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SUNDAY WAS more agitated than Brandon had ever seen her.
He saw the way that her leg shook and her fingers were tapping on the desk in front of him.
Something was bothering her and in turn, her being so upset was now bothering him.
Brandon leaned forward from where he was sitting behind Sunday and tapped her shoulder to gain her attention and whisper, "Are you okay, ma?"
"No. It's a long story," Sunday muttered back.
Brandon glanced up at the professor who was lecturing about the importance of color symbolism in film, "Tell me now. He ain't paying attention."
Sunday turned halfway around and was about to whisper something back when the professor let out a fake cough.
"Excuse me. Is there something that you wanna say to the class?" The professor asked, his gaze on the two of them.
Sunday turned sharply back around while Brandon leaned back in his chair, "Nah."
"Okay. Then let's continue." The professor gave them a stern look then turned back to the white board.
Sunday's leg continued to bounce and Brandon's worry only hastened.
He wanted to know what was wrong and at the moment that was more pressing to Brandon than whatever topic the professor was talking about now.
Brandon pursed his lips and then glanced at the door then at Sunday's back.
Would she leave with me if I asked?
Brandon tried again, this time taking a piece of paper from his notebook, writing the question 'what's wrong?' and then passing it forward discreetly.
Sunday's leg stopped bouncing and she began to scrawl a response.
Unfortunately her passing the note back wasn't as guarded and the paper was snatched up by the professor.
"Until you two," He balled up the paper in his hand then shot it into the trash can by the door, "Can focus on my lecture and not distract the other students who want to learn, I'm gonna have to politely ask you to remove yourselves."
He has a nice three point shot.
Brandon glanced around at their peers, who stared back then stood up.
Sunday was slower to rise from her seat and once she did so, she was out in the hallway without looking back.
Brandon followed her outside, keeping up with Sunday's pace easily.
"Hold on, what's going on?" Brandon stood in front of her.
Sunday stopped and put her hand on her forehead for a second then looked down.
"Are you... Ma, are you crying?" Brandon's index finger found Sunday's chin and lifted her face up.
Sure enough, her eyes were red and she was sniffing just a bit.
"This isn't about the fight with Maya is it?"
Sunday shook her head then took her phone out of her leather jacket.
When she passed the object to Brandon it was open to a picture on Instagram of a brown-skin boy and a girl of Latinx descent.
They were in a couple pose with his arm wrapped around her tight and the girl was grinning widely.
The caption was a lock emoji.
"Is this...?" Brandon trailed off.
"Zion? Yeah. I know I shouldn't care but-but I do. It's only been a month and he," She gestured helplessly to the phone still in Brandon's hand.
Brandon didn't know what to say.
He knew that they were friends first before they were lovers but a tiny part of him was begging to forget giving any advice and just kiss her.
"You should've skipped," Brandon decided to say after a pause.
Even as he said it, Brandon knew that she would never.
Skipping class on a whim wasn't Sunday's style.
"You can't be worried about what he's doing. Y'all broke up for a reason and he sounds like he's not shit." Brandon continued.
"I know that. Doesn't make this shit hurt any less." Sunday retorted softly, her eyes on the grass.
"Look at me," Brandon commanded.
Sunday followed his order, her eyes still red and her face slightly streaky with tears.
"You need to block and unfollow that nigga," Brandon put his hands on either of her shoulders, "He's a fucking bum and you don't need him," He passed her back the phone, "Do it."
Sunday was clearly speechless, opening and closing her mouth several times before nodding.
Brandon looked over her shoulder as Sunday typed in her ex boyfriend's Instagram username then hit the unfollow and then the block button outlined in red.
Brandon wrapped both arms around her neck in an attempt to comfort her and Sunday reciprocated by locking her arms around his long torso.
As the two embraced, only three things came to Brandon's mind.
One, that Sunday was no where near close to being over her ex.
Two, that Brandon thought he was starting to fall for her.
And three, he had to keep himself doing exactly that.
