More Than Friends

Meeting Half-Way

Kenya POV-

I was in the living room studying while O slept. I didn't hear him come in, whatever time he did. It was about 12 now so he would be waking up soon.

Like clockwork the door opened. I heard him go in the bathroom for a few minutes and come out. He came where I was on the couch, laid his head on my lap and stretched on the couch.

"How was the party?" I put my notes to the side for a second, and played in his hair.

"It was aight. Would've been better if you came. But I guess some shit more important than me." He stretched his right hand back and forth, like it was hurting.

I stale faced him. "O you know I never go to y'all's parties on days when I have a test that week."

"This was different. It was one of my most important games. You didn't have to stay. Just roll through. Show your face. Let them know you support your man. Other players girlfriends were there."

"O it's literally been two days."

"I don't care. Two days or Two years. We in a relationship now. Some shit gotta change."

I sighed and rubbed my hands down my face. I thought O was being a bit dramatic. He rarely invited me to these little parties. We established that earlier when he claims it was to protect me from the "wildness" that happened when him and his teammates hung out. And on top of that he knows my studies come first. Always. I have never hung out after a game, when I had big exam to study for. Never. And I have been going to his game since my freshmen year.  I already cut into my study time going to the game. I don't see why things should change now.

Some background about me, the amount of excellency you see with O on the field, that is what I have in regards to my studies. Always have. I came from a single mother with nothing. She could barely read but one thing she taught me was the value of an education. Seeing her work, struggle and sacrifice so much for my education. Like, being a lunch lady at a private school just to pay my tuition, I knew that in order to get us out of whatever we had, education was what I needed.

So I worked. Hard. I would always tell myself nothing less than an A. I got one B in third grade and I cried like a little baby. My mother tried to comfort me, but I knew a B or C was  not going to retire my mother and give her the life she deserved. That was my last and final B.

And it served me well. I was valedictorian in high school. Graced to graduate summa cum laude (highest honors) and valedictorian of my LSU class this year and I wasn't going to allow anything to stand in the way of that. Even if he had a six pack that women died for and was about to make millions in the NFL.

Unlike Brandon, I'm not trying to be an NFL wife. I do not want my identity to solely be Odell Beckham Jr's wife. No I want the world to know me as Kenya Yvette Morris the woman who revolutionized cosmetics for African-American women through her formulas. And he was just going to have to understand that.

The dream I have, of being a chemist is something that I can't let die. I have to do everything I need to do to get there. My mother deserves it most of all. It's just us. She's still that lunch lady and I want to give her the gift of saying "Ma let me take care of you." Not "Ma, let Odell take care of you." Too many women sacrifice themselves at the feet of men, simply because society tells them if their man is rich, fine and powerful, that's what their supposed to do. Not I says the cat. We're a couple now, but my work ethic and dreams are still what they were two days ago.

Me and O are very similar. I think that's what initially connected me to him. He was an extremely hard worker. Football meant more to him than life. How I felt about my C or B, is how he felt about a loss game. It was never okay for him to lose. Excellence was the only thing on his mind. He told me once, if you can smile after a loss, something is wrong with you. He always talks about how Michael Jordan cried after a loss, and after that he went to win six championships. That's what legends do. That's what people who are hungry about success do he told me. And I was the same exact way.