"You wanna go to breakfast?" Jelani asked Sakari and Amber as they sat in the two girls' dorm, around 12, two days later. "Well, brunch,"

Amber had come to see them, because she arrived later the night before and wanted to sleep as soon as she was done unpacking. The girls met Amber later on in the last year of school—at one of Khi's football games.

She meshed with the two easily, and although she was on the cheer team and didn't get to hang out as much because of practice and travel games, she did as much as she could while they were all together.

"Um, yeah," Sakari shrugged. She didn't know what time Khi wanted to come over, or what he wanted to do but she was sure he could wait.

At that exact moment, he texted her.

stupid💙🤞🏾: tootieeeeee
: yes?
stupid💙🤞🏾: wyd today?
: getting breakfast w. amb and jeli, why?
stupid💙🤞🏾: you wanna go to the mall with me and Trae later?

Before she could reply, Jelani's snickering snapped her out of her focus on the messages. "What I miss? What happened?" she asked, looking between them both.

"You, Ms. Girl! All smiling at your phone," Jelani teased. "Who texted you?" she asked with a smirk, already knowing who it was, but just wanting her to say it.

"My mama, thank you very much. My little brother is walking around like a big boy, and she wanted to show me," she lied, not wanting to admit that Mekhi had her smiling like that. Of course, her best friend knew he could—and had seen it happen.

"Mhm, okay ma'am," Amber chuckled. "So what are we gonna eat? I have a meeting with the team at like 3," she checked her phone.

After the girls decided what they were gonna eat, Amber waited in her car for the other two girls to get changed of their lounge clothes and into something a little more presentable, and take their bonnets off, officially starting their days.

"Jeli, you okay?" Sakari asked, glancing over at her friend as she swiped lipgloss across her lips. Jelani looked over at her and briefly, Sakari could see that she wasn't.

Over the summer, Jelani had gone through a particularly hard breakup. She and her longtime boyfriend had been through a lot, and the relationship ended—while it was a decision between the two of them that it should happen, they were both still very hurt by the separation, and were dealing with it in their own ways.

Jelani, personally was dealing with it by not dealing with it at all. After a day or two of crying about it, she had pushed it to the deep crevices of her mind, and Sakari had been trying to get her to open up since June.

"I'm okay, Kari," she smiled gently. "Don't worry yourself over me," she waved Sakari off, looking around for the hoops she just had on the other day.

"Well if you need to talk—"

"I know," she nodded. "Now come on, I know you're starving,"

Sakari sighed briefly, following Jelani out of the room and into the parking lot to find Amber's car.

After breakfast, Amber dropped the girls back to their dorm, as she was running late to her cheer team meeting and bid them a good rest of the day.

"You wanna just chill for the rest of the day? Or you had something planned?" Jelani wondered, as they sat on their respective beds, scrolling on their phones.

"Um, Khi invited me to the mall with him and Trae, you wanna do that? I can tell him come scoop, he not doing anything," she offered.

"That's perfect! I need to buy my mama a birthday present, chile," Jelani giggled. "Gon' head and call your man," she teased.

"Not my man," she retorted with a chuckle.

"You just wait on it," she pointed and Sakari shook her head, looking for his messages to tell him she and Jelani would come.

Jelani had a habit of instilling this extra confidence in Sakari when it came to her feelings for Mekhi. She always told her friend it could and would happen, when Sakari had been convincing herself otherwise for years—literally.

A few minutes later, she got a text back from Mekhi, telling her that he and Traveon were outside, so the girls gathered their things again and headed out, again. Upon seeing Khi in the front seat of his car, laughing at something with Traveon, she began to feel butterflies in her stomach, which she couldn't get rid even if she tried. And she tried.

It happened in middle school, seventh grade to be exact. The first day of spirit week—twin day. Even in elementary school, Tamika and Tamara made the two go as twins, and they just kept tradition up into middle school.

They walked to the bus together as usual, both wearing the same outfit to the shoes. They laughed and joked like usual, and everything felt normal, at least at first it did.

"Tootie! Come take a picture wit' me for yearbook!" Mekhi called to Sakari while she switched her heavy science and social studies books in her locker for her duffel bag so she could go to gym the next period. She was already about to be late to class, and she had no idea how Khi found her. She glanced to her left and saw him waving her over, with a kid from the yearbook class.

