After Class (Janet and Aaliyah)

Chapter 33

Y'all niggas bout to hate meeee 💀

Aaliyah

We were in Pac's basement now, trying to act like everything was the same when we all knew it wasn't. I put my hood up and closed my eyes, listening to the song for anything else we could have done better. I came up empty. This shit was gold.

"You killed that verse, A," Pac said over the music. I smiled. "Voice was like butter that night." He paused it and did something with the tape recorder.

"When did you have time to do that? I don't remember you singing that part like that," Jazmine said, turning in the swivel chair to look at me.

"Oh, uh... let me think, shit, when we do that Pac?"

"Two weeks ago now? Right?"

"And where was I?" She asked. I sunk down in my chair.

"Oh, uh... I don't know, Jaz, it just-"

She got up and stormed up the stairs. Me and Pac both sighed. "See what you did, nigga? Yo ass be talking too fuckin much." I pointed at him and stood up, ready to go find her and sort all of this out. The energy was so off between all of us, and I needed to know why.

"I talked too much? What you mean?"

"You know what I mean. Let me go find her. She probably in your room."

I went up both sets of stairs, calling her name the whole time. She didn't answer. When I opened the door to Pac's room, sure enough she was there, playing with her nails.

"Jaz, you gotta talk to me." I sat next to her.

"You gotta talk first, A. I'm serious."

I sighed. This was the last thing I wanted to do. "Jaz-"

"No. Tell me the truth. All of it. About Pac, about the teacher..."

"Listen. Me and Pac, we just—Ah, shit... okay. Listen. We smoked one day and the topic of love came up, and... that's when he told me. He is in love with me."

"I knew that, part, Liyah."

"Since when?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Bitch, it's so fucking obvious! Y'all been so close for how long? Everybody knows. Even your mama. You the only one that couldn't see it."

"So, none of y'all niggas wanted to tell me?" I leaned back and frowned.

"Hell no! Ain't nobody's business but Pac's. Continue." She folded her arms across her chest.

"Okay, well when he told me, I made a bet with him. We would date for two weeks, see if we can handle it. But it didn't last one day. I had to call it off."

"And why is that?"

I tugged on my shoe string nervously. The ice was getting thin now. "I'll get to that. Anyway, I tried to give him his money, but instead, he just wanted to kiss me. And I said okay, fine. But..."

"What, A?! Quit fucking playing with me!" She shook me by the shoulder.

"When he kissed me, Jazmine... it was so nice, and natural. And I'd never experienced anything like that before, and it just—it threw all my shit out of whack. I didn't know how the fuck to feel about it."

She was looking down and away from me. "And what did he say about it?" She mumbled.

"He said... well, when I found out about Kadeem and Chelsea, he was the person I ran to, and in an effort to make me feel better, we got to messing around again. I tried to tell him that he and I was never going to work out. And he said... whenever I'm feeling sad, I can come to him anyway. He just wanted me to use him, And I couldn't do that."