chapter twenty-four

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"Lourdes, why are we here? It's 11 am on a Wednesday," Rashir whined as they trekked through campus. It was the day before they were leaving for the Bahamas and Lourdes had dragged Rashir out of bed to run errands with her. She needed to tell the professors, whose class she had on Thursdays and Fridays that she would be absent and get any work they were assigned, finish shopping since she didn't do any the day before, and go home to pack all before 9 pm. The girls were spending the night at the boys house and Aaliyah wanted to get there early to make sure she got a good nights sleep.

Rashir had gotten out of his weird mood and was back to acting normal again. She hadn't asked him about what happened and she didn't really want to. She knew he would just shut down and avoid her questions.

"I told you, I need to pick up some work," She replied, holding the door open for him as they entered one of the buildings. She had asked all of the girls to drive her but they were all busy, so she'd called Rashir to pick her up at her apartment to run errands together. Her car was acting strange so she didn't feel comfortable driving it until she could take it to the shop and get it looked at, which would have to be after the vacation.

"Why didn't you get one of yo' lil' friends to drive you around?"

"I told you, they're all busy,"

"So I was the last choice?"

"Basically," She shrugged, entering one of the lecture halls where she knew her Calculus professor would be. "Come on, you're walking slow as hell," She rushed him. She approached her professor, who was grading papers at her desk.

"Lourdes! What are you doing here?" Professor Williams looked up with surprise, "I don't have you until tomorrow,"

"I'm actually not going to be here tomorrow so I was wondering if I would be missing anything important?" She asked while Rashir rested his chin on her shoulder from behind her. She rolled her eyes at his childishness and swatted at him as her professor looked through her plans.

"Well, we were just going to watch a movie if I'm being honest, you're not missing anything," Her professor, gave her a smile, "You two make such a cute couple! When did you start dating?" She gestured to her and Rashir, making both of their eyes widen with surprise.

"Um, we're not dating," She stammered, "Just friends,"

"Yeah," He cosigned.

"Oh, my bad, well have a nice rest of your day, I'll see you whenever you come to class," Her professor dismissed them, turning back to her papers. The two awkwardly left the building, not saying a word to each other as they walked back to Rashir's Camaro that was sitting in the parking lot. Campus wasn't very busy so no one stopped them to talk. Most people were in class or still sleeping.

Rashir unlocked the doors and they both climbed in, fastening their seat belts when he started the car. "Where we going now?" He turned to ask Lourdes who was texting Aaliyah on her phone, asking her to pick up something for her on their travels.

"'The mall," She replied. Since her shopping was interrupted the previous day by her shirt getting drenched, she still needed to buy some clothes and toiletries for their vacation. She was looking forward to tanning on the beach without a care in the world, not having to stress about school or work for just a couple of days.

She had stayed up the night before, looking up things to do while in the Bahamas. She didn't want to just be a clueless tourist. She had made a list of the places she wanted to see and some beaches she wanted to visit.

"Aight," He plugged his phone into the aux, shuffling one of his playlists, and pulled off, exiting campus.

"Lourdesss," Rashir complained, dragging out her name, "We've been here for 2 hours, how much stuff do you fucking need?" He gave her a pained look, making her laugh.

"Stop whining, we just need to finish in here then we can go get food," She waved him off as she picked up a cute dress. She asked Rashir to carry it, giggling at how miserable he looked. They had been to a couple of stores already and he was holding all of her shopping bags for her, plus a pretzel he had forced her to buy him at Auntie Anne's.

She picked up a swimsuit, inspecting it, and held it up for Rashir to see, "Is this cute?" It was a white, one-shoulder one piece with a hole in the chest and on the sides.

"Sure," He absentmindedly replied, barely paying attention.

"Rashir! Look at it!" She waved a hand in front of his face, snapping to get his attention.

"I am! Just go try it on, I don't care," He replied, "Anything to make us get out here faster," He mumbled under his breath.

She huffed and made her way to the fitting rooms, calling for him to follow her. He was holding most of the things she wanted to try on and she needed him to give her opinions on some of the clothes.

"Sit here, I'll be out in a sec," She pointed to a bench in front of one of the rooms and he let out a sigh of relief, plopping down dramatically. She gathered all of the clothes he was holding for her and entered one of the rooms, closing the curtain behind her. She stripped and slipped on a dress she picked up, it was a colorful halter neck dress that hugged her curves perfectly, accentuating the curve in her waist and her wide hips. She looked at herself in the mirror, tilting her head to try and decide if she liked it or not.

Deciding the needed a second opinion, she whipped the curtain open, startling Rashir who was on his phone looking bored.

"So, is this cute?" She asked, doing a twirl so he could see for himself. He looked up and almost choked on his own spit, recovering quickly and clearing his throat.

