"You wanna know what I still can't wrap my head around?" Cyrus says as he lifts up a barbell from off the ground beginning to lift the weight as we stand in the gym that we had built into the house

Bringing my 20 lb dumbbell upwards as I curled my arm, lifting it I say, "What?"

"I can't believe I really caught you sneaking around with a black girl." he says looking at me, "I didn't even know you liked black women, Jess. Look at you tryna get invited to the cookout, my good man." he laughs causing me to roll my eyes as I continue to lift

"I like women. Period." I scoff, "I've never had a specific type."

"Yeah but not only is she a black girl. She's Nigerian. So not only are you tryna get invited to the cookout, You wanna take a trip to the motherland." he nods his head, "Or should I say you wanna explore her motherla--"

"Cyrus." I snap and he cuts his eyes back to me again raising his eyebrows beginning to chuckle at the look of annoyance on my face now that he's starting to get inappropriate.

He drops the barbell on the floor slowly and raises his hands in mock surrender, "My bad. Not trying to disrespect your lady or anything." he snickers to himself walking over to a table behind me and grabbing a cold water bottle. "I didn't think you cared that much about her. I thought you were only tryna hit."

"I didn't," I say in a bored tone

"You didn't what?" he asks in confusion

"I didn't, Cyrus." I say turning to look at him briefly

He furrows his eyebrows before his jaw drops in realization, "You and her didn't do anything? So what was all that hiding and sneaking around for. What were you even doing in that daycare, ok well I'm glad yall had the decency to not fuck in there but still." he laughs, "What did yall do? Play a game of checkers for hours? Heads-Up?"

"The hiding and sneaking around was so I could avoid interrogations like these. You know that if I told you that I did anything with her, you'd already be asking me how good she was so you that you could get at her too." I say to him and he jerks his head placing a hand on his heart

"You think so low of me, Jesse." he says in a fake pained voice as he pretends to wince, "Yet you know me so well."

I shake my head as I continue to listen to him, "But for real though. What have yall done together then because you were MIA for a whole month, my guy."

"All I ever did was kiss her." Along with buying her food, watch various movies, and even took her to go meet two of the most important people in my life.

Cyrus hears this and begins to cackle in a huge fit of laughter

"All I did was kiss her." he mocks me throwing his head back in laughter once more, "Yall sound like a bunch of 8th graders."

"How would you know? You lost your virginity when you were that age." I'm quick to snap back at him and for some reason, he laughs harder.

"Well excuse me for being surprised that she had you whipped because of a few kisses she gave you." he shrugs, "It's quite unheard of for someone like you." he snorts and begins to laugh in my face again as I wonder why I'm still friends with this man.

"You're a clown, man." I point at him

"It takes one to know one, brother." he shrugs again, "You got yourself a girl and she's made you all soft and shit. You look like you want to kick my ass whenever I say something remotely sexual."

"She's not my girl." I sigh in annoyance at myself and my stubbornness. A flashback of the tears building up in her eyes begins to cloud my mind. I have to shake my head to get rid of the mental image that's been destroying me for the past week and a half.

"Don't tell me she got sick of you already?" he laughs putting his hand on his hip jokingly with a smile before the smile drops at my silence, "What'd you do?" his face turns serious as grabs a chair and pulls it to sit across from me.

Sighing, I lower my dumbbell placing it on the ground, "Why do you assume I'm the one that did anything?" I lean behind me grabbing a small towel on the table, throwing it over my shoulder.

"Because she wouldn't say anything to you unless you provoke her. When you get mad, you talk to people as if the sky is falling or something and the world is about to end. No disregard for how anyone feels. No disregard for how anyone feels besides yourself." he looks at me with an eyebrow raised as I avert my eyes away refusing to make eye contact, "What could you have possibly done now, Fool?"

Scratching the back of my neck, I shrug and say, "I blamed her for being the reason why Ryan was in the hospital." his jaw drops as he slouches back in his chair groaning out loud, looking at the ceiling

"You need to go to the doctor to see how many brain cells you have left."

