$trings

16

[27 June]

"HOW WAS IT?"

"Not bad, actually."

"I thought teens were hard."

"They can be, when you haven't understood em yet. Um... were you not a teen once?"

I snickered, and I peered at Carlos and Hailey, who were sitting with me on an isolated bench on Hailey's side of the campus. "I was a good teen," I said.

My eyes drowned to my new high-heel boots. Mama had bought them for me. Shocking? – I know!

"Oh please. The ones who were the bad teens claim to have been the good teens."

"Monique!" I snickered once more, then slurped at the slushy I was holding. Before I was truly done, Carlos took it from me and sipped from it too, and passed it back. I sipped again. "Well," I muttered to Monique, looking at my man weirdly, "what time will you be back? For the date, I mean..."

"Four o'clock latest." Monique paused. There were birds that squawked through the phone on her side. I heard her talk to someone excitedly. After a moment, she spoke to me, "Jae and I will hit y'all up later, ight?"

"Okay," I murmured, sipping again, then having the slushy taken from me again and finished off by Carlos, "yeah, sure."

She hung up. Hailey lifted her eyed from her phone while Carlos was throwing the straw at me. "How is she?" Hailey inquired.

"Really fine," I said, getting up. I threw the straw back too, but then picked it up because I knew he would leave it lying there.

The two with me got up as well after a moment, and we pulled up our masks and started walking across the grass, where other students were hidden in masks and roughly walking or sitting in small groups too. I was in the middle, so Carlos took my hand at once and yanked me. As usual, I collided with him, even when I attempted resisting his pulls. I wouldn't stop trying just yet.

"Did you tell her about my issue?" Hailey asked me after a little striding in silence.

"Lol, which issue?" I teased, "Your daddy issue?"

"Gosh no," Hailey purred, then came in close so that only I could hear. "Those are like, really personal..." She straightened with a small, almost shy laugh. "I'm talking about the sugar daddy thing..."

"Oh!" I muttered, and I chuckled hard, shaking my head. My man, doing the usual thing of minding his business, simply enjoyed my hand, swinging it back and forth, forth and back. My big baby; the one who made my heart spring. I believed we were still to cross the honeymoon phase. "That one's on you, babe," I murmured when quiet. "Nique is not yet experienced in solving cases concerning sugar daddy's who don't tell you about their wife."

"Ben has a wife?" Carlos inquired, surprised. Yeah, I was surprised too when I found out the night before.

"Yup," I told my man. "He got kids too. Really big kids..."

"I still like him though," Hailey said, shrugging and somewhat slowing our pace.

"Hey," I countered, "that is not like..."

Carlos finished for me, "that is lust."

"Hustle, you mean," Hailey told us, grinning like a she-devil. "He's got good money... I just... love that about him."

I reeled my eyes. Murmuring, "why don't you think about his wife as a woman, Hailey?"

"He doesn't think about her," Hailey said casually, "so why should I?"