"Yeah it's nice," His eyes wandered down her hourglass frame, drinking in her figure hungrily but she didn't notice, too busy looking at herself in the mirror.

"Okay, hand me my phone so I can take a picture and send it to the girls," She held her hand out for her phone that was next to him. He handed it to her and their fingers brushed each other, making her catch his eye for a moment before she pulled away.

"I'm gonna uh, try on the rest of the stuff, just wait here," She instructed and he just nodded. She went back into the dressing room and slipped the dress off, picking up a sundress she thought was cute. She put it on, shrugging the straps over her shoulders, and looked in the mirror, immediately sighing.

She looked fat.

Even though she had been going to the gym on Sundays with Gianna, it seemed like the extra weight she had gained wasn't going to be lost anytime soon. She had been trying to get in shape in time for this vacation by doing extra workouts at home but they weren't showing any changes. She was about to take the dress off and hang it back up into the 'No' pile when the curtain ripped open and Rashir stood in front of her.

"Do you mind?" She covered herself, feeling insecure, "Why are you barging in here? What if I was naked?" She snapped. Rashir smirked and said nothing, making her roll her eyes, "Stop thinking about me naked, what do you want?"

"I need to piss, I'll be right back,"

"Okay," She shooed him out of the dressing room and shut the curtain. She changed out of the dress and tried on a couple more outfits while she waited for him to come back. She had already ordered some things from Shein weeks ago, so she didn't need to buy too many clothes. She still wanted to go to the shoe store to pick up some flip-flops since hers were old.

She had also ordered from a couple of other websites when she got her paycheck, so she was pretty much set for their small vacation. She had already told Crystal a week ago that she was going on vacation so she wasn't able to work and Crystal had taken her off of the schedule for the days she would be gone. The mall kiosk that she worked at was closed for the rest of the month because her manager had some family business to take care of so she didn't need to worry about that.

She finished trying on outfits and put her own clothes back on. She had thrown on some jeans and a hoodie since she knew they were just running errands for the day and she didn't need to look presentable. She grabbed all of her things she was buying and exited the dressing rooms, just as Rashir came waltzing back into the store.

"You were gone for like 15 minutes," She narrowed her eyes, walking to the cashier.

"The bathroom was busy," He shrugged.

"Yeah okay," They stood in line for a couple of minutes before the cashier called them up. Lourdes placed her things on the counter and waited for the cashier to ring her up as the girl whose name-tag read 'Desiree' practically ogled Rashir from behind the counter. Lourdes decided to ignore it at first, most people drooled over Rashir so it wasn't anything knew, but the girl was beginning to take way too long to ring up her things as she stared at Rashir who wasn't paying attention in the slightest, too busy staring at all of the things Lourdes was buying.

Desiree continued drooling, taking an agonizing long time to scan one of the dress and Lourdes let out an exasperated sigh at her ridiculous fangirling, "You wanna take a picture or something?" She snapped, making the girl blush with embarrassment. Rashir snickered from behind her as she began rushing to scan her things. Lourdes paid and the cashier told her to have a good day, calling for the next customer.

"Jealous?"

"Of what?" She scoffed, walking out of the store and heading to the food court. Her stomach was beginning to grumble, she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast which was hours ago and the only thing she had was some cereal.

"She was checking me out," Rashir smirked.

"Good for her, what do you want to eat?" She asked as they entered the food court, looking around to decide what she wanted. While she was trying to watch what she ate, she was craving some orange chicken from Panda Express.

"You paying?"

"Yeah, perhaps I feel bad for dragging you around," She said as she made a beeline for Panda Express, "Do you want this?" She pointed to the restaurant and he shrugged.

"Get me whatever you get, I'm finna get us a seat," He told her and went to get them a seat, leaving her in the line.

"You didn't need to walk me to my door," She said to Rashir as they rode the elevator up to her floor. They had successfully finished shopping and she left the mall with everything she needed.

"What if you got kidnapped on the way up or some shit? Yo' little ass can't fight anyone off,"

"I am not little!" She glared at him, "5'4 is an average height," She insisted as the elevator came to a stop at her level. They stepped out of the elevator and walked to her door, still bickering.

"Yeah, yeah, you can't even carry all these bags up here anyway," He gestured to all the shopping bags they were both carrying as she unlocked her door. She told him to set the bags down on the couch and he obliged. Nala and Aaliyah were making a last-minute trip to Target to pick up toiletries so she knew they weren't home. It was 8 pm and she still needed to shower and finish packing. Gianna was coming over at 9:15 to drive them over to the boy's house so she had a good amount of time to get everything done.

