"I wanna go home," Genesis complained from next to her. She was working a 5-9 shift and the diner was dead. It was a Monday night on November 1st, no one was going to stop and come into the small diner unless they were ordering takeout or they were there for doordash. It was 8 o'clock and she had only served one table. She and Genesis were sitting on the counter seats, talking and gossiping, trying to pass the time.

"You always wanna go home," She pointed out.

"Yeah, and?" Genesis countered. "Ain't nobody coming to this place right now, you know how it gets when it's cold."

When it transitioned to Fall or Winter, the diner tended to get less busy. It was a small space that mostly consisted of outdoor seats, but since it was cold outside no one wanted to sit outdoors and their customer count declined. Some people trickled in to sit at the counters and the 4 booths they had lined up against the walls, but during the weeknights, they usually weren't busy.

"Where's Hakeem?" She looked around for him but he was nowhere to be seen. Hakeem, Lourdes, and Genesis usually worked their shifts together, it was rare for him not to be there, especially since his father was the head cook.

"He called out," Genesis said while picking her nails. Lourdes was surprised, he almost never missed a shift.

"Weird," She shrugged.

"Soooo," Genesis dragged out the 'O' making Lourdes look at her with confusion.

"What?" She asked.

"I heard you talking to Rashir Martin," Genesis raised her eyebrows suggestively at her.

"And how did you hear about that? We don't even go to the same school," Lourdes narrowed her eyes.

"Um, he's like, famous? He's the number one draft pick, Lourdes, people keep up with him," She gave her a look as if to say 'Duh'. "But congrats sis, you bagged a baller,"

"I didn't 'bag' anyone, we're just friends," Lourdes shrugged her off. She had been getting this a lot lately. Ever since she befriended Rashir, Nico, and Mateo she had been getting loads of follow requests on Instagram, and been photographed with Rashir on more than one occasion. She was even posted on The Shade Room. When she read the comments on the post, she was disgusted to see the number of girls calling her unattractive and tearing her down, all because she was posted with their celebrity crush. She had blocked The Shade Room immediately, refusing to read any more of the cruel comments, and eventually went on with her day, but the comments still got to her.

It was weird, she knew that Rashir was known, but she wasn't aware that he was practically famous. When he first requested to follow her, she hadn't paid attention to the number of followers he had. When she recently checked again, she was baffled to find that he was verified and had over 800 thousand followers. Same with Nico and Mateo, but they had fewer followers than him. Nala had never complained about being posted on The Shade Room, or be harassed by people taking pictures of her and Nico, but Lourdes guessed it was different since Rashir was the 'star' of the team. If it was exhausting for her to just be posted once, she couldn't imagine how bad it was for Rashir.

"Lourdes!" Her manager, Crystal called her over to the back of the diner. The diner had a small bathroom in the back, an area for everyone's personal belongings to be held during their shift, food storage, and a tiny manager's office. "Come to my office," Crystal gestured for her to follow her and she stood up from her seat.

"Ooh, someone's in trouble," Genesis snickered at her.

"Genesis, you shouldn't be sitting around, it's unprofessional. Go make yourself look busy," Crystal shooed her from her spot at the counter. Genesis let out a heavy sigh, rolling her eyes and muttering "Bitch," under her breath.

Lourdes followed Crystal to her office, awkwardly standing in front of the door and looking around the dingy room. The office was tiny, only able to fit a small desk, office chair, and a shelf to keep paperwork. Crystal took a seat on her chair and turned to face her, giving her a warm smile.

"You're not in trouble honey, I'm sending you home. No one is coming in and there's no point in paying two servers when we barely need one." Crystal told her, making her let out a sigh of relief. "I am going to need the tips you made today though, for tip pool," She turned around to turn on the desktop computer sitting on her desk.

Lourdes dug through the pocket of her apron and pulled out the tips she made, which was only a 20 dollar bill, and reluctantly handed it to her. With the money she was making at this rate, she wouldn't be able to pay for a margarita in the Bahamas.

"Hey Crystal, is there any way I can work a couple more days during the week? I'm saving up for a trip in a couple of weeks,"

Lourdes fidgeted anxiously as Crystal looked at the schedule she had on her computer. After a couple of moments, she let out an "Aha!" turning around to face her again. "You have perfect timing, Genesis wanted her hours cut so I can give you Thursday, Friday, and Sunday nights! I can also give you Saturday mornings if you want, it would be 8 to 4 and the rest of the nights are 5 to closing,"

Lourdes contemplated for a moment, she really did need the money but with this schedule, she would barely have time to breathe. The latest class she had ended at 3 on Thursdays, so it would work out fine but she would basically just live at the diner and campus from now on. She looked back at Crystal who was staring at her with anticipation.

