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As class let out for the day, Sakari speed walked behind Aja to catch up with her. The past few weeks the girls had become closer but all that came to a stop last week when Sakari saw she and her ex, hopefully, arguing.

"Aja!" she called. Although they texted, in class, Aja's personality did a complete 180. She was no longer that lively and cheery spirit Kari had come to enjoy seeing, it was like she was withdrawing more every week.

Aja stopped in her tracks and turned around to see Sakari, who finally caught up with her. "Hey..." she drew out.

"Hey, I just wanted to talk to you...you know see if you were okay—and I don't mean to pry or anything, but I'm...well I'm just worried," she confessed, sighing briefly. If having one friend going through a breakup and not talking wasn't enough, she felt like the worst friend of the year now.

"I-I'm uh," Aja opened her mouth to lie but stopped mid sentence. She figured if there was someone she could vent to she should take the opportunity. "I'm not," she sighed.

"Well if you ever wanna talk I'm—oh! Uh, did you wanna talk? I have some time before my class and—" Kari replied, not at all expecting her to answer favorably.

"No, I know that guy is waiting for you, he always is," she chuckled. "Call me after classes? We can get some food," she suggested and Sakari nodded. "Cool, see you,"

"Okay, be safe," she waved and Aja waved back before walking off. "If only Jeli would let me bribe her with food," she chuckled to herself and started to walk toward the spot she and Khi would meet to go to their class.

Once she rounded the corner, she saw him talking to Mina, smirking about something. She pulled out her phone to look a tad bit busy, also so she wouldn't stare and irritate herself. She actually did have texts to reply to, from Amber and Jeli, talking about what they were doing after the game on Saturday.

There were usually parties after games, and that was most likely what her friends would want to do, which meant the game was on to try and convince Kari to come too. It's not like she was completely against it, but parties weren't her first choice of recreation.

amber🤩: sakariiiiiiiiiii 😏
jeli: come out and get drunk with your friends sis 🙂 it'll be fun 🙂
: LMAO not y'all being creepy. ill think ab it

"Excuse me, Ms. Sakari Carter?" she heard, and she realized in her efforts to 'look busy' she walked right past Mekhi and Amina.

"Oh shit," she chuckled, turning back to walk over. "Hi, sorry" she waved at them both.

"Hey," Amina waved with a short smile.

"Dry ass hi," Mekhi curled his lip up and Sakari shook her head. "Ima hit you later, Mina," he nodded at her and she did the same, waving at Sakari again before walking off.

"You ready?" she asked, getting ready to walk off.

"Ima knock yo' giraffe neck ass out, say hi to me right," he mugged and she just shook her head.

"Hi, Mekhi, how was your morning?" she chuckled and his mug disappeared. "You are a baby! You act like Tyree!" she full on laughed now.

She used to think that when her aunt and uncle said he liked her attention when they were young, that they were exaggerating. But they certainly were not, and as they got older, she understood. He was a very stingy friend, especially in elementary school. He didn't like when the other kids would play with Sakari, and he would mug them all from the blacktop until she came back. Now, he just got annoyed when they had absolutely zero time spent, and—in his words, when she treated him like a 'side bitch'.

'I'm the main bitch, don't forget that,' he always said and she just went along with it, knowing good and well nobody could replace him anyway.

"If you ain't treat me like some two dollar hoe I wouldn't have to act like that," he joked, as they began their walk to class.

After all her classes were over, as promised, Aja met Sakari at her dorm, and they had food delivered, since neither of them drove. Aja was getting ready to tell Kari what had been going on with her these past few weeks.

"So," Aja said, after sipping her juice. "I started dating this guy freshman year, his name is Jaden, he was such a gentleman, really sweet. But, I wasn't really interested in dating when we met. We had a class together and he was extremely persistent, always asking me out or for my number and after a few weeks I cracked, and after that it's like everything is a blur," she shook her head.

Sakari listened intently, waiting for the bomb to drop, because what she saw was not a very sweet gentleman at all.

"I don't know what he did, to this day I can't tell you but I was wrapped tight around his finger. Outside of schoolwork and my extracurriculars, Jaden was the only thing I saw, he was like perfect to me. I didn't really make many friends last year so I didn't have anyone to tell me I looked like a complete and utter dumbass. He flirted with other girls relentlessly—it started with him just looking while we were out, or just glancing in another direction. That turned into him in other girls comments, which led to DM's, which led to screenshots in my messages," she sighed. "You know when something is so good you don't wanna let it go even though it's like...painful?" she asked.

Truthfully, Sakari didn't know. She never had to experience someone betraying her in an intimate way, everyone who ever hurt her feelings only did so on the surface level because she refused to let anyone besides her family and Mekhi close until she met Jelani.