"Thank you," She hugged him, "I'll see you later,"

"No problem, I'll see you at the house," He hugged her back. She inhaled the smell of his cologne, which was a mix of something citrusy and pine. She was obsessed with his smell, it was in his car, on his clothes, and his things.

"Why you like smelling me so much?" He pulled away from the hug and looked down at her, laughing.

"You smell good okay!" She exclaimed, "Now go! I need to finish packing," She pushed him out of the apartment and closed the door, almost wanting to collapse. She'd been on her feet for the entire day and she was dying to sit down, but she needed to pack. She picked up some of the bags and brought them to her room, dropping them on her floor, and went to get the rest. She dumped everything out of the bags and onto her bed, grabbing her suitcase and zipping it open. She began packing her shirts first, folding them and stuffing them into the suitcase.

After about 20 minutes of packing, she heard the front door open and Nala and Aaliyah talking as they entered the apartment. She got up from her position on the bed and opened her door to go talk to them, deciding she needed a break.

"Oh hey you're back, do you want some fries? We stopped at Mcdonald's on the way home," Aaliyah held up an extra bag of fries and offered them to her but she declined, not wanting to eat any more fattening food for the day.

"I'm not hungry, Rashir and I got food at the mall," She explained and followed them to their room. She sat down on Aaliyah's bed as Aaliyah pulled out her suitcase and stuffed some extra things into it.

"Are you finished packing?" Aaliyah asked her and she shook her head, "Why not? We're leaving to go to their house in-" She checked the time on her phone, "Less than an hour,"

"I know, I just can't decide on what to bring," She sighed, "Can you guys help me? It'll go by faster if I have 3 sets of hands instead of one," She begged.

"Fine, hurry up, I need to finish packing some stuff too," Nala hurried her off of the bed and the girls walked to Lourdes's room. Nala looked around the room while Aaliyah and Lourdes got to work folding clothes and making 2 separate piles for things she was taking with her and things that she wasn't. "I'll never forgive you for getting the nice room," Nala huffed and made her way over to help them.

"You guys have the nice room, mine is smaller," Lourdes pointed out, she put her knotless braids up into a high ponytail to keep them out of her face as they began packing. She had gotten her hair braided over the weekend so she didn't have to deal with getting waterproof glue for her wigs. Braids seemed like the best option and they complimented her face. She always felt 10 times better looking with her hair done.

"You're just lucky you don't have to share a room with Aaliyah, I can't make any noise past 10, or else it wakes her up," Nala complained, "Who even goes to sleep that early at this age? Grandma," She teased and Aaliyah stuck her tongue out at her.

"I'm sorry I'm not sleep deprived like you two," She retorted while folding a dress, "I need my beauty sleep,"

"Less arguing, more folding," Lourdes interrupted their banter and placed a pair of heels into her suitcase. They continued helping her for another 15 minutes, talking and sharing their excitement for the vacation. Nala was still insisting they had to swim with the sharks even though almost everyone except for Nico told her she was crazy.

Lourdes had made Rashir promise to go snorkeling with her and in return, she had to go jet skiing with him even though she really didn't want to. She was terrified of falling into the ocean, getting stranded and not being able to make it to shore.

Gianna made the girl's promise that they would go shopping with her at least once while they were there and they reluctantly agreed. Shopping with Gianna could take hours, most of which is spent following her around designer stores and holding her things for her because she can't hold them herself.

"Okay it's 8:55, I'm gonna shower," Lourdes announced, stretching after sitting in an awkward position on her bed for a while now. "Thanks for the help,"

"No problem," Aaliyah stood up as well, exiting her room to go watch TV in the living room. Being the perfectionist she is, she had already finished her packing days before so she wouldn't have to rush like Lourdes was.

Lourdes gathered her things to shower and rushed to the bathroom, quickly stripping out her clothes for the day, and grabbed her shower cap to put over her head. She put her playlist on shuffle and hummed to "Me, Myself and I" by Beyonce while stepping into the hot water. They were just going to wake up and head straight to the airport in the morning so she knew she wouldn't have time to shower beforehand. She quickly scrubbed her body with her soap and washed her face.

She finished her shower and dried off, changing into some sweats and slipping on her slides. She grabbed her suitcase from her room and rolled it out into the living room where Nala and Aaliyah had already put theirs. When she went to the kitchen to grab a water bottle, her phone rang from in her pocket and she saw Gianna's contact pop up, indicating she was calling her.

"Hello?" She balanced the phone between her shoulder and her face while opening the water bottle.

"I'm downstairs, I don't feel like going up to your apartment so come down," Gianna told her. Lourdes said okay and hung up, yelling at Aaliyah and Nala to tell them it was ready to go. She went to her room and checked if she was forgetting anything, nodding when she was satisfied, and closed the door. She turned off all of the lights and grabbed her suitcase, ready to relax for the

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