AMONG US | HORROR

CHAPTER ONE.

BLACK COMBAT BOOTS WITH THE LACES TUCKED IN WERE SPRAWLED OUT ACROSS THE TABLE.

They belonged to the feet of Cassius, who felt the need to kick his feet up and get comfortable while he discreetly rolled up a blunt in the far back of the library. He and his friends always sat back there when they needed to study, talk about nonsense, or simply slack off. At the moment, it was just Cassius and Najah occupying the table.

Cassius pulled out his lighter and held down the flick, watching the flame spark. He let the flame touch the spliff, and once lit, he put it up to his lips and took a puff.

Coughing a little bit, he held his hand out to Najah, "Here." She highlighted a few important things in her book before taking the blunt.

"Where the fuck is A's crazy ass?" She asked, taking a pull.

Cassius's shoulders went up before going down again, as Najah passed the blunt back to him. "Shit, Ion know. Probably got caught up in some shit as always. Watch he appear soon, always poppin' up when somebody gettin' high."

As if on cue, Adrian walked into the library going straight to the back table where his clique resided.

"Told you," Cassius repositioned his left leg over his right leg.

Adrian placed his backpack down in a chair and took a seat next to Cassius and across from Najah. "Aye y'all, wassup?! How y'all doin' today? I'm feelin' greater than a mothafucka!" He announced loudly to his friends, making the other people in the library shush him.

He turned to look at them with a mug on his face. "Y'all better shut the fuck up with that shh, shh shit! I'll talk loud if I wanna talk loud! It's a free country, I don't owe y'all shit!"

"What you so happy for?" Cassius was curious to know.

"I was chillin' with my girl in her dorm room." Adrian smiled goofily.

"Oh, so you and your hand were getting real acquainted?" Najah joked, making Cassius laugh while Adrian had an unimpressed look on his face.

"Tell us about it!" Cassius encouraged while still laughing.

"Aight, so this what happened right—" Adrian stopped mid-sentence once noticing the blunt in between Cassius' index finger and thumb. "Y'all mothafuckas was smokin' without me?"

Cassius rolled his eyes and passed it to Adrian, who took a puff and coughed loud as hell before smirking. "This some good shit right here!"

Najah pushed his shoulder and snatched the blunt from him, "Stop playin' games and tell us!"

"Aight, shit! Stop bein' so rough!" Adrian mugged her before officially starting his story. "So I knocked on her door, took her ass centuries to open the mothafucka! She opened the door and let a nigga in, so I'm like wassup? She said she was studyin' and I threw her books across the room and told her she gon' have to worry 'bout that shit later! So we get to play fightin', but then I had to leap out the window cause her boyfriend knocked on the door. Bitch ass," he mumbled as he finished talking.

"Damn, A! You had us thinkin' you got some pussy or somethin'!" Najah commented.

"Hold up, ain't this the same girl you was tellin' us about two weeks ago, when her boyfriend was ready to beat yo' ass cause she was the one all up in yo' face?" Cassius recalled. "Chyna?"

"Aye man, it ain't my fault I keep goin' back!" Adrian threw his hands up. "You do crazy things when you in love. But trust me, she gon' fuck with me sooner or later! Love takes time!"

"Please," Najah scoffed, shaking her head from left to right, allowing smoke to come out her mouth. "She ain't gon' give your ass the time of day."

An irksome look was now written over Adrian's face as he looked Najah up and down. "Yo' Lil' Kim lookin' ass gets on my damn nerves!" He swiped her books off the table and onto the carpet-floor of the library.

"Stop!" She bucked at him before retrieving her books off the floor. After putting them back on the table, she took notice of the scenery in the library. "Am I just high or is this library more empty than usual?"

Adrian and Cassius looked around too. "Oh yeah," Cassius agreed, "Usually it's kind of full in here."

"They probably involved in some typa' orgy, you know how college niggas are." Adrian guessed.

"Just because you were involved in one in ya' freshman year doesn't mean anything," Najah shook her head.

"Aye, that shit don't count! I ain't know it was gon' be a bunch of dudes!" Adrian defended, putting his hands up.

Cassius stood up, pushing in his chair. "Let's go hit the cafe, I'm gettin' kinda hungry."

Najah and Adrian collected their belongings and followed Cassius out of the library and down to the cafeteria.

"I got this test comin' up and I been studyin' like crazy," Najah stated, putting two fries in her mouth.

"Couldn't be me! I don't ever study for no tests." Adrian scrunched his face up.

"That's why yo' ass failin' every class you got!" Cassius laughed.

"I ain't know college was finna be this damn hard! I thought this shit was gonna be a hop, skip, and a jump! Shittt, was I wrong. You late to class and all of a sudden your grade drops down to a fuckin' forty-five!" Adrian stressed. "And mothafucka you ain't doin' no better! You just as worse as me!"

"My grades ain't perfect but my shit still look better than yours," Cassius gloated, taking a bite of his fried chicken leg. "At least we got Alberta Einstein over here," he joked, pointing toward Najah.

"We'll really be graduating in the spring. I'm glad I made it this far." Najah said. "Nobody in my family went to college, some of them didn't even graduate from high school."

"Shit. My momma told me that I had to go to college, I ain't have no choice. She wasn't gon' let me sit around her house lookin' for somethin' good to come my way." Cassius said.

"I wanted to go to college," Adrian spoke. "Heard the parties and the food would be dope." He nodded to himself.

Najah laughed, "I bet that orgy party had you second guessin'." Cassius joined in on the laughter leaving Adrian to mug the two.

"I'm sick of y'all black asses. Y'all think shit so funny!"