She nodded in understanding anyway, so Aja could continue. "Well that was me. I was that bitch who thought I could keep a man who didn't want to be kept, that 'he knows where home is' kinda girl—just thinking that now makes me wanna throw up. He manipulated my emotions so well in the beginning and made me feel like his number one, all of his bullshit apologies were like music to my ears and I just ate that shit up. Every time I had some kind of complaint about his actions, he would do the same thing like he was hypnotizing me or something. He would hold my face up, and move my hair out my eyes if it was there, look me directly in my face and say: 'Aja I love you, okay? You don't ever have to worry because I love you. No matter what goes on I'm always gonna come back to you,' and my brainwashed ass thought that was a good thing," she chuckled.

"Well...what made you realize it wasn't?" Sakari asked, not even eating. She was fully invested in the story now.

"He actually had sex with someone. Usually he would flirt, get a number, text and I could convince him to delete it but he-he actually went out and had sex with some girl and it was like the blinders got taken off because when I found out...Sakari it was like I saw the world different, and I know that sounds dramatic," she chuckled. "But it's real, I realized all the dumb stuff I said and did, and how insecure I was in myself, all the girls he went after were always everything I wasn't and it took him doing that for me to realize how messed up I was and how fucked up that relationship was so I dead it, at the beginning of the semester" she said.

"I'm glad you did," Sakari nodded. She could physically see Aja changing every time she saw her, and even though there hadn't been a positive change yet she was hoping it'd come.

"Me too, but he isn't. He hasn't accepted it, he won't leave me be. He hasn't done anything scary, and I'm sure he won't but every time he sees me alone he makes it his mission to try and persuade me to forgive him like he used to and thankfully I'm out of his little relationship cult or I would have fallen for it a long time ago," she sighed. "And I think what's hurting me the most right now besides the cheating of course is like...I gotta look at myself in the mirror and face all that dumb stuff I did every day. I have to, or I'll never be able to change it, I'll be that same girl for the next emotionally unavailable nigga I come across,"

"Well," Sakari began. "I think, all that matters now is that you are out of it like you said. You're able to like...understand fully what needs to change and you can accept that. It's important to, because imagine you thought nothing was wrong? You'd just be stuck running in circles, but you wanna be different and I think that's the best part. Your personality is really different right now from when we first met, and it had me kinda worried, but I can tell you're gonna be back," she smiled, and Aja cracked a smile too.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "That's...a nice ass compliment," she giggled. "Anyway girl, enough about my sad ass, let's talk about you, I feel like this is a perfect girl talk opportunity," she said, and Sakari laughed.

"Okay, whatcha wanna know?" she asked, starting to eat again.

"First, that guy," she smirked. "The one that's always waiting for you after class,"

"Oh, Mekhi," she nodded, fighting the blush creeping up her neck because she knew what was next.

"Are y'all, you know? A thing? That's your man?" she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and Sakari laughed.

"No, he's my best friend. We grew up together, our families are super close. He literally lives next door to me, so yeah," she explained and Aja just squinted her eyes. "What?"

"I feel like there should be a but coming," she said.

"I—well, I mean...no. No buts, he's just my best friend," she said again and Aja just continued to stare. "I feel like you have something to say," she chuckled.

"It just feels different," she shrugged. "The way you just looked when you said his name was very...familiar," she smirked.

"Aja please," she groaned, and Aja gasped. "Please!"

"Okay! Ima leave it for now. But I'm watching you, Carter," she pointed playfully and Sakari saluted. "You going to the game Saturday?" she wondered.

"Yeah, Khi's on the team and if I miss it he'll die so," she shrugged. "The first game always feels like them games after school on Friday night," she chuckled.

"Yes!" Aja agreed, making Kari remember she was indeed from Dallas. "Them Friday night games was something serious girl,"

"Always, and the food after? Chile I basically went to a game just so I could eat after. Something about it was different that eating any other day," she said.

"You right, because I definitely hit the 'so we finna go? We gon eat?' as soon as the game ended. Ain't nobody pressed over them stinky boys I want whataburger," she rolled her eyes and Sakari laughed, because she was sure she saw that exact conversation happen at her high school after the football games.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

"Gameday, Tootie!" her uncle Dre cheesed over the phone in Khi's jersey. "You ready?" he asked.

"Yes sir," she laughed. It was originally her dad who called. She wasn't sure how her uncle got the phone, but he looked excited so she was glad to talk to him. "You lookin' clean unc!," she gassed.

"You see me!" he laughed. She was always happy to see how excited his dad got to see Khi play. When she learned that he was a professional football player, she wasn't at all surprised about how much he loved seeing his son play.

"Nigga gimme my phone!" she heard her dad say before he was in the screen again. "Hey baby,"

"Hey daddy," she laughed again. "Y'all at Auntie house?" she wondered, setting her phone down so she could finish getting ready. She was already dressed, she just had to finish her hair and she'd be done. She was finishing up a slick back on her natural hair at the moment.