She gave her a tight smile and nodded, "Yeah that's fine, thank you so much." Crystal gave her a thumbs up and added her to the schedule, letting her know she was free to go. She walked out of the office and grabbed her things from her locker, slipping on her coat and taking off her apron. She went back to the front where Genesis was back to sitting, but in a booth this time and secretly texting.

Genesis looked up when she heard footsteps approaching, frowning at seeing Lourdes looking like she was leaving. "And where the hell you think you going? You not leaving me alone here,"

"Crystal sent me home, she also gave me all of your shifts you gave up so you should be happy,"

"Wait what? She gave you all of my shifts?" Genesis gaped at her, "You know you gon' be working like every day now? That's like suicide,"

"Yeah," Lourdes bit her lip.

"Okay focus! We have a quiz on Wednesday about this stupid book and neither of us has read it," Lourdes threw a crumpled piece of paper at Mateo who was laughing at something on his phone. Since she had gotten sent home early from work, she had enough time to go home, shower, and change before she drove to the boy's house. She had gotten there an hour early so she could go home to work on a paper for World History. She and Mateo were taking a break from working on their project, this time they were studying for the surprise quiz that Professor Magaline sprung on them in class earlier.

"This book has over 200 pages bruh," Mateo whined, picking up the hefty book and staring at it, "Ion wanna read this shit," He threw it on the couch, standing up to get a snack from the kitchen. "You want sumn to eat? Imma order a pizza," He came back from the kitchen with a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water for her.

"Sure, what kind?" She asked while opening her water.

"Pepperoni,"

"You should put pineapple on it," She suggested and he stopped in his tracks, giving her a disgusted look. "What?"

"You put pineapple? On pizza?"

"Not you too," She rolled her eyes at him. She already argued with Nala and Aaliyah about this, she didn't want to debate with Mateo too.

"So you telling me-" He began,

"Here we go,"

"You eat pineapple wit' pizza on it? Ion know if we can be friends for real," He shook his head at her.

"Shut up, why are people so weird about putting pineapple on pizza? It's good," Lourdes defended.

"You put a fucking fruit on yo' pizza and you calling me weird? Yeah, aight,"

"Just order the pizza, I'm hungry," Lourdes stuck out her tongue at him, picking up the book to read the summary.

"Fine, imma order one wit pineapple just for you, no one else eating that shit," Mateo began typing on his phone, ordering the food. Lourdes began reading the summary of the book when she heard someone coming downstairs and looked up, biting her lip when she realized it was Rashir.

He looked good, she thought to herself. He was wearing a simple white t-shirt and grey Nike sweatpants. She could see his tattoos that covered both his arms and traveled up his neck, and almost drooled at the sight of the chain dangling on his neck. She shifted in her seat, trying to get a hold of herself as he made his way to the living room.

Lourdes refused to admit to herself that she had a crush on Rashir, even though she was finding it harder to ignore how attractive he was. She was still trying to act normal around him, and clearly, she was doing a good job since no one had suspected anything.

"Wassup brodie," He dabbed Mateo up, smiling and showing his pearly whites, making Lourdes bite her lip.

"Ain't nun, I'm bout' to order pizza, you want some?" He asked him.

"Yeah, get two if Nico's having some. His fat ass always eats the entire thing," Rashir advised, making Mateo laugh. Rashir looked in Lourdes's direction, making eye contact with her and smirking. "Wassup Lourdes, what y'all doing," He gestured to the book she was holding and the papers littered across the coffee table.

"We're studying for a test," She replied.

"Oh aight, I won't bother y'all then," He turned to Mateo, "Tell me when the pizza here," He told him and gave Lourdes one last smile, turning around to go back upstairs. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, placing the book down next to her and reaching for her water again. She felt eyes on her and glanced at Mateo, who was chuckling to himself.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"Nun," He said, putting his phone back on the table. "The pizza coming in like 30 minutes, let's study now."

"Okay, what was the author trying to-" Lourdes was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. They had been studying for a little over half an hour and now they were quizzing each other on the book.

"I'll get it," Mateo hopped up from his position on the couch, making his way to the front door. He opened the door and exchanged a couple of words with the delivery person before closing the door with his foot and walking back to the living room to place the 2 pizza boxes back on the coffee table. He walked to the kitchen to get plates for them, handing Lourdes one and a napkin. "That box is yours, it has pepperoni and pineapple," He fake gagged when he said pineapple, making Lourdes roll her eyes at his theatrics. She thanked him, getting ready to open the box when she realized she hadn't washed her hands.

"Hey, do you have a place I can wash my hands?" Lourdes asked him and set the plate down on the table. She refused to eat anything unless she washed her hands first. Her father was a complete germaphobe, before he left he installed into her head at a very young age to always wash her hands before she ate.

