket. I snuggle deeper into my covers, wrapping myself tighter in Kai's sweatshirt.
The weight at the bottom of my bed shifts to my right. Then I smell him. My eyes crack open slightly. I can see his reflection in my mirror, taking off his tee and revealing his warm, strong body. I squeeze my eyes shut again.
"My pretty girl," he whispers, cupping my face and running the pad of his thumb across my cheek. I can feel his eyes linger on my face a bit, before he gets under my blankets. His strong arms wrap around me, his body presses against me, and his scent surrounds me. I decide to tease him a bit, pressing back into him. I hear his breath hitch and his arm tighten.
"Baby, you awake?" he asks softly. I lay still and silent. He shrugs and cuddles into me. I let him start to doze off before pushing back into him again, rolling my hips in a few slow circles.
He groans. "Stop playin' with me girl," His LA accent is thicker now that he'd been back for a bit. He releases me from his arms and puts a tight grip on my waist. Again I lay still, but he doesn't like that this time. He slowly rolls his hips into me, and whispers, "I know you're awake baby, lemme show you how much I missed you," He kisses down my neck. I smile, opening my eyes and turning to face him.
"Show me,"
I've never been so happy Morgan decided to sleepover at Kyn's.

()()()

I wake up to M'kai kissing all over my face.
"Morning baby!"
"Hi baby," I giggle. I sit up and groan when I look in the mirror. "Damn it Kai you fucked my hair up!"
He smirks, pulling me on top of him. "You aint care about it last night,"
I roll my eyes playfully slapping his chest.
"C'mon, we gotta get to class,"

When we get to class, each group presents a brief update of their project. M'kai, Ty, and I stand in front of the class. "Hi everyone, our topic is Black Love! We've decided to highlight black love in the spotlight. It's going to feature celebrity couples like Will and Jada, Steph and Ayesha, and more, but the main focus will be the growth of the relationship between M'kai and me," I say, grabbing his hand.
"We have a little preview to show y'all," M'kai says, as Ty gets the video cued up. The three of us step to the side as the video plays on the projector.

"M'kai, what is Black love to you?"
He leans back in his chair, swiveling side to side.
"Black love is...it's the most beautiful kind of love there is. A love despite oppression, pain, struggle. It's creative, it's thorough, it's all encompassing,"
I can see the girls in class fawning already.
It cuts to me, sitting on the Quad.
"My mommy and my dad were my first example of it...I remember when I was little, waking up every Saturday morning, and they'd be slow dancing in the kitchen. My mom would keep her eye on the pancakes while daddy would watch the bacon, and once they flipped their food over they'd go straight back to each other, wrapped up. Sometimes I'd join em if they saw me, but I mostly spied,"
The next few clips are just shots of me and M'kai, other celebrities, and commentary from Ty.

"Any questions?"
A girl in the front shoots her hand up.
"What if y'all break up?"
I sigh internally, looking over at Kai. He swallows hard.
"Then, we break up I guess. It's a possible result of all the elements we'll be showing in our project. But in my heart right now, I don't see that for us. Ion wanna think about it," he says, squeezing my hand.
"To add to that, this is a project, a thesis and theory. What we feel and do is real but at the end of the day this is also an assignment, no matter the outcome we'll share what happens. But like M'kai said, I don't see that in their future," Ty interjects. I look at him gratefully, and he just nods. The class asks a few more questions before we go and sit down.

As we're supposed to be listening to other research updates, I scroll through Twitter.

@deebrowniescout started following you.

It's haunting me, just sitting in my notifs. She doesn't know that I know about how she feels about M'kai, so I feel like she's doing this to be sneaky. Should I follow back? Not following seems shady.
I click the follow back button and go back to IG, to my spam notes.

coocoo4mypuffz: alexa play weirdo hoes -durkiooo

sie2shininsie replied to your note: uh oh spaghettzo

coocoo4mypuffs: imma hit the gc

MSCK🔥🍑❤️
kyn💕
CoCo❄️
Sie 🦋
Morg👻

CoCo❄️: yall why miss girl follow my twitter 👀🙄
Sie 🦋: no way!!
Morg👻: u fr?
kyn💕: *sent in invissy ink* who is miss girl?
Sie 🦋: lyssia browne?? the girl mkais mom is trying to set him up with?
kyn💕: OHH MY BAD
kyn💕: fuck her she not badder than u coco
CoCo❄️: thank you kynkyn
CoCo❄️: im just a lil weirded out like what she finna do??
Morg👻: right i feel like she's just gonna be lurkin fr...likin your photos and subbin you in her captions or sumn
kyn💕: i agree but i feel like as long as you continue to be badder than her and not give in to the pettiness you should be fine
Sie 🦋: you should post a pic of you and mr.man on your story
Morg👻: sie you sure thats a good idea rn? what if his mom goes up in a tizzy
Sie 🦋: i mean he already publicly stated "love her on him" so i mean 🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️ i think it'll be fine

deebrowniescout just sent a message.

CoCo❄️: yall not finna believe this shit.
kyn💕: what happen?
CoCo❄️: why did she just message me...
Sie 🦋: OH???
Morg👻: OHH??
CoCo❄️: yea...let's see what this is abt..

I go back to twitter, ready to open the message when Kai's hand makes its way to my thigh, gently squeezing. I look over at him, meeting his concerned gaze.
"You okay Nelly? You look concerned," he asks.
I nod, smiling.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Just overwhelmed by the newfound attention,"
"Was my reply too much? I'm sorry--"
"No baby it was perfect, very sweet of you. I'm just not used to it that's all,"
"You'll let me know if it's too much?"
"You know I will,"

After class, M'kai walks with me to the library before departing and heading to his next class. I walk up the staircase on the left side of the entrance hall so I can find a private study room. God is on my side because I find one available room left for the current time slot, and it's nestled in the back right corner where the sun hits. I sit down in the soft chair in the corner of the room, putting my headphones on and returning to the message.

LYSSIA BROWNE

hey love <3 just wanted to introduce myself since you & m'kai are getting to know each other :) you're soooo pretty btw i hope we can be friends :)