Jae POV
"I think Elijah's cheating on me," I blurt out, silencing the excited chatter of my cousins. Nae, Drea, and I were all in my room getting ready for my eighteenth birthday party. They were happy and I should be, but there was something weighing me down.
Nae pauses with the curling iron inches from the back of my head. Her eyes meet mines in my vanity table mirror, filling up with anger. "Why you think that?"
"Wanna go fuck him and that bitch up?" Drea asks, always on go.
I sigh heavily. I decide to ignore Drea's very tempting suggestion because I wasn't even one hundred percent sure. "It's a lot of things that's been happening recently that point to cheating. Like how he changed his password, I've always known his password. And how he's been being real nice for like no reason at all and he always smells like some fruity perfume or another. And the stupid bitch really don't be answering when I'm calling sometimes but then when I do the same shit back he wanna get mad. Not to mention how he hasn't tried to have sex in like a week. Not once. I been trying to justify all his actions but some shit just ain't addin' up."
They listen to my rant with amp attention, nodding along and adding a little commentary. I look then both in the eye when I'm finished, my eyes full of hope that they'll tell me I'm tripping. "I could be overreacting, right? He's not cheating, he wouldn't do that to me again? Right?"
"I mean..." Nae picks up s lock of my hair and resumes curling it. "While all of that sounds suspicious as hell, it doesn't necessarily mean he's cheating. Maybe he just wants his privacy or something and that's why he changed his password."
Drea nods along. "Plus you know how boys like to wear girls lotion when they get ashy or something."
I slump in my chair. "Not Elijah."
Drea stands closer to me, grabbing my hand from my lap gently. "He loves you, babes," she softly says. "There's no doubt about that."
I take a deep breath to call my racing emotions. "I know he does and I love him too, that's what makes this so bad. Cause how can you hurt the person you love like this? Does it mean that he doesn't really love me as I love him?"
Nae shakes her head. "People, boys in particular, do stupid shit all the time. They make mistakes all the time. I wouldn't base how much he loves you off of something he might not have even did."
I nod. I want to argue that but I was also really sick of talking about this and we know only had forty-five minutes to finish getting ready before it was time to go and she was only halfway through with my hair.
They turn on some music and spend the next half hour talking about anything that comes to their minds. I make some comment but mostly I'm quite as Nae curls my hair and Drea applies my make up.
Once they're done I slip on my dress with their help and put on my six-inch heels. When I turn to the mirror even my eyes widen at the results.
My dark red lace dress fits every curve. It was a mermaid dress so I should've expected that and sure I was amazed at how good it looked on me when I got it, but with my hair and makeup to throw it all together I looked gorgeous. It showed a lot of skin, with the low back, deep v-shaped cleavage,and high slit on my right thigh, but I didn't mind or care. Drea did my makeup flawlessly and it was so well blended that the only makeup you could obviously see was the dark red lipstick, mascara, and the eyeshadow.
I looked radiant, more so when I smiled over at my cousins.
"Oh snap girl!" Drea exclaimed smiling brightly from her spot next to me. She was wearing a simple, but sexy, black mini dress, white heels and she left her red hair curly.
