Heartbreak Ain't Harder Than Healing

Tynesha "Nesha" Wright had been riding for Kareem "Reem" Miller since they were both rocking uniforms at Westbrook High. Back when he ain't have a name in the streets yet before the chains, the clout, and the hoes that came with 'em. She held him down through his come-up, thinking being his day one meant she'd always be his only one.

But Reem changed. Fame hit, followers grew, and his loyalty got real shaky. Nesha saw it coming the slick comments, the girls in his phone, the way he stopped answering her calls when he was "out with the bros." But she held on, believing he wouldn't play her. After all, she knew him before he was "that dude."
Then came the night at Club Vibe. A video went viral before she even got home: Reem, front and center, letting some chick with red lace and booty shorts twerk all on him like he was single. Public disrespect. Straight humiliation.
What made it worse? He had just gifted her a bearded dragon named Mango a make-up gift for missing her finals during his last "disappearance." Said he believed in her dream to become a herpetological veterinarian, even if nobody else in the hood knew what that was.

Crushed, Nesha shut down. That's when he stepped in.
Malik "Mal" Carter - her big brother Dre's best friend. Been around the house since forever, always lowkey, always respectful. A real one. But he wasn't that scrawny boy from back in the day no more Mal grew into a six-foot wall of protectiveness, muscles, tattoos, and thick shoulder-length dreads that smelled like cocoa butter and danger.
He found her crying on the porch, Mango in one hand, her pride in the other. And unlike Reem, Mal didn't come with excuses or games just actions. He started showing up: checking on her, taking her to class, upgrading Mango's tank, cooking for her after late-night study sessions. He saw her not as Dre's little sister, but as the woman she was becoming.

But hood love never comes easy.