Start It Up

06. Ronan Taylor is a hookup king

"When you decide you like yourself (holla at me). When you decide you need someone (call up on me). When you don't have to think about it. Love me at the ungodly hour" Chloe x Halle

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"Ugh I hate this party, it's time for us to go home. " Ronan whined as he and Liyah joined her on the couch.

Nea laughed at his sudden outburst. "And where have you been?"

He crossed his arms and avoided Nea's inquisitive stare, refusing to answer her.

"He was hooking up with this girl from our ECON class; someone walked in on them and now he's pissy about it." Liyah shrugged.

"You snitch." He sneered, causing Liyah and Nea to stare at him in surprise. "Kidding, love you." He mumbled, slumping his shoulders and taking a sip of his drink.

"Babes, Audrey's playing Meg The Stallion!" Umi yelled, jumping on the balls of her feet. "It took a lot of convincing including promising to cook for her for a month but now you're all gonna watch as I throw some ass to my wife's music." She pulled Liyah and Nea from the couch. And then onto Ronan who would not budge no matter how hard Umi pulled on him.

"Help," She squeaked, Nea springing into action to get him off the couch.

"Get up you lazy bum." Nea groaned. "Look that girl is staring at you. I bet she wants to dance with you."

"Wait where?" Ronan asked, suddenly coming back to life again. He got up locking eyes with a short Asian girl with two full tattoo sleeves on display. She wasn't Ronan's usual type but the way that he confidently went up to her asking her to dance it was as if flirting was his job.

"Oh jesus, someone please tell me I'm dreaming. Better yet, kill me right now" Nea moaned.

"What?" Umi asked, trying to see what Nea was looking at.

From across the kitchen she saw Luke, his arm hanging lazily off a gorgeous girl.

"Shit they're coming over here." Nea said, panic rising in her voice. "Hide me," ducking behind Liyah.

"Hey Nea." An all too familiar voice greeted her. "I can see you from behind your friends."

"Hi Luke, how are you?" Standing to meet him, slightly embarrassed at her lame attempt at avoiding him.

"Good, it's really good to see you again, you look great." He said, bringing his hand up to behind his neck.

As if seeing Luke couldn't be more painful but this awkward conversation took the cake. She just wanted the sky to open up and suck her up into space. "Ok cool, we're gonna go now." She muttered trying to get out his way as quickly as possible. 

"Hey, it's nice to meet you! My name's Marina." The woman beside Luke said. She had an accent that Nea couldn't quite pinpoint but it was beautiful. "You have such a lovely name." A genuine smile on her face.

Nea offered her a smile in return only hers was fake. Pretty and nice, Nea thought trying hard to fight the scowl that was forcing its way on her face. I can't even pretend to hate her.

"I just wanted you to hear it from me but this is my girlfriend, we've been dating for a few weeks."

Nea frowned upon hearing that. Coming from the same man who kicked her to curb citing that they were progressing too quickly. And here he was a month later with a hot new girlfriend, was he trying to rub it in her face? Because she knew that he sure as hell didn't care enough to give her a "word of warning".

"Ok thanks for that." Liyah said through clenched teeth. "Move along now." Motioning her hands to signal them to walk away.

Hesitantly Luke grabbed Mariana's hand walking away from them.

"You ok?" Umi asked, a look of pity crossing her eyes. "You don't need trash guys like him."

"Yeah, he's not worth even one second of your thoughts." Liyah chimed in.

"I'm gonna go to the kitchen real quick, see if I can find water or something." Nea said, walking off before they could follow her.

------

Canaan walked back into the kitchen stopping in front of Nea who was perched on top of the black granite countertop, not so subtly starting to doze off. There was only a few other people in the kitchen. He tapped her knee to get her attention. "You missed me that much?" He grinned at her confused expression as she tried to remember where she was.

"Yeah I was so lonely without you." She joked, hopping off the counter.

"You wanna go chill outside?" Canaan asked, jerking his head into the direction of the hallway. "There's a balcony off of the living room." Nea nodded following him out of the kitchen.

Nea walked out onto the balcony mouth agape as she took in the beautiful spot. It wasn't very big, only holding a small table and two folding chairs, there were plants in each of the corners taking up most of the space and an overhanging mini garden entangled with small fairy lights on the railing. She looked  and could see cars passing by on the busy street below them but from the height they were at they cars were barely above a hum. And the view itself consisted of bright lights from other apartment buildings and the seemingly never ending skyline. Every area of the balcony seemed so intentional and created its own little peace, considering the blasting music inside of the apartment which just seemed to melt away as Cannan closed the sliding glass doors.

"I like the apartment set up." Nea said, breaking the silence. "You live here by yourself?"

"Thanks and no I live here with Luca, the one who did the dramatic entrance earlier and my other friend Maleek. He's around here somewhere , he doesn't really talk that much but you would like him. And my sister helped decorate the apartment so the compliment is really for her."

Nea nodded looking back into the streets.

"I hope you don't mind?" Cannan asked drawing Nea back in forgetting for a moment she was not alone.

She watched as he pulled out a blunt and a lighter from a little box on the table, placing an ashtray next to it. Offering Nea room to sit down.

"Sorry I won't if it bothers you, not trying to make you uncomfortable."

"No it's cool." Nea said sitting down across from him. He brought the blunt up to his mouth sparking  it in one swift movement. She watched as he blew the smoke out slowly. Nea looked away realizing she was staring a little too intently at his lips.

Canaan stuck on his hand, passing it to Nea. "It's never fun to smoke alone, but only if you want to?"

Nea looked at his hand hesitantly, she couldn't remember the last time she smoked and if her mother could see her now she would definitely call her pastor and tell her that "the devil himself" possessed her. African parents and their overreactions to everything. But looking up at Canaan's face illuminated by the lights on the balcony and the quiet buzz of the traffic beneath them she couldn't help but agree to take the blunt in between her two fingers.

She inhaled deeply coughing immediately as she exhaled sharply, raising her elbow to try and hide the fact that she definitely did not know what she was doing. If Umi could see her, she would laugh straight in her face and tell her to stop being such a baby. She looked over again through the dimness she could see Canaan struggling to hide his laughter.

"Shut up." She croaked out, glaring at him, causing the both of them to laugh even harder. Canaan's laughter caused a feeling of warmth to ripple up Nea's spine. Although neither of them said anything they could stay out here forever, oblivious to the party on the inside, enjoying each other's company.