Right Person Too Late

chapter 15

Arsema

"We've got a good thing goin'. A real good thing goin', yes. That girl and me, we've got it good."

Song: Good Thing Going by Sugar Minott

"Oh my God, oh my God, it's him. He's here! Ahhh what do I do??!!"

Mia shrieks when we hear a knock on the door at five on the dot, on Friday night.

She starts running around her room in her underwear, throwing around clothes from her wardrobe trying to find the outfit we'd settled on, that's hanging on the door.

Harper places her hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down while I go to open the front door for Miles.

He's dressed in all black, the top buttons of his shirt undone, black pants and dress shoes, holding a bouquet of red roses. His usual short afro braided backwards, the rest of his hair freshly cut. He looks nervous as hell, and keeps looking around him, as if debating whether or not to run away.

"Awh, are you nervous for this date, Miles Denzel?" I tease, punching him on the arm.

"Shut up, Ari. I'm not nervous." He throws back, forehead scrunched up.

"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? You're a ball of nerves," I chuckle, holding the door open to let him in.

"I did look and I looked sexy as hell," he says running a hand over his head with swagger, making his way into the apartment.

"Nice place you guys have here," he comments, pacing the living room. "What's with all the books though? You and Noah man, such nerds. It's all books this, books that, even your TV is surrounded by them!"

"Shut up, Denzel! There's nothing wrong with books. And they're not all mine! Some of them are Harper's too!" I exclaim. "At least we can read, unlike some people," I jokingly fire at him, hinting at how he used to pretend to not be able to read to get out of doing school work sometimes back in primary school.

He lowers his head, avoiding my gaze. "Uh...I have dyslexia, Ari. So I really can't most the time."

I freeze, disgusted at myself for the joke I just made. "Wait, what? Since when?"

"I got tested for it once I got to high school, discovered out all those primary school jokes weren't really jokes when I couldn't even piece a word together."

"Miles..." I walk to him and pull him into my embrace, squeezing him tight. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you," I sob out.

He wraps his arms around me, gently rubbing my back in comfort. "Stop being all soppy, Arsema. And it's not your fault you weren't there."

"But it was! And I'm so sorry for that and making a joke about it."

"Eh don't worry, I make jokes about it all the time, especially around Noah. It's hilarious how anxious he gets about it. And do you know how easy the teachers take it on me? All I have to do is show them my medical certificate and boom, an acceptance is made for our star!" Lighthearted as always Miles jokes away, making fun of himself and his professors.

But all I can think about is how I wasn't there for so many important things that happened in my friends' life. Like Noah's dad's death, Miles finding out about his dyslexia and so much more I probably don't even know about. And that just hurts much more than anything else ever could.

"Oh stop crying you sook." He wipes my tears and gives me a quick hug before pulling back to see whether or not Mia's surfaced from her room.

"Ugh fine!" I drag him to the kitchen to distract him and give Mia more time to get ready. "By the way, I heard you're a basketball star around here!"