"You touch things millions of people touch with their germs, everyday baby. Always wash yo' hands before you eat, or else you gon be swallowing people's germs." She remembered him telling her when she was 5. Ever since then she brought hand sanitizer with her everywhere, in case there wasn't a place for her to wash her hands when she went out.

"Yeah, there's a bathroom upstairs, can you tell Rashir and Nico the pizza here when you go up there?" He asked as he took a bite of the pizza.

"Sure," She agreed and stood up to wash her hands. She had been going to the boy's house for almost 2 months, but she had never gone upstairs. She and Mateo always stayed in the living room, she had only been to the kitchen a couple of times to get a snack but she had never stepped foot on the upper level. She slowly climbed up the stairs, admiring the decor as she made her way up. She knew that the house was nice, she had only ever seen the middle floor and a glimpse of the backyard. When she reached the top of the stairs she froze, realizing she never asked which room was the bathroom. "Shit," She muttered, she figured she would guess and pray she didn't accidentally walk in on someone jerking off in their bedroom.

She walked a couple of steps down the hallway, deciding she would open the first door to the right. She opened the door, sighing when she realized it was just a closet. She closed the door and moved to the door next to it, reaching for the doorknob to open it when the door swung open and let out a cloud of steam. She was staring at a shirtless chest that had water droplets dripping down the chest. She looked up, her eyes widening when she was met with Rashir's gorgeous face who was smirking down at her. His curly hair was wet, and the only thing he had on was a towel.

"Oh my god! I'm sorry I was looking for the bathroom," She stammered, taking a step back to create some distance in between them.

"You found it," He licked his lips, moving to the side to let her walk past. She shuffled past him, into the bathroom with her head down, avoiding eye contact with him. She walked to the sink, pumping soap into her hands and turning on the faucet. She felt someone's presence and turned to see Rashir leaning in the doorway, staring at her with a stupid smirk still on his face.

"Yes?" She asked, rubbing her hands together to get rid of the soap. He was silent as he watched her dry her hands off on one of the hand towels. He took a step towards her, making her take a step back. She was incredibly jumpy, being in close proximity of Rashir who was only wearing a damn towel that was showcasing his muscles was making her nervous and she wanted to exit the room as soon as possible. She bit her lip, waiting for him to say something, playing with the sleeves of her top.

"You nervous?" He maintained eye contact with her as he took a step closer to her. She didn't move away this time.

"No," She denied, looking off to the side. He lifted her chin with his finger, angling it to look up at his face.

"You sure?" He asked again, he brought his bottom lip into his mouth, biting it. She was speechless for a moment, staring at his lips when she snapped out of it.

"Yes Rashir, I'm fine," She pushed his hands away and took a step away from him, coming to her senses. There was a flash of hurt in Rashir's eyes but it was gone as quickly as it came. "The pizza is here by the way," She gave him one last awkward smile and stepped around him, practically running out of the bathroom like her ass was on fire. She jogged down the stairs, fanning her burning cheeks, and quickly composed herself before she walked back into the living room.

"What the hell was that?" She murmured to herself, straightening out her shirt. She and Rashir were friends and what he had just done was definitely not friendly. She shook her head, ridding herself of all thoughts of Rashir. She didn't have time to be thinking about Rashir and she was certain he wasn't spending his time thinking about her. It was getting late and she needed to get home soon. She didn't want to have to face Rashir when he came downstairs, so she made a rash decision. She walked back into the living room and ignored Mateo who was stuffing his face with a slice of pepperoni. She grabbed her laptop, stuffing it into her bag, and began gathering the rest of her things.

"Hey did you tell-" Mateo stopped talking when he realized she was packing her things, "What are you doing? You leaving?" He asked, confused.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling that well, I'm just gonna go." She rushed out, trying to leave before Rashir finished getting dressed, and came downstairs. "Sorry for making you get the pizza, I can pay you back if you want, how much was it-"

"You don't need to pay me back, just take it." Mateo cut her off, handing her the box. When she didn't take it, he shook it at her, "Lourdes, take this shit. Nobody in this house eating a pizza with pineapple on it, I promise you."

She laughed and took the pizza, "Thanks," She heard someone opening one of the doors upstairs and she picked up her pace, rushing to the front door and slipping on her crocs. She turned to Mateo who was standing behind her, still looking at her with confusion, "We can study tomorrow? Just come to my apartment," She offered.

"It's fine," He waved her off, "I'll see you in class,"

She nodded and turned to unlock the door, cursing when she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She yanked the door open, practically throwing herself outside and jogging to her car, ignoring the sound of Rashir calling her name from his porch.

***
things are starting to happen 👀. tehehe hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! don't forget to vote and comment!