Nothing We Could Do

Chapter 29

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———— I V A N N A ————

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"How did you do it?"

I almost spilt my drink as Zeke appeared in front of me, slamming his fist on the counter impatiently.

"How?" He demanded, fixing me with a stern look.

I checked behind, thinking that maybe he was talking to someone else in the stuffy kitchen, but nobody else seemed to be paying attention. Everyone was too busy snorting coke, getting drunk or flat out dry humping whilst dancing.

"Are you talking to me?" I carefully set my drink down, another one of the heavenly concoctions my boyfriend had magically mixed up for me.

"Yes, Ivanna," He sighed, "I'm talking to you. How did you do it."

"Do what?"

He gestured over to Kioshi who was busy talking to some guy who I guessed was on the basketball team, "Him."

"Right," I raised my brows, "I need you to be a little more specific."

"Kioshi's proudly been the biggest slut known to man."

I burst out laughing at the abruptness of such a sentence, gasping for breath, "There's no way you just said that about your own friend!"

Zeke sighed and tapped the counter impatiently, "He knows it, you know it, everyone knows it. It's not a secret. He got hurt and made it his mission to never date or become emotionally connected to a girl again." I could hear the frustration in his voice, "And it was difficult as shit watching my best friend put himself through that. We tried, me and Naveen tried so many times to change his mind but nothing ever worked."

The smile disappeared from my face as he looked at me with so much grief behind his eyes.

"Until you came. You came and you completely changed him in ways I didn't think were possible. How did you do it? How did you completely change a person like that?"

I shrugged, "It wasn't my intention I can assure you that. The last thing I wanted was anything to do with Kioshi Harada."

"Yeah that was clear," He huffed a laugh, "But I guess that changed pretty quick didn't it?"

"Yeah I guess he kinda creeped up on me. He wouldn't leave me alone at all to the point where it became natural to have him around and when he wasn't there, I'd almost missed his presence."

Zeke nodded thoughtfully, "So I should pester her and never leave her alone then?"

I stood up a little straighter, "Your asking me for advice, is that what this is?"

He looked away, "Maybe."

I smiled, "Tell me about her."

"If I do that, I don't know wether I'll be able to stop myself."

I glanced over at Kioshi who was still deep in conversation, now surrounded by a circle of guys, "No rush, I've got nothing better do."

Zeke's face immediately warmed and I could tell he'd been bursting to talk about her. I hadn't spoken much to Zeke before but I'd always been able to tell he was the sensible one out of the three of them.

"She's so– fuck she's so beautiful, I can't even begin to describe. She'd been in my sociology class since freshman year but I'd never really noticed her, too wrapped up in my own shit to pay much attention to anything but basketball. She was so quiet and so shy the first time, it was cute and I found out her name was Renae. I made sure to talk to her ever lesson from then on, using every excuse imaginable to do so because she never left my mind. Renae has this idea of me as player like all the other athletes and she thinks I'm playing her or something and I've tried telling her that I'm not but she won't listen to me."