Find The Beauty Within

Fight Or Give Up?

Normani's POV

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." -Diane Arbus.

A week. Seven days. 168 hours. 10,080 minutes. 604,800 seconds. That's how long I hadn't heard from Dinah. I wasn't sure what I had done wrong, but it only further proved my point about us not working out. At first, I thought it was me — that I was pushing too hard, that I was at fault. But I ran through the entire time we spent together in my head, and I knew I hadn't messed up. I gave Dinah the space she needed, all while showing her that I was there if she wanted me. If she needed me. Whether or not she had chose to ignore me, it was something she was doing, and I couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly hurt by it. Her rejection stung, more than I could comprehend, and I was slowly losing faith.

I didn't want to. I didn't want to let go of whatever I could have potentially had with Dinah, but she wasn't letting me in, and ignoring me wasn't going to solve whatever problems we had or didn't have. Whatever problems she had with me.

For a week, I did nothing but go to work, and head straight to bed once I got home. My weekend was spent on the couch, with Ally repeatedly telling me to fight for Dinah, all without realizing that I was. I had stopped by her house multiple times during the week, but Lauren or Camila always gave me a bogus excuse about Dinah either being out, or sleeping. I knew better than to believe that, though. I knew she was ignoring me, but if she wouldn't open her door, what was fooling me to believe that she would open her heart?

"Get up!" Ally said, pulling back my curtains on a Monday morning, the start of a new week that Dinah would most likely ignore me.

"Go away," I groaned, not in the mood to be bothered. "I have a day off. Let me sleep."

"You don't get Monday's off," Ally retorted.

I shifted under the blankets, raising to cover my eyes. "Yeah, well I called out."

"Mani," my best friend sighed sympathetically. "Please get up? I'll even play hooky with you, just as long as you promise to get up. We can go to the mall, catch a movie... Anything you want."

I peeked out from under the covers, eyeing her skeptically. "Anything I want?"

"Anything but Wingstop," Ally promised.

I was going to protest, but I realized that the blonde wanted to avoid the place for a reason. If we went, I was sure to be upset and ruin the day. And there was a huge possibility of seeing Dinah there as well — and I wasn't so sure I wanted to see her.

It was insane. She was so worried about me hurting her, but she ended up being the one to cause me pain, and I had no idea if she was acknowledging what she was doing or not.

"Fair enough."

I climbed out of bed, heading to the bathroom to wash up. Forty-five minutes later, Ally and I were walking the levels of the mall, going from store to store. My camera hung loosely around my neck, though I knew I wouldn't be capturing anything. After spending so much time away from Dinah, things started to lose its beauty.

That was until I caught sight of a slender woman with honey brown hair. It was straightened, flowing down the length of her back. She held a babbling toddler in her lap, giggling as she tried to feed the boy some ice cream. The two looked relatively similar with flawless dark caramel colored skin, and bright hazel eyes. Immediately, I thought it was her son, and took the opportunity to try and capture a picture of the most beautiful sight I had seen all week.

"Do you mind if I take a picture?" I asked the woman.

Her eyes met mine, and the boy in her lap smiled widely at me, extending his arms toward my camera. "You want to take a picture? Why?"

"I like to capture beautiful things," I said with a shrug.

The woman blushed, nodding lightly and turning to pose with the boy. I shook my head, signaling for her to go back to how she was; enjoying her day with the boy in her lap. She immediately took my direction and turned her attention back to the child. It just so happened that as she did so, the boy slapped his hands on the table, accidentally smacking the spoon and sending it flying. Ice cream landed on his chubby face, and I caught the woman laughing at the sight.

"This is great," I chuckled, showing her the picture.

"Yeah, it actually is," she agreed. "Do you think you can possibly send that to me?"

I grinned down at the woman. "I'll do you one better. How about I print it out for you?"

"You'd do that?"

"Why not?" I shrugged. "He's adorable by the way."

She turned her head to the boy, stroking his brown curls. "Thank you. This is my son, August. I'm Zendaya, and you are?"

"Normani. It's nice to meet you both." I smiled at Zendaya and her son, taking one of August's chubby hands in my own and shaking it a bit.

"It's nice to meet you, too." The slender woman had a blush on her face, and I couldn't deny that my heart skipped a beat at the sight.

"Hey," I started, scratching the back of my neck lightly. "Do you, maybe want to meet up tomorrow? I'll have the picture printed by then."

"Definitely. Here, give me your number."

After exchanging numbers and making easy conversation, I was off to find Ally again. I found her trying on a bright blonde wig in a store I had never been. We shared a laugh about her new identity, Yolandah, before we headed back home. I ended up telling Ally all about Zendaya and August, and how we had made plans to meet up the next day.

Whether unfortunately, or fortunately, I had left my phone at home, and was anxious when I found one lone text from Dinah when I had returned.

With shaking fingers, I clicked the message with her name on it... Only to find a text I never wanted to see.

I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore.

A/N: My little cutie pie, Nala, turned 16 "yesterday." She sent me a picture of her in her cute little dress... 😭😍. She's so adorable. 😂 I love you, Nala and I hope you enjoyed your birthday. 💜