BLK JUPTR

viii. dry cleaning

"Xo, just how many times are you going to listen to this album?" Estelle asked as I clicked the play button for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

"Until I get sick of it, so never."

So far this week, classes were going great and I didn't think things could get any better; my film class was great, I was beginning to understand calculus, and all of my assignments were up to par. But then a few minutes ago, Janelle Monáe dropped her latest album titled, "Dirty Computer," which was the follow up album to her previous one, Electric Lady. So of course, I went on iTunes and bought it as soon as possible. I had nothing else to do at the moment, so I felt the need to put the album on repeat until my eardrums bursted. While Estelle loved Miss Monáe too, she could only listen to the same thing so many times.

Meanwhile, it felt like forever since I'd seen Jasmine. She was so caught up in her classes that we didn't really get to hang out. Most of the time I'd see her during bedtime but by the morning when I woke up, she'd already be gone.

"Hey, any idea where Jasmine is?" I asked Estelle.

"Oh, she's on a date with Vincent."

I nearly squealed. The thought of Vincent and Jasmine on a date made me wanna become a little middle schooler again and get excited. I sort of shipped the two from the start and by the way they acted around each other, I knew that Jas and Vincent were bound to get together eventually. I sat down and opened up my laptop to check my email. The first message I had was from Kendrick and the Black Student Union; apparently we were going to be holding a movie night on Saturday and suggestions needed to be put in for which movie we were going to watch. The options were Lackawanna Blues, Eve's Bayou, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Coming to America, and I Am Not Your Negro. Having seen everything on the list, I chose I Am Not Your Negro because I felt that it would be motivational to for us to watch, hoping it would motivate us to keep fighting for the things we needed on campus. Still, I knew I would end up enjoying whatever got the most votes.

Estelle got up and yawned. "Hey, have you gotten that email from Kendrick for movie night?"

"Yeah. I'm actually about to vote right now. Why?"

Estelle explained to me that supposedly Kendrick was planning on cancelling the event because of possible "intruders" coming to harass us and start trouble. When I asked her who he might have been referring to, she said that he was talking about the same guys who chased us the other day after the BSU meeting. That confused me even more because I thought that that whole incident had stayed between Kendrick and I, but apparently not. He had told damn near the whole union. To add to that, he also had a "theory" that perhaps one of the boys who was bothering us also used to bother Diana when she was alive, which was a clue (if that's what you want to call it).

"Do you think he'd really cancel it over that? Can't he try to get campus security for that night or something?" I questioned.

"He said that's what he'd try to do, but if it doesn't work out it'll just be cancelled," Estelle sighed.

I was about to go lay down when Estelle asked me if I wanted to go get a latte with her. At first I said no but then when she offered to pay for mine I simply couldn't resist. We went to the Starbucks around the corner and to our shock there was almost no one else in there. Still, we ordered our lattes and sat down and chatted. We began talking about anything that came to mind, including the new A Wrinkle in Time movie, the new show Grown-ish, and how high my SAT scores were (1300 to be exact). When Estelle got up to go to the bathroom, I picked up my phone and scrolled through my Instagram timeline to see what activities were going on around campus.

At first I was pointlessly just double tapping and going through a few comments, but one particular picture made me almost drop my phone. It was a post on Kendrick's account of him and a girl I'd never seen before. She was an Asian girl with long blonde colored hair and purple lipstick. She had on a tight body-con dress and thigh high boots. The post was captioned, "Glad to have you back in my arms once again ❤️❤️❤️." Unsure if I should call him or leave a shady comment on the post, I put my phone down and turned it off, disappointed. Was he playing me the entire time when he really had a girlfriend all along? That wouldn't surprise me. I checked the photo to see if he tagged her and he did, so with caution, I went to her Instagram account and saw that her profile was public. After a few minutes of lurking, I found out two things. One, she was the president of A&M's Asian Student Union, and two, Kendrick was indeed her boyfriend. There were almost too many posts with them kissing, holding hands, and cringeworthy selfies. I was surprised at someone like Kendrick; I wasn't trying to judge him, but you'd think Mr. Black Revolutionary would be dating a black woman. But still, that's how it is these days, a lot of so called "woke" people like Kendrick dated outside their race. That Netflix series Dear White People almost perfectly covered the topic of being woke whilst dating interracially.