"Ok, Cyrus. I know. It was my fault and I blamed her. She didn't deserve that. I get it."

"Well, shit you don't have to tell me all that. Do I look like her to you? How exactly did you even come to the conclusion in the first fucking place?"

"It just came out. Heat of the moment kind of thing."

"Heat of the moment kind of thing." he mocks me again, "Since when does your dumbass even say things like that? Not only has she made you whipped she's changing your vocabulary." he throws his hands up in disbelief

"Look I understand how spooked you were about Simp but he's alive and well. Emphasis on him being alive." he leans closer to me placing the palms of his hands on his knees."Why'd you really say that to her?" he asks me as I begin to bounce my right leg up and down looking him in the for a few second before getting up out of my seat and taking off my grey wife-beater walking over to a clear spot of the gym floor with no equipment getting down on my knees, positioning myself beginning to do a few push-ups.

Cyrus sucks his teeth and chuckles from where he's sitting as he says, "Oh so now you wanna ignore me?"

As I'm on my 10th pushup I begin to hear footsteps coming towards me, I look over to my left seeing, his shoes as he squats down in front of me, wiping his face with another one of our towels, throwing it over his shoulder, looking at me

"You know, now that I think about it. Karma's always been attractive." I pause mid-pushup, stopping to look up at him with a blank look on my face.

He's not looking at me as he gets out of his squatted position in front of me and grabs another chair, sitting it in front of me as I resume my push-ups, looking through his phone.

"Have you seen her Instagram? She's bad as hell. No wonder you were all up on that for a month, damn." he howls turning his phone around to show me a picture of her on her Instagram page as she seems to be wearing workout gear, her shirt is cropped, showing off her fit physique along with the fact that she's wearing leggings leaving very little to the imagination.

"Shit. If she posts more content like this, Imma have to follow," he says tapping his phone as he says that and I roll my eyes going back to doing my pushups.

"I might even take this as an opportunity to shoot my shot." will he shut the fuck up already?

"I commented a little something on that pic so she knows I'm feelin' her. Should I double-tap or no? I don't wanna come on too strong?" he puts his hand on his chin looking up at the ceiling before saying, "You know what nevermind, I'll do it anyway. It'd be a sin to not even attempt to hit that."

He lifts the phone up to my face for me to see and I roll my eyes seeing that he actually did the shit he was saying even going as far as to comment twice, with heart eyes. Huffing underneath my breath I shake my head. I stop doing my pushups once I get to fifty and I get up, heading over to the table behind us to get my water bottle, sitting on the table.

He's still staring at his phone when he says, "Bro, I'm going through her feed and I'm almost pissed that you got to her first. You don't mind sharing like we used to do you? Because just looking at her makes me wanna fuck her brains ou--"

He doesn't get to finish before I start charging towards him, placing my hands on my chest when I reach him and push him into the closest wall behind him grabbing him by the shirt, slamming his back into the wall again. Gritting my teeth I watch as he drops his phone in shock when he looks at me with wider eyes.

"You don't ever speak on her like that around me. Around anyone. Have you lost your fucking mind?" I look him in the eyes, pushing him into the wall again, "I don't talk about Justine like that so if you don't want me to shoot you between the eyes right here, think twice before disrespecting my woman again." My chest raises up and down as I can feel myself breathing heavier but I don't back down as I keep him pinned to the wall.

He looks at me in silence, in shock for a good two minutes before he raises his hands up and starts snickering to himself. "Ok Hulk." he's now laughing incredibly harder than before and he does this I start to come to a realization as to what he was doing.

"I thought you said she wasn't your girl," he says smugly

"She's not."

"That's not what you said." he laughs harder and I remove my hands off of him backing away, he looks down at his disheveled shirt and says, "You're ironing this when it's laundry day," he says inspecting the wrinkles in his shirt as I roll my eyes.

