Jesse Duran is back.
After five years of being separated from the rest of the world due to his own mistakes, Jesse has his eyes set on one thing only.
The Love of his life and high school sweetheart, Karma Onuoha.
Five years definitely was a long t...
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"SURPRISE!" We shouted as soon as we saw Paola enter through the front door of the condo with her freshly manicured nails and toes, her hair in a low ponytail, her huge black glasses framing around her eyes, and sitting on the bridge of her nose, wearing light blue overalls with a black crop top underneath.
She jumps up when she hears us and widens her eyes as she scans the apartment to look at Me, Carter, Ryan, Cyrus, and Justine.
Her jaw drops and no sound comes out of her mouth.
I am the first one to speak, "Happy Birthday, Pao!" I reach into the small yellow gift bag I have in my hand full of confetti and throw it directly at her face and her mouth closes as she gives me a straight face.
"Bitch, I thought you forgot about me." she averts her eyes from me to look at all of us, "I thought you all forgot about me. Next year you guys better not do this shit again. You know how much I love attention."
We all laugh loudly as she walks further into the apartment hugging each of us one by one leaving Ryan for last. Justine and I pretend to gag when they do their usual greeting, exchanging butterfly kisses and a small peck on the lips.
A few minutes later we're all sitting on the couches. Paola isn't the type to sit still when people sing Happy Birthday she always said it was very awkward so we skipped past it and went straight to the gifts. Justine is the first to give Paola her gift.
Paola and Ryan had been sitting together on our longest couch, I had been on the second-longest next to Carter while Justine had been sitting on Cyrus' lap who was sitting on our recliner.
Cyrus and Justine reconnected after Jesse had gotten arrested. She was tired of having meaningless one-night stands and she realized that no guy that she has met after Cyrus has kept her attention long enough to consider having a full-on relationship with them. It was our second year of college and Justine asked him out on a date that time around.
They began dating casually for a few months. Both agreeing to not engage in a sexual relationship with one another before Cyrus had officially asked her to be his girlfriend and they have been dating for about 2-3 years now.
Cyrus and I's relationship has improved. He took it easier on me after you know who got arrested and his sarcastic comments almost came to halt. He refuses to tell me any new info on Jesse, respecting my wishes to not talk about him as often. However, Ryan was a hopeless romantic and made sure to slip his name in every other conversation we have to keep my mind on him. I don't know why he tries but Jesse and I would never get back together.
I brought Carter here because I know how much he and Paola hit it off when she came to eat lunch in my office one time and now they always ask about each other. Cyrus and Ryan hang out with Carter too here and there. They bonded over their love of poker at first and now they have a full-on friendship with him.
