Endless

3

Ty's POV

The sunlight was way too loud the next morning.

I lay there staring at the ceiling, half-wishing last night never happened, half-wishing it went completely different. My brain kept replaying the moment like a broken Instagram reel: me stepping back... the crunch of his shoe... the look on his face.

I groaned and yanked the blanket over my face.

Lex rolled over in her bed, hair smashed, lashes crooked as hell.
"Boy... are you STILL thinking about him?"

"I ain't thinking about nobody," I lied.

She pulled her bonnet off and pointed at me like I was a witness on the stand.
"You woke up with your face creased in embarrassment, Tyquian. I know that look. I've done worse than step on forces, okay? I once knocked a dude's vape into a toilet."

"That's your whole personality though," I mumbled into the blanket.

She threw a pillow.
"Shut up and get dressed. We hitting the mall today."

"For what?"

"Because retail therapy cures heartbreak."

"Lex... I'm not heartbroken."

"Okay then! Retail therapy cures humiliation. C'mon."

I sat up slowly. My chest tightened the second I thought about last night. Not just the shoe.
Not just him pressing me.
But the way he looked at me before I left.
Like he was trying to figure something out.

I shook the thought away.

"I ain't buying nothing."

"Yes you are," she said casually.
I should've been suspicious right there.

⸻

At the Mall

The mall smelled like cologne samples, pretzels, and teenage chaos. Lex strutted ahead of me like she was the mayor, waving at random people she didn't know.

"Damn shawty, you fine," some guy said as he walked past.

Lex didn't miss a beat.
"Thank you... fifteen."

I blinked.
"Why do the numbers keep going up?"

"He's the fifteenth guy to compliment me since we left the dorm."

"Lex... we haven't even been awake an hour."

"And?"

I sighed. "You need therapy."

"I DO have therapy. It's called attention." She winked dramatically.

We wandered store to store, Lex looking for something "Black Girl CEO-coded," me pretending to be invested.

I was doing good.
I hadn't thought about Kentrell in... maybe 12 minutes.
A personal record.

Until we passed a group of guys near the food court. One of them had a haircut kinda similar to his. Same height. Same build. Same aura.

My stomach flipped so randomly I tripped on absolutely nothing.

Lex noticed ASAP.

"Oh my god... you saw somebody who look like him, didn't you?"

"No."

"Ty."

"I DID NOT—"

"TY."

"...maybe."

She squealed like a dolphin.
People stared.
I wanted the floor to eat me alive.

"Girl, get your mind together," I hissed, dragging her toward the escalator.
"You embarrassing the both of us."