Mirrors

Eleven

Jaliyah

One month later, I found myself sitting at dinner with Nikki and Crystal. We had spent the whole day at a day party, so by the time we finally settled down for dinner, we were all a bit tired but still in the mood to hang out.

Crystal leaned back in her chair, sipping on her wine, and with that familiar smirk on her face, she said, "Girl, I saw, you know who, all up in your face today."

I rolled my eyes. Of course, she was going to bring this up.

"Who?" Nikki turned her attention to me, curious.

Crystal, being her usual self, grabbed her phone and started scrolling. "Nik, I'm surprised you didn't see," she said, grinning as she handed her phone over to Nikki.

Nikki looked at the screen and immediately shook her head. "Hell nah, I'm deleting that shit," she said, trying to hit the delete button, but Crystal quickly snatched her phone back.

"This bitch is so messy, recording shit," I mumbled under my breath, but loud enough for them to hear.

Nikki looked at her own phone, shaking her head. "She posted it too because The Shade Room just reposted it," she said, her tone a mix of annoyance and disbelief.

I grabbed my phone and opened Instagram. I skipped over the missed calls and messages from Kahlil. I'd been avoiding him for a minute now and went straight to Crystal's post. Sure enough, she had posted several videos from the day party, but the one that stood out was the clip where a certain someone was trying to get all up in my space.

And it wasn't just anyone. It was Future. Of all people.

Future and Aubrey used to be close, but now they're not, and I know for a fact Future knew about my relationship with Aubrey. So I could tell he was just being petty because of all the beef going on between them.

"You just happen to record when he forced a hug," Nikki said, shaking her head. She knew how Crystal was.

I wasn't even going to bother arguing about it. "Would you like more wine?" the waiter asked, suddenly appearing beside me.

"Yes, thank you," I replied, trying to push away the annoyance as he poured more wine into my glass. As soon as he walked away, my phone started ringing. I looked at the screen, and of course, it was Aubrey.

I sighed and decided not to answer. Instead, I returned to Kahlil's texts. He wanted to talk tomorrow, and I agreed. It was about time I faced him, even though I wasn't looking forward to it.

After about an hour, we finished our dinner and headed outside. Crystal, always the first to say goodbye, waved at us as she walked to her car. "Well, I'll see you on Tuesday, Liyah. I'll be at your house around 12. Nik, I'll see you later."

"Okay," Nikki and I said in unison as we waved back. Our cars were parked next to each other, so we walked together.

"Liyah, I'm telling you," Nikki started, her voice serious, "Crystal is not it. She does this shit to be messy. She knew damn well what she was doing. And I'm sure you've got Aubrey calling you now."

"Yeah, but I'm not worried about it," I said, shrugging. "I'm still dealing with this shit with Kahlil."

"Is he back in town?" she asked, unlocking her car.

"Yeah, we're going to meet up tomorrow," I replied as I unlocked my own door.

"Okay, well, I'll be seeing you. You know the guys are in town, so..." She trailed off, raising her eyebrows with a knowing smirk.

"Meaning I won't be seeing you because we know Chubbs will have your full attention," I teased, laughing.

"Girl, we all know how things will turn out," she said, laughing with me. "I'll see you at whatever private party Aubrey decides to throw."