[Highest ranking: #72 in General Fiction]
Spring semester is here!
Classes are back in session but will the girls be able to handle the struggle or will they get taken down like 'hay fever'?
College wasn't easy before but throw in a proposal, newbo...
"Stop moving," Lela demanded with her drawing pencil hovering before the blank canvas.
The dark-haired boy, still in his soccer uniform, splattered with grass stains and mud-specked socks covering his calves, scratched his neck as he sat in the chair. "I can't." He crinkled his nose and then gasped like a wounded bull. "Can't you draw something that doesn't move?" He washed his copper eyes over Jolt, the café was almost empty—one person was in the restroom—it was twelve minutes after closing and caramel, vanilla, and sugar still lingered in the air.
"I am." Lela steeled obsidian eyes on him. "You. Now, CJ—stop fidgeting."
CJ grumbled under his breath, words his babysitter couldn't understand as he shagged his shoulders a bit.
"You know, I'm eleven... fidgeting is what we do," CJ added, sulking back in his chair.
Lela stepped from behind the canvas atop the tripod, pushing up the sleeves of her powder blue oversized sweatshirt, "Will a S'more fudge bar help your fidgeting problem?"
"I don't know." CJ twisted his mouth to the side, "But two most definitely will." He held up two of his bony fingers with a coy grin.
Lela tapped her sneakered foot. Two sugary treats would have him bouncing off the walls like a Jack Russell terrier on crack, but he wouldn't be her problem by the time the chocolate and sucrose melted in his system, and she needed to finish her assignment.
"Deal," Lela said. "But no coffee. Just milk." She held out her fist.
CJ leaped out of the chair and bumped his fist with Lela's. "I don't want no coffee, anyways."
"Yeah, right." Lela moved back behind the canvas, not bringing up the boy's small chai-mocha iced latte, which she had treated him to occasionally.
"So..." A thunderous clap came from behind Lela, causing her to turn on her heels abruptly. "How do I look?"
Lela took in the young man's attire: gray and black sneakers, black jeans, a gunmetal gray chambray button-down shirt, a black jacket, and a gray cap.
"Are you going for a fake gangster?" CJ chuckled bouncing out of his seat, en route to the refrigerator behind the counter. "Because that's what you look like." He added swiping an apple juice off the shelf, letting the door slam behind him.
Lela waved off CJ's comment with humor laced on her lips, "Don't listen to him. You look good..." She gestured to his head, "But the cap is a little...too much, Nick."
Nick touched the cap, "It's below fifty." He gestured to the window, showcasing the gloomy afternoon cityscape with few people gaiting down the sidewalk under the gray, cloudy sky. "My head gets cold."
"But you have hair." CJ quipped, twisting the cap back on the bottle.
Nick didn't shift his eyes away from Lela, "You have on a cap." He nodded to the powder blue cap pulled over her elbow-length box braids.
"It looks good on me." Lela jerked the cap off his head, "Better."
"Same," CJ added.
Nick rolled his eyes at the little boy, "Why is he still here? Sylvan and Carter's idiotic date night scheme isn't over yet." He combed his hands through his tousled hair. "Still trying to save a failed marriage."
Lela slapped Nick's arm with his cap, "Don't say that in front of him."
"He already knows our dad's an apologetic whore and our mom's a passive-aggressive guillotine for punishment." He lowly uttered.
Lela glanced over her shoulder at the boy fiddling with his phone and then turned back to Nick, "I don't care what he knows. Just keep it to yourself."
Nick shrugged, pulling the cap out of Lela's hand.
"So, when do I get to see this girl," She asked, returning to the canvas.
"Never," Nick added, shoving the cap into his jacket pocket.
"She probably doesn't exist," CJ teased, sitting next to Lela. A frown grew on his face as he looked at the canvas. "That doesn't look like me."
"Well, you moved...that's what happens." Lela playfully pushed the boy away from the canvas. "So...when?"
"Never," Nick repeated the same answer. "Cause you'll tell embarrassing stories and run them off. You haven't even introduced me to your friends...you haven't even invited us to your place."
"Yeah! Lee, are your friends real?" CJ tossed up the bottle and caught it. "Are you a liar like Nick?"
Nick punched the boy but not hard enough to cause pain, "Are you ashamed of us...I mean him—I'd understand, but me."
"Lee's not ashamed of us," CJ added, pushing Nick but barely making the young man move. "We're practically are brothers."
Nick put CJ in a headlock, "Don't perpetuate that falsehood. We share no DNA."
"Aww!" CJ huffed and puffed as he tried to break free of his brother's hold, "He still has a crush on you."
Lela laughed at the utterance of Nick's once infatuation for her when she was living with them, "I'll tell you this...when this girl you've been spending all of your time with becomes your girlfriend, I'll introduce you to my friends."
"So, next week," Nick affirmed with determined optimism.
"What about me?" CJ muffled out behind Nick's hand, strapped over his mouth.
"You too," Lela added, ruffling up CJ's glossy, midnight hair.
Lela turned back to the canvas, taking in deep breaths as the brother roughhoused. She didn't know if she was ready for every aspect of her life to merge, especially with Safiya having Carter's love child.
How do you think Lela will react when she finds out about Nick's mystery girl?
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