She knew how to install wigs on herself, but that required buying a wig—which she did not have the money for at the moment, and all her good hair was still at home. So she figured at Thanksgiving, she'd bring it, because she was far too tired of doing her hair.

"We are," Shemar nodded. "As you can see yo' uncle is way too excited about this game ," he chuckled. "How are you, Sakari?" he asked, as she heard one of her sisters running past him. "Siarah! Slow down!"

"I'm good," she smiled.

"You been taking good care of yourself? Eating? Sleeping?" he raised his eyebrows, making her laugh. "I'm serious! I can't worry over you in person so I gotta do it now,"

"I appreciate that, daddy," she nodded. She wasn't really a daddy's girl per say, she loved both of her parents but when she was young, everyone said she was Tamika's shadow. But she and her dad always had a great relationship. "I'm sleeping real good, you know I'on play about my rest na'," she chuckled and he nodded with a laugh.

They talked for a little while longer before Jelani came back in the room, fluffing her hair with a yawn. She parted ways with her family and they all said hi to Jelani before she did so.

"Your family is so cute," she giggled. "Oop not my sis in her man jersey making it look cute," she gassed her friend. "My bitch say go Aggies," she stuck her tongue out and Sakari just laughed.

"That's not my man, but I do look cute, don't I?" she smirked. She didn't dress up at all, she never did for games, she liked to be as comfortable as possible, but she didn't look bad.

Sakari had one of Khi's three freshman jerseys, his mom had one and his dad had the last one. He got new ones this year, so nobody had to worry about returning them. He was number 2, or Deuce, his teammates loved to call him that.

It fit huge on her, even tho Mekhi was kind of slender, he was built, and he gained weight from their time in high school. The jersey was long, but she constantly kept it tied so she didn't look insane.

"You ready to go?" Sakari asked once she had her shoes on and Jelani nodded, then they were off to the main event.

"There's Amb, hey babe!" Jelani called to Amber who was on the track with the rest of the cheerleaders. The girls weren't far from the front and it hadn't gotten too full yet so they could talk to her.

"Hey y'all! Don't you look cute," Amber grinned, jogging over to the stands. They came down and gave her hugs before they began talking. "I think it's gonna be hella full," Amber spoke gesturing to the stadium. 

"Of course, y'all know these people love football, I'm surprised they ain't here yet, this hoe usually packed already," Sakari chuckled.

"They still black, CPT has a hold on my people," Jelani shook her head causing the other two to laugh. "You cheering during halftime?" she asked Amber.

"Of course. I'm flying today, so watch out for me," she said excitedly. The girls didn't see much of Amber thanks to competitive cheer and regular cheer, plus classes,  but they always loved watching her get excited to perform.

The girls talked some more until seats started to fill rapidly and they knew it wouldn't be long until the boys got called out, so they took their seats, and Amber went back to the squad.

About ten minutes later, as they thought, an alarm sounded, grabbing everyone's attention to the banner at the entrance of the field, and everyone was on their feet to cheer for their school's football team.

"Chile lemme take pictures before my Auntie kill me," Sakari suddenly remembered, and took out her phone to snap some pictures of Mekhi, but as soon as she zoomed in, her eyebrows furrowed.

Usually, before a game he was excited. He was laughing with his teammates and joking around, goofing off, talking to cheerleaders and their coach, the whole nine. But as of right now, his face was completely stoic, he was chewing on his bottom lip and he was looking around like he was being followed.

"He okay?" Jelani asked, also noticing his strange behavior.

"His anxiety must be acting up," she muttered. "He told me the other day he was feeling nervous about the game but I thought—damn," she sighed.

"That's not your fault for not catching it, hell you could have thought he meant stage fright," she said.

She nodded, because that's exactly what she thought. She then remembered that this was his first game since the season prior, his nerves must have been bad, and that plus the huge crowd didn't mix well. Khi was growing acclimated to things like this—that didn't mean he didn't still have some low moments.

She knew he didn't have his phone, so she quickly texted Amber, who was currently hiding from her coach and on her phone, telling her to try and send Khi over to her so she could try and help out a little.

Sakari watched as Amber read her text, and looked around for Khi, going to tap him and show him the message, pointing at Kari, who waved at him and he nodded, putting his helmet down and jogging over to the stands, while she went down to meet him.

"What's the matter?" she asked, shifting her weight onto the railing beside her while she studied his face.

"I'on know I just feel uneasy," he replied. "I couldn't sleep last night, I'm hella nervous," he began to explain.

"You talked to your mama?" she wondered.

"Nah, I'on want her thinking she can pray the anxiety away," he chuckled dryly.

"Well," she spoke. "All I can say is this. It may be nerve wracking right now, all these people back in this environment again, but, when you put that helmet on its gonna be you and the boys and that ball, its gonna be way easier to focus once you start," she said and he nodded in agreement. "But, till then, if you need me I'm here, if you wanna come back you can, don't force yourself to go over there and be all excited if you're not," she

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