Love Me Back

Ch. 11

Ch. 11 // Deja's POV

"Deja, are you ready?" I hear Kiara shout from the living room.

"Yes!" I respond as I quickly pull the charging cable from the wall and shove it into my handbag. After taking one last look at my room, I turn off the lights and shut the door.

It's finally Thanksgiving Break. It might only be a short 4 days, well 5 for us 'cause we're skipping classes today, but I'm savoring every last moment. Almost 13 exhausting weeks have passed and we all need a break. Yes, I still have assignments to work on, but I'm ignoring them until the weekend

When I enter the living room, Kiara is sitting on the couch with her coat on already and her small cheetah print suitcase beside her. She's had that suitcase set since high school and I've always hated it. It's cheetah print and has pink detailing all around it. It looks like something a "fashionable" 5 year old would design or pick out.

"When are you getting rid of that suitcase?" I ask Kiara as I grab ahold of my simple heather gray suitcase.

"When it's falling apart," Kiara seethes in annoyance as she puts on her sunglasses.

"But it's ugly."

"When I give a fuck, I'll let you know," Kiara claps back, "Anyways, Jay is waiting for us downstairs, so we gotta go."

Since me, Kiara, and Jay live in the same neighborhood, just like last year, we're driving back together.

Within a couple of seconds, Kiara migrated to the front door, put on her shoes, and opened the front door. I roll my eyes but follow her lead. Before I close and lock the door behind me, just like I did earlier, I take a good at everything.

"I can't wait to just pig out on food," Kiara groans as we step into the elevator.

"Girl same, like all I really want is auntie's buttery mashed potatoes and her gravy," just thinking about it makes my stomach rumble.

"Hmmm, how could I forget? Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, craving her mashed potatoes and gravy."

My auntie's mashed potatoes and gravy is no joke. Hands down the best in the world. The mashed potato is soft, buttery, and smooth. Not too thick or thin and not at all paper-like. Her gravy is to fucking die for. Savory, smooth, perfectly salty, and chickeny.

"I wish she'd just give us the recipe," I say to Kiara, as I turn towards her. My aunt is so secretive with her mashed potatoes that she won't let anyone into the kitchen when she's making it.

"Girl, it still wouldn't be the same."

"But it'd still be nice though."

We finally make it to the ground level and the elevator door opens. As I expected it's pretty busy considering it's 9:30 AM on a Thursday. If it was up to me, I would make Thanksgiving break start the day before because that's when people start traveling.

When we get down to the parking lot, I see Jay's black Toyota Camry just spaces away from the entrance. I don't see him because the trunk is propped open, but I assume he's behind it

"Hey Jay," I say as Kiara and I walk around to the back of the car. As I expected, Jay is there placing a suitcase into the trunk, but to my surprise, Dacre's standing beside him. When I see this boy, memories of the Halloween party immediately pop into my mind. Yes, it's been almost a month, but that dream still haunts me because I've never had such a raunchy dream. It doesn't help that I see the guy who's in it, almost every single fucking day.

"Dacre? What are you doing here?" I blurt out. A soft smile grows on his face, showing off his deep ass dimples. Every single time I see those damn dimples my heart goes erratic. They are so fucking cute and so innocent.

"I invited him for Thanksgiving at my place," Jay answers.

What about your family, the question immediately pops up in my mind, but I keep my mouth shut.

"Yeah, I'm pretty excited," he exclaims as he takes my suitcase out of my hand to put in the trunk. When he takes my suitcase, our hands briefly touch and you'd think he set my body on fire.

"Oooh, this is gonna be fun," Kiara sings from behind me, "by the way, I call shotgun."

~

So the car ride wasn't bad, it was actually pretty chill. Most importantly I didn't do anything to embarrass myself in front of Dacre.

We stopped first at me and Kiara's houses because we live right next to each other. No joke, we are next-door neighbors.

As I step out of the car, a nice feeling of joy and relief washes over me when I see my golden yellow house. But that feeling completely fades away when I see my cousin Nia walking towards us in a cute brown lounge set.

"Heyyyy," Nia sings and waves to us, "so the collegiates are back."

My relationship with Nia is interesting, to say the least. Her mom and my mom are identical twins. Yes, identical. Because of that, they have always been really close, even after they got married, they still lived near each other. They even got pregnant around the same time so not only do Nia and I look alike, but we're also just weeks apart in age.

We were very close growing up, but things started to change in 7th grade. I don't know why, but Nia and I had a tendency of liking the same guy. But since she had more confidence and experience than I, she always got the guy I wanted. That shit really hurt, but I was never dating the guys so I tried to ignore and move on.

In 8th grade, I met Kiara and she was honestly the first person that was able to loosen the bond Nia and I had. We tried making a trio work, but Kiara and Nia never really got along. Honestly, Nia seemed envious of the friendship Kiara and I built because, besides our relationship, she's never really had a friendship like mine and Kiara's.

Nia pulls me into a hug and whispers into my ear, "Who's that fine white boy behind you."

"Hello to you too. And none of your business", I whisper back as I break away from her. This isn't high school anymore and I won't let her take Dacre, "I missed you too, by the way, how are Victor and Stella?"

"Stella's fine, she's taking a nap inside. Victor and I are on a break," Nia responds with a strained smile. Stella is Nia's 9-month-old baby girl. She is the cutest and happiest baby I've ever seen. Victor is an asshole, he's good-looking but a complete asshole. They've been dating on and off since 11th grade and eventually, Nia got pregnant sometime around graduation.

Not so fun fact, Victor and Kiara dated for awhile right before he got with Nia. Yet another reason Kiara and Nia don't get along. 

"Hi! I'm Nia, Deja's cousin," She says in her cheerful, flirty voice, "I'm also a really big hugger, so bring it in.

When I turn around, before I can even process anything, I watch as Nia puts her arms around Dacre and pulls him into one of her notorious hugs. The one she only gives to guys she wants. The one where she firmly presses her body against his. The one where she smiles and holds his gaze when she breaks away.

The one that she's given each of my crushes since middle school.

As they embrace, Dacre awkwardly wraps his arms around Nia. At the same time, he gives me a look of confusion and I slightly shrug in response. His response to her makes me feel a little better, but still.

"Oh wow, uh hi I'm Dacre," he says as their hug breaks apart, "Jay and I are roommates."

"Ohh, that's cool. I assume you also know my cousin."

"Yeah, Deja and I are pretty close," when he says my name, he briefly looks up at me.

"Well, any friend of my cousin's is a friend of mine."