The Glow Up

Chapter 4

"Aight" Jeremiah replies calmly then faces the front.

On my left Tameka's left leg is shaking, and when I look at her she's smiling uncontrollably. She's crushing on him hard. About ten minutes later our real teacher arrives, an old white man with a noticeable beer belly. He's wearing dull green trousers with a stripy yellow and green top tucked into it. As soon as he begins talking I slump into my chair as his boring monotone voice reads out an introduction which seems to go on forever. He ends the session after about half an hour and I spent the entire time daydreaming, I don't even remember his name. I feel a gentle tap on my shoulder.

"Get up! We gotta go sort our living situation out" Tameka says.

I groan softly before getting up using my hands to lift myself off the chair, which are weak considering I've been half asleep for the last 30 minutes. I lose balance and end up placing my hand on Jeremiah's thigh. My eyes widen and I quickly snatch it away.

"Sorry!" I say frantically.

Jeremiah's eyes are fixated on the position of his lap where my hand was.

"It's aight" he says casually.

"You gonna get up?" I ask motioning forward.

He reaches into his pocket then takes out his phone.

"Nah Imma chill here for a while" he says.

Tameka and I walk in the other direction then head to the hall exit. 

Once Tameka is certain he can't eavesdrop she blurts "He's so fine!"

I roll my eyes at her,

"He's not that cute" I say back to her.

"Whatever you don't ever find nobody cute!" she says before pulling me ahead.

We arrive at the student advice centre moments later,  and have to join a hefty que filled with people. I hate waiting. In front of us is a girl almost the same height as Tameka with a wavy blonde weave in, I nudge Tameka forward for payback and she bumps into her.

"Oh! Sorry!" Tameka gasps.

I chuckle quietly to myself. The girl turns around then gives the both of us a dirty look, my left eyes twitches but I remain calm and take a step backwards. After all we did bump into her. An hour passes and we finally arrive at the front of the que, the lady at the desk takes down our names then hands us the keys to the flat we'll be living it. I place the art keyring I got earlier onto the keychain then we make our way into our flat. Everything looks brand new, its almost like ive entered a wonderland, although our rooms are quite small, knowing that I'll be living alone and making up my own rules makes the room seem a whole lot bigger.

I look at my watch and notice how late it's getting then notify Tameka. While we're leaving the college building we spot a large group of boys on our side of the pavement so we cross the road. Minutes later we're being cat-called.

"Sexy what you running for?" a voice shouts.

I start walking faster but Tameka has slowed down being distracted by the cat calls.

"C'mon lets go!" I say while grabbing her arm.

"The one in the white is kinda cute" she says looking back,

"You don't want that type of guy, let's go now!" I say while trying to pull her forward. She resists then stops in the middle of the road.

"I wanna talk to him" she sulks.

"Tameka those type of guys holla at anyone, then once you reject them they'll call you ugly" I explain to her.

"How do you know all of this?" she asks,

"Nearly everyday on the way to your house during the holiday some loser tries to talk to me" I reply.

"That ain't ever happen to me" she says quietly.

"It's not the kinda attention you want" I say softly.

She looks down at the floor and starts scuttling her feet, "Lets just go home" she sighs.