numb.

ezra: a billion bitches

Keisha McAllister never eats pizza. To anyone else, this was nothing more than a student deciding to eat the least disgusting-tasting thing in the cafeteria. But Keisha never eats pizza, so this was bizarre. You may think it's weird that I noticed something as simple as that, usually, you'd be right, but it's not weird, it's normal. When you care about someone enough you start to keep tabs on them, Keisha is a vegan, so what the fuck would she be doing with a pizza? Keisha always brings the same thing to lunch every day, a salad consisting of spring mix, croutons, dried cranberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and shredded carrots.

In all my years of being in school with her, there was never a day where she ate pizza, even back in middle school when I first moved out here to rural Pennsylvania. She had became a vegan over the summer after seventh grade, by the time we got to Heston Prep she was a full-fledged fucking tree hugger if you asked me. The most that she ever cheated her diet was a sip of milk she had by an accident, but even that small sip seemed to upset her body because she ended up becoming so sick that she missed school for about a week and a half.

What concerned me the most though is that the girls that she called her "friends" aren't the least bit concerned by it, the look on their faces tell it all, a smile here, a hair flip there, it's mind-boggling! I almost want to get up and go ask her if she's fine, but walking towards Keisha McAllister's table was something you did if you wanted the entire school laughing at you before your last period, to get to Keisha you had to get through her posse of brainless wastes of space, also known as "cheerleaders." Nonetheless, someone had to notice it, otherwise, it was gonna drive me insane.

I watched as she picked at the pizza, she hadn't taken a bite yet so I'm guessing that she was probably second guessing it.  I looked down at my own slice of pizza. Heston wasn't known for it's cafeteria food, but just about every student could agree that it was pretty hard to fuck up a pizza. Although on this particular day, they were a bit too heavy on the sauce and the lack of cheese had left much to be desired.

Maybe she got dared to eat it...but then again why the fuck would she take a dare as stupid as-

"Ezra!" I blinked rapidly as my friend Martin snapped me out of my thoughts, we were currently sitting at our table that we claimed in the cafeteria, we being me and the friends I made here at Heston Prep. There's Martin, Stephen, Blake, and Richard, all of whom knew about my obvious infatuation with Keisha. Martin is pretty much the funniest guy I ever met in my entire life, he and I had met during my freshman year here at Heston. We bumped into each other while we were both looking for our dorm room and it turned out that we were roommates, that whole debacle alone kind of solidified our friendship I guess. Martin was around my height, maybe an inch or so shorter than my 6'1, and was a little more on the darker side skin tone-wise.

"Um...yes?" I asked before taking an enormous bite out of my pizza. As expected, a huge glob of marinara sauce slid out between the crust while the thin layer of cheese came off in one bite. I sat the slice down and grabbed a napkin dabbing the excess marinara sauce that found its way on my chin. Martin nodded over at Keisha before turning back to me.

"You gonna shoot your shot or what? I've seen you do all kinds of shit with the utmost confidence, but her? It's like you scared of rejection." He cracked open a bottle of sprite before continuing, "do you need an invitation or something?"

I sighed and tossed my used napkin into a nearby trash can. "Nah, I'm content with admiring her from right here." Richard, the self-proclaimed "pussy whisperer" sucked his teeth.

"You on some bullshit bro, keep wasting your time and watch what's gonna happen, somebody with the balls to do it is gonna bag shawty and then you gonna have the, 'I eat ass' face." I shook my head while trying to hold in a laugh, which was hard when it came to his goofy ass. Richard was the type of guy that had a straightforward approach to everything, but when it came to women, it was a bit too much. Add in the fact that he's tall and very loud when he speaks and you might actually find him annoying, but once you got to know him, you're perception of him would most likely change.

I shrug at his comment and pick at my pizza. "I highly doubt that, she hasn't shown any interest in any of the guys here." I frown looking up from my food, "you don't think she's...a lesbian... do you?" Blake laughed at my question, which in turn made the rest of us laugh.

"Shiiiit," he said with a devilish grin, "you never know, if she is you could try to pull off a threesome though." I shook my head and chuckled, Blake had an overactive sexual imagination, he often told us stories about the females he would have sex with and how exactly he'd do it, it was weird at first but over time it became the norm and now it's funny as hell.

"Or," Stephen said after taking a swig off root beer, "maybe she just doesn't have time for a relationship, I mean think about it, we attend a private academy, some people here are on scholarship money and are grinding their asses off to stay here, she may be one of them." I nodded slowly at Stephen's comment. That was a possibility that had never crossed my mind since I've been here. In all the years that I had known Keisha, she was always decked out in the nicest clothes, everything she wore was name brand and she always had her nails done. Even her locs, which were currently braided, were always styled in some sort of way, so I doubt money was an issue for her.

"That's a possibility, but y'all don't even know why I'm staring at her," I said as I frowned at my pizza, "something feels off."

Martin sucked his teeth, "naw nigga, that's bullshit and you know it, you looking at shawty because you thinking about how you wanna pound her pelvis."

I laughed and shook my head, "Well yeah...but that's not it,"I picked up my slice of pizza and waved it in Martins face, "she's eating pizza!" They all stared at me as if I had just told them that the earth was flat. "Oh my fucking goodness, she's a vegan! Why would she be eating pizza?" Blake raised an eyebrow.

"So that's why she look so damn perfect, shawty healthy as fuck," he picked up his own slice of pizza, "I knew she had to be on some type of diet for a body like that."

I rubbed my temples and exhaled loudly. "You're missing the point, that's kinda weird don't you think? A devote vegan eating a slice of pizza, that's like Stephen Curry missing a free throw, it just doesn't happen." Martin grunted before taking a big swig of sprite.

"It's just some fucking pizza!" He nearly shouted after sitting down his sprite, "she probably not really vegan, like who the fuck devotes their life to eating grass?" That did sound pretty awful, spending the rest of your life not eating any meat or dairy products, but Keisha was a devoted vegan, something was really wrong.

"I still think that it's not usual for her to be-" Richard cut me off with a groan.

"Bro, fuck all that, you wanna know what's not usual? You not shooting your shot," Richard took a huge bite out of his burger, "it's so simple, just ask for her number at least, if she says no, she says no, it's literally billions of other bitches in this world."

I sighed and looked over at her, "so what I'm saying isn't getting through to y'all niggas? A vegan of six years is eating a slice of pizza and that's just normal?"

Richard shrugged, "what does that have to do with the billions of other bitches I just brought up?" He asked.

I closed my eyes and mumbled to myself, "a billion bitches...none of them got shit on Keisha."

Stephen shook his head, "man, let this nigga live, he obviously in love with shawty or something with the way he talking." He patted me on the back, "and you my guy and all...but I better not ever hear you put that girl on a pedestal like that again, you ain't ever even talk to her since we been here."

I sighed and slowly finished the last of my pizza.

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