Hold My Hand

26

*VANESSA*

"Vanessa?" Someone asked.

I turned around and saw a complete stranger. A girl with black hair and a smirk on her face.

"Sorry, do I know you?" I asked, putting a pack of highlighters into my carriage. I love school supply shopping.

"No, but I know you."

"Um...ok." I ignored her and went back to picking out supplies.

"You're dating Geo right?"

Oh god, is this a fan?

"Yes. I am."

The girl flipped her hair. "I'm Taylor."

"Ok..."

"Do you not know who I am?" She asked. She put her hand on her hip and gave me attitude.

"No."

"I'm Geo's ex."

I felt extremely uncomfortable, but I wasn't gonna show it and let her feel satisfied. So I swallowed my discomfort.

"Good for you."

I moved further down the aisle to pick out a pack of colorful pens.

"Honey, look at how cute this planner is." My mom said, entering the aisle. "Oh I'm sorry, who is this?"

I grabbed the planner from her and tossed it on top of the other supplies in the carriage.

"Oh no one." I answered. Then we left the aisle and I didn't bump into Taylor for the rest of the half our I spent shopping.

During the ride home I considered mentioning my little run in, to Juwany, but I decided not to because I didn't wanna seem worried about her. Cat came over to spend the night and meet Benji for the first time.

"Ahh he's just so cute!" She said, hugging his tiny body.

I smiled and finished loading clothes into the washer. "I know."

Cat was sitting on the living room floor with Benji, and once my clothes were taken care of, I joined them.

Cat started giving Benji a belly rub. "I can't believe we're gonna be going to school together! I'm so excited!"

"Me too." I bit my lip, should I ask Cat or should I not?

"Vanessa is something wrong?"

Fvck.

"No, not really. Um...it's just that, I met Juwany's ex at Walmart today."

"Kimberly?"

"No...Taylor." Gosh, how many exes are there? "Should I be worried?"

"Oh God she's back in Miami?" Cat rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about her, she's no one."

I scratched my head. "Are you sure? Because she wasn't acting like she was "no one."

"Well her and Geo dated for a while, 5 months actually. He just liked dating a pretty girl, they weren't good for each other. Geo's very respectful and has morals and values, Taylor has none. Basically she kept pressuring Geo about sex and he wouldn't cave. Eventually he found out that she was sleeping with David, one of Geo's friends at the time; and he dumped her."

"Wow." I gasped. "That's so messed up. That she cheated! Not that he dumped her!"

"Yeah I know. It took him a while to move on from that. I'm glad he has you. He was never this happy with any of his other girlfriends. I hope you guys last a long, long time."

"Thank you Cat, me too."

Once my mom came home we ordered pizza and went to bed. Cat fell asleep around 11:30 and I was up until about 2.

Why? Because there was a picture going around Instagram of Juwany and Taylor hugging in some store. Cat said I had nothing to worry about, and I believed her, until now.

Juwany's fans started tagging me in old pictures of Juwany and Taylor together and making jokes about how irrelevant I am. I felt humiliated and stupid, but I refused to cry. Instead I just forced myself to go to sleep.

When I woke up, Cat was still passed out in bed and Benji was just waking.

"Come on baby, time to go out." I whispered.

Benji hopped off the bed and I unplugged my phone from the charger, only to see three missed calls and two texts, all from Juwany.

I put on a pair of flip flops before going to the back yard so Benji could go pee.

After a moment of hesitation, I called Juwany.

"Oh my God! I thought you were never gonna answer me!" He panicked.

"Sorry, I just woke up. I was up late."

"Is Cat still at your house?"

"Yeah, she's still asleep."

"When she leaves can I come over?"

"Juwany..."

"Please Nessa. I promise you I am not cheating on you and I do NOT care about Taylor."

"Are you sure? Because I saw the picture of you hugging her and you were wearing the same outfit you had on when you came over."

"I bumped into her at CVS and SHE hugged me. I guess there was a fan I didn't see, who took that picture."

"Juwany can we just talk later? I just woke up and I have to feed Benji."

"Yeah. Sure. Please don't be mad at me..."

"Bye Juwany."

He sighed heavily. "Bye."