"Khi," she sighed to herself. He was getting much more acclimated to being around people, and while his anxiety still ate at him sometimes, he wasn't the shy kid he used to be. It proved to be a tad difficult for her because she was still way more to herself than he was.

But, she obliged.

He had a huge smile on his face as she walked over, and she couldn't help the small smile that started to grow on her face too, and she shook her head.

Lately, she had been feeling off. Not in a bad way, but in the most confusing way possible. She didn't understand what was going on, and it only happened when Khi was around. She got all nervous, her palms started to sweat and sometimes she couldn't even look him in his eye.

"Smile, Tutu," he threw his arm around her shoulder and she did just that, grinning with all her teeth, showcasing her dimples.

"Okay, do a funny one," the eighth grader told them from behind the camera, and instantly, Mekhi went into a pose they used to do when they were really young. It was in so many of their photos as children.

He squeezed her cheeks in his hand, and she tried to hold back a laugh as she shut her eyes and made a kissy face at the camera, and he just cheesed.

After the pictures, Mekhi decided to walk her to the gym—he was learning that as an athlete, he rarely got in trouble for anything, so he used it to his advantage and to spend more time with his best friend.

"I'll see you after school?" Mekhi asked as they walked the empty hallway to the gym.

"Yeah, I'll be home babysitting after you get from practice. You can just come over," she shrugged. "Semaja wants to play your playstation so bad,"

"I got her," he laughed, arm still resting around her shoulder. "I'll see you later then, Tootie, behave," he teased, repeating what their mothers told them every morning.

"Whatever, Mekhi," she giggled. He laughed and quickly pressed a short kiss to the side of her head, before sprinting off back down the hall, waving at her.

She felt light all over, like she could start to float any second. She raised her hand slightly and waved back, hoping he didn't notice that she was completely dumbfounded. She felt like she was in a movie, where the scene goes pink, and the music gets all sweet, and suddenly it dawned on her. She understood why everything had been so confusing, and why she couldn't compose herself on the inside, and why he made her so nervous.

"Carter! Why are you late?!" she heard the gym teacher call, snapping her out of her realization, and causing her to run toward her, giving her the pass from the yearbook teacher.

But that thought stayed with her for the rest of the day.

After that, it seemed like every year that passed by, Sakari's feelings for Mekhi grew. She wasn't sure how to address it at first, so she didn't. Nobody knew—not even her mom. But, once she was able to come to terms with the fact, she was already sure she had no chance, and she accepted it, still happy to have a best friend in him, and that's how it'd been, since the 7th grade.

"Hey y'all," she grinned, getting in the back and Jelani greeted them as well.

"Wassup, mamí!" Traveon cheesed. "How was your summer?"

"Hi Traveon," she giggled. He was her favorite friend that Mekhi ever had, he was nice, funny on occasion and he was always so calm, she knew he and Mekhi balanced perfectly, and their personalities worked well with each other, seeing them interact made her happy.

She could do without the play flirting, but she let him have it, because she knew he was constantly on joke time. She'd seen him flirt for real, and it was nothing compared to the baby compliments he gave her.

He was Dominican—well half Dominican. She watched him basically talk the panties off of a girl in Spanish after a game once, and she was astonished at how smooth he was.

"My summer was okay, how bout yours?" she wondered, and he went on to tell her the ins and outs of his vacation while they drove to the mall.

"Jello, we done been to all the stores you wanted for your mama, you need to pack it up and buy her something online, you too picky," Mekhi complained after they left Nordstrom Rack and still found nothing.

"Hush, Myrtle! I was done anyway," she curled her lip up, and Sakari shook her head at the two. "Where y'all wanna go?"

"Footlocker," both Traveon and Mekhi said, which came as no surprise to the girls. These two loves shoes. Sakari had a bit of a thing for them as well, but her four siblings and lack of a job couldn't do much for that.

She usually didn't work while she was at home because the kids needed to be watched and Semaja had an after school activity that turned into a hobby that transformed into an out of school career. When she was little, she loved to play instruments, so she started to learn, and to say she was gifted was an understatement. She was beautiful on a violin and a piano—but it took up a lot of her time so when Sakari was home, she watched the kids instead of working.

Her parents tried to give her money weekly, but they still had bills to pay and mouths to feed, so her stipend wasn't huge. They sent her money while she was in school too—just not to be blown because it wasn't a hell of a lot.

It was the opposite for Khi who was a spoiled only child. He was very generous and far from rotten, but he always got what he wanted in all aspects. So going to shop for shoes casually was nothing new for Sakari and Khi.

