Link Up ✔️

Chapter 21

Why should I feel some kind of way because two other people I was crushing over stood in front of another crush of mine? That was normal, right?

"Heeey, Diallo, Gay. You're back! Woohoo! Come on in, the gangs all here. You remember King, right? Anyhoo, he was leaving and ummm..."

"What's up," King greeted them. "Sorry man, I took all the good food. She's going to have to hook y'all up next time."

"Food? There was food?" Gay asked walking inside. "Ugh! Meat!"

"There's some cake left." Although, I did not want to share my death by chocolate cake. My granny made it and I took half and my daddy took the other half. We were the only two that could stand it.

"No, I'm good," she said, going over to sit on Richie's lap, which kind of shocked me. Where they...

"Fresh, Imma catch you later, okay," King said, pulling me in his arms to give me a nice warm hug, and it did feel good before he pulled away and walked off.

"Bye," I said, watching him walk down the hall.

"You and him," Diallo started. "Are you and him, together?"

"What? Huh? No! We're just..." What were we again? Friends? Classmates? Just hanging out? Sorta kinda dating but not really?

"You're just...what?"

I realized I did not answer the question and I had nothing to say about it. Why did I have to define what we are?

"You want something to eat? How was Jeff City? Have fun with your family?"

Diallo started to say something then stopped himself. He stood there, looking at me but not saying anything.

"Are you okay? You want to come in, I'm sure I can find some more leftovers, King did not take it all. I have maybe some-"

"Naw, I gotta go," he turned to leave but I grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Wait! Come on in and hang out with us."

"Naw, I'm good." He snatched his arm away from her and walked down the hall.

Oh well with him.

I went back and hung out with my friends and we talked about what we did on break. I told them about my daddy being funky about my grades and the others all talked about their parents nagging them about one thing or the other. Todd, the As he brought home were not good enough. Jonathan's parents wanted him to be more like Todd, get better grades. Allura, her parents knew she was partying too much, though her grades were good enough for them. Donnell, his parents never wanted him to go far away for college, they wanted him to stay home. Richie, money, he spent too much money from the account they set up from them.

Of course, Gay, her parents did not like anything she did. They did not like her hair, how she dressed, that she smoked, that she "slept around."

My ears perked up at that. Gay slept around? Like with girls or just guys? I was interested...no, for real, I was just nosy AF.

"So you um...sleep around...like you mean, have sex?"

Gay glared at her. "Kinda what that means."

"It's your body, hey free will," Allura said.

"But...aren't you afraid of..." I did not want to sound like a prude, but here it goes. "Diseases, pregnancy...other stuff?"

"Other stuff?" Gay asked with a chuckle. "Like what?"

"I don't know."

"I think she means the kink stuff, right Allura," Jonathan said with a chuckle, elbowing her.