Crossroads

Ch. 28: Good Things Fall Apart

Kendall

"Kendall."

"What Trey?" I asked annoyed.

I'd been keeping to myself lately because I'd been having trouble with starting college. I missed the deadline for the fall semester and hoped I'd be able to get in by winter. I applied for as many scholarships as I could have because I desperately needed it. My mom was a school counselor and her salary definitely couldn't send me to college. Although Khalil always told me he would put me through college, I couldn't let him do that. He had already done enough. He was not my father, even though he acted like it.

Besides that, Trey had really been getting on my nerves. I broke up with him about a week after graduation. Get this, we were at the movies one night and his phone kept vibrating constantly. It was hard to ignore so I asked him who was blowing him up. He wouldn't tell me but I ignored it and figured it was because it was something he didn't want me to know. After the movie, I pretended my phone was dead and asked him if I could text Khalil to pick me up from his house. This fool willingly gave me his phone and I went through his messages to see some girl calling him babe and asking when she'll see him again. On top of that, the bitch was sending nudes. So I went off on him, we broke up and I rode the bus home.

I went back to detailing the face of a beautiful dougla girl I was drawing. Dougla means a mixture between Indian and Creole. My drawing was inspired by one of my favorite novels, Green Days by the River. It was about a boy named Shell who lived in Trinidad and he ended up liking the dougla girl, Rosalie, and he helped her dad pick fruits and such from their farm. Long story short, Shell met another girl and he ended up making her his girlfriend and Rosalie's dad found out and set his dogs to bite him as a threat to leave his girlfriend and marry Rosalie. It was a very confusing story but quite interesting.

"Are you gonna listen to me or ignore me?" I heard him ask.

"I'm kinda leaning towards ignoring you."

"Look, I told you already. That girl is someone I met during a fashion show I was booked for. She works with my agency so we work together sometimes. That's what she means by wanting to see me again. I don't like her. I ignore her. She - is - a - hoe. Come on Kendall, you know me better than this. You know how I feel about you. Stop being stupid."

"Oh, I'm being stupid?" I looked at him crazily.

"You know what I mean. Stop jumping to conclusions. Stop with the attitude and most of all stop being stubborn. I've damn near been crushing on you my whole life and you think I'm gonna mess things up with you just like that? Over some nasty bitch - sorry for the language - that I only talk to when I need updates on photo shoots and shows."

"I don't care. You obviously entertain her if she keeps messaging back to back. Fuck that. I don't do that. You can have her."

"Yeah, I can have her if I want to but I want you. Can't you see?" He snatched my drawing away so that I could focus on him only.

I liked Trey a lot. What he said was believable. But, I felt like it was easier to have a reason to break up with him before he broke up with me. Look at me compared to him. Trey was sexy and handsome. He was well known. What could he possibly want with me? I was nothing like those beautiful models he worked with so often. It made me insecure.

"I know you love this fine chocolate, baby," he smiled wide and pinched my cheek.

"Stop, silly," I whined as I pushed him away.