Loves Deception

Chapter 15

Today was the day. She couldn't believe it was finally here. She stared at herself in the mirror in disbelief. She had made it. She had made it through the hood, she had made it through four years of college with her sanity intact. She had made it! Layla would be graduating third in her class with a Bachelor’s of Science in Healthcare Administration. Dabbing her eyes, she said a silent prayer and applied her makeup flawlessly. Dressed, she grabbed her cap and gown off the back of the door and opened it. Naomi stood there. "I figured I'd give you time alone in there for once. You ok?" She asked genuinely concerned. "I’m fine.” She smiled. “Today is a happy day!” her smile fell. “Oh god Nae, it will never be the same again will it?" She sobbed thinking of all the memories they shared together in this apartment and as best friends. Naomi swallowed hard, blinking back her own tears. "No it won't." She whispered. She grabbed her hands and squeezed. “But we’re moving on to bigger and better things. We get to create new memories." She sniffed as they hugged and held for a while. "Promise me…” she swallowed a lump in her throat. “Promise me that no matter where we end up in this big ass crazy world that we will always be best friends." Naomi said softly. Layla smiled sadly."I promise we will remain the best of friends. We will dance at each others weddings, we will be godparents to each other's children, and we will even grow old together and live right next door to each other.” They chuckled. “I love you so much boo. You are my sister for life." Layla nodded biting back a sob."Ah hell! See what your sensitive ass started! I gotta fix my makeup now. Let’s go before we’re late." Naomi rushed by her wiping at her face and she took a moment to breathe again.

The faint voice of Jacquees singing You Need Me grew louder as her phone rang. I wanna hold ya, kiss ya, touch ya, miss ya every time you leave me. Cause you need me. Don’t you want somebody to love you back? If I don’t know anything, you just might be my everything. And you don’t understand, you don’t understand, you don’t understand. I wanna be your man. So umma tell yo ass like this. He can’t, he can’t, love ya like, love ya like, love ya like I want to. I want to. Baby you need me. Shawty you need me. Baby you need me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…

She sighed. She needed him bad but had  to put some distance between them to clear her head. She had only ended up stressing herself out more. On top of that she was still PMSing and wished like hell her monthly visitor would just stop by already.

It had been a week and Xavier called every day. She did miss him, but over the week she found herself questioning if maybe she didn’t deserve him. He was everything she had ever dreamed about. Had longed for someone to love her like he did. It just wasn’t fair that she had to choose between staying here, loving him and not perusing her dreams, or go and possibly ruin the best thing that ever happened to her. How can I choose? If he were in my shoes would he choose me? He has so much ambition, so much drive and I just want him to be proud of my accomplishments as well. She wanted to be his equal. Now did that make her the bad guy?

The sound of her cell phone ringing again jerked her out of her stressful thoughts. "Hello?"  She answered with a smile she didn’t feel. "Hey baby. How are you?" he cooed in her ear. "Oh, I'm ok. We're just getting in last looks then we're gonna head over. What about you?" He sighed. "The same as you. The whole family is here though. Mom really wanted you here for photos." "I'm sorry baby. We can still do that. I'm meeting you there right?" They had agreed to meet at the school stadium. "Right" A silent moment passed. "Is everything ok baby?... I know you needed time with your friend and I’ve been missing you like crazy but... I don’t know. You just seem distant." Xavier said worriedly. Now wasn’t the time."Baby I’m fine… We'll talk later okay. Right now let's focus on getting through this crazy day." "Fine. I love you, and see you soon." "I love you.” She whispered hanging up. So many emotions were hitting her all at once, from happiness to sadness, fear and nervousness. She was a wreck. "I need a damn drink.”  "I'll drink to that!"Naomi walked in and yelled. "Come on. Let's go get those degree's we worked our ass off for!"