"I knew you liked her more than you were giving off. You're just scared to admit that you fell for the girl." he grins taking off his wrinkled shirt and tossing it to the side. "I know that for some reason it pains you to be able to say it out loud so I won't force you. The way you almost beat me the fuck up told me what I know." he nods his head and points to the door, "It's not dark yet so go back to your weird little hiding spot, and go tell her you're sorry because I know you are."

Not wanting to admit he was right, and still being pissed off at the way he was talking about her, I make sure to bump his shoulder as I push past him heading towards the door and he laughs behind me.

"And nothing is going on with Justine and me!" he yells as I walk out the door, being too tired to tell him that I heard their riveting conversation that consisted of him asking what color she was wearing late at night when I walked past his room the other day.

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Pulling up to the daycare, I turn the key in the ignition when I park and turn off the car. Looking ahead of me at the front of the daycare as I haven't been here in a while.

Shaking my head, realizing that I've been sitting in this parking lot for almost five minutes just staring, I think it's time I get out.

I haven't had a proper conversation with her since that night at the hospital so I don't necessarily have high hopes right now. I don't expect things to go back to how they were, not that I would mind if they did, but I know she's probably already shifted her opinion of me back to what it was when we first met.

All I need her to know is that I don't regret the time I spent with her. That I'm grateful for the way she treated me throughout that whirlwind month we shared together.

Getting out of the car, I fix my hoodie, removing the hood off of my head and placing my hands in the pockets of my grey sweatpants I walk to the front door hearing the familiar chimes of the door ring, along with the blue dreamcatcher blowing in my face as the smell of Lunchables and plastic filled my nostrils.

I look around the room quickly, scanning all over to look for Karma. As I'm scanning, I begin to feel confused as I'm not seeing her with the other volunteers huddled in the corner or sitting with Gio or some other kid.

Seeing the same red-head from a few weeks ago, I think her name was Olivia or something, she has her back turned to me and I take a couple strides to get closer to her enough to tap on her shoulder, She turns around and gives me an inviting smile but I cut her off before she can say anything, "Have you seen Karma? Did she step out or something?" I ask and she bits her lip trailing her eyes up and down my frame and I roll my eyes trying to stay patient.

"She's not here, but if you're tired of looking, you can hang with me instead?" she says crossing her arms as she still looks at me.

"If I wasn't clear before, I'm going to be crystal this time. Nothing you say or do, will ever draw my attention away from her and onto you." I say with as much irritation and seriousness in my voice as I can muster, "Now have you seen her or not?"

She sucks her teeth and puts her hand on her hip rolling her eyes, "I haven't seen her all week. I think she switched her shifts around or something." She was working here every day when we were hanging out though?

"Ok well, what days does she work now?" I ask her eager to come back whenever day I can see her next

She scoffs and crosses her arms, "Well I can't release that information to just anybody, and neither can they." She says pointing to the rest of the volunteers.

If we weren't surrounded by children I'd grab my gun out of the glove compartment and threaten her with it but I'll spare her for now.

"Thanks for nothing." I turn around swiftly shaking my head in annoyance as my eyes land on Gio who's laying his head on the table, with a lollipop hanging out of his mouth.

Walking over to him, I pull out a seat and say, "G." I call him and see his head lift up quickly, a smile reaching his eyes when he waves enthusiastically, "Hey, Jess!" I grab his arm gently, lifting the sleeves of his arm. Having not been here a while, I've grown more concerned that he could be in more pain than he lets on. Seeing the bruise on his arms begin to fade, I look at him, my face holding a blank expression deciding to hold off on asking if he's okay. It's not like he'd tell me the truth.

I'm going to have to figure out another way to speak to her if I cant do it here. I'm getting this apology out one way or another.

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Not Olivia letting her horniness get in the way of Jesse gettin' his girl I-

I love this chapter LMAO Thanks for reading!