"Ooh, look at these," Sakari picked up a pair of bred 4's. "When I tell you I was sick when I couldn't get these? Bitch I was walking around the house mad at everybody," she chuckled.

She had actually saved her money from her parents for three straight weeks just to get these shoes and the SNKRS app failed her—and many others.

"Them is cute," Jelani marveled. She wasn't as into shoes, but she liked a cute pair of Jordan's every now and then. "Lemme bribe my brother to get me these," she giggled and Sakari laughed.

"Tutu!" she heard Khi call and she turned to his voice, seeing him hold up a pair of shoes. She squinted for a moment, studying them from where she and Jelani stood, and twirling her finger, causing him to turn them from side to side, and nodded, and he did the same.

"Gir—what the hell was that?" Jelani asked.

"Oh, he always asks my opinion on shoes and stuff, it just became nonverbal over the years, I don't feel like walking over there to respond nor am I yelling," she explained. "I ask his too, but I usually text him, with his loud ass," she shook her head. As long as they'd been friends, there were times where they didn't even need to speak to one another to be understood. After hearing her explanation, Jelani just stared.

"What?!"

"Nothing, y'all are just cute is all. You are so in lo—"

"Aht! What did I tell you about that word," she hushed her friend and Jeli just laughed to herself at the sheer and utter denial of it all.

"Y'all hungry?" Traveon asked, as they exited H&M.

"Yeah," Jelani and Sakari replied simultaneously, and Khi just nodded.

"Bet, let's get food. Ima pay for you, mamí," he winked at Sakari and she laughed, shaking her head.

"Don't encourage his dumb ass," Khi chuckled as they went on. "You gon stop flirting with her nigga, gon have yo' lil army after my best friend,"

"Nah, they know I know where home at, right, Sakari?" he slung his arm around her shoulder.

"Exactly," she played along and Mekhi sucked his teeth, making them both laugh at him.

They tried to choose different things, but of course Sakari and Mekhi ended up both getting Chinese. They had a weird attachment to food court Chinese food.

"Mekhi, no—stop," she tried to reach for him. "I can pay for my food,"

"I know you can," he said, swiping his card. "But I wanted to pay for it, is that a problem?" he wondered, grabbing his receipt and the bag of food from the woman and they both thanked her before walking off.

"Your mom and dad don't give you money so you can spend it on other people, Mekhi," she fussed. She was so used to her budget being kind of tight, it was like second nature for her to be slightly frugal.

"And you know like I know my mama and dad don't see you as other people, so cut the shit," he chuckled. "Aye, Jelani aight?" he wondered as they walked back to the table she sat at, playing with the straw in her cup.

"Aw! You're concerned," she cooed, nudging his side and he laughed. "But...she says she is. I don't believe her, you know her and her boyfriend broke up this summer, so she must be hurting at least a little, she just won't talk to me," she sighed.

"Hm, sounds familiar doesn't it?" he glared at her and she rolled her eyes. "You just gotta be patient with her, breakups can be a bitch, she probably just tryna cope, you know?" he said.

"I feel like a bad friend," she pouted. "How am I supposed to help?"

"You are helping," he noted. "You being all worried and nervous, checking on her even though she might be faking, allat is helping. You not a bad friend, Tootie,"

"Thank you," she smiled slightly. "You're okay too,"

"I'm amazing, fuck you mean. You better act like you know something with your baked bean head ass," he teased.

"Okay, not too much on me, with that fat ass nose you got," she pointed. "Jackson 5 ass nose, don't start wit' me,"

"See now Ima start, cinnamon stick body ass, you got me fucked up, long neck ass" he replied and even from a few tables down, Traveon and Jelani could vaguely hear them insulting each other, and they simply shared a glance, before shaking their heads at their friends usual antics.

day three  of consistent updates WHOOP. (this is in no way to distract y'all from the fact that promise is still in the works lol)

let's get into ittttt!

we learned some more about jelani this chapter, have y'all been through a breakup like that? ik i have chile & i understand why sis don't wanna talk.

how y'all think kari is handling it?

we also met ms. amberrrr our resident cheerleader lol we have one more to go :)

how'd y'all enjoy the mall trip? yall think kari is in love and in denial? or you think she just hasn't made it there yet? lmk!

and lastly how did y'all feel about khi's encouraging words to her about being a good friend?

what was your favorite part?

till next time babiesssssss 🥰❤️