𝐊𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐉𝐀𝐇'𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 / 𝐃𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐈𝐄 𝐁

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟒: 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐙.

All The Stars by SZA and Kendrick Lamar played lowly from Khadijah's laptop. Kevin was laid out on her bed, typing furiously on his phone—wired earbuds in his ears. Arion sat on the floor near the foot of her bed, using an old, ratty notebook to write lyrics. Khadijah's eyes slid back to her own assignment—glaring down at the numbers and formulas uselessly. It'd been almost two weeks of going cold turkey for Arion and at Kevin's insistence, he pushed him back into music for a distraction. Something to keep him busy.

Honestly, Khadijah didn't even know that Arion made music.

It took time for Arion to make it past the withdrawal phase, and it was fucking ugly. She'd only stayed for the first two days, and then Kevin forced her to go home after Arion lashed out one time, almost hitting Khadijah with his lamp on his nightstand. It'd shaken her a lot, but she didn't take it personally. Arion bounced between anger and being avaricious—it was draining and honestly, she was a little relieved to go home after spending just two days there.

Those two days were enough for her. Arion didn't get physical with her, but he got physical with Kevin on more than one occasion, leaving Kevin bruised and sore to the touch.

Things were still weird between them, but Khadijah tried her best to act nonchalant about the whole thing—taking a page out of Kevin's book for once. Making a bigger deal out of what happened wouldn't help anyone—it, especially, wouldn't help Arion.

"Can I see?" Khadijah asked, spinning around in her chair, breaking the silence that had settled over them. Arion's head jerked up, eyes instantly finding hers before he lowered his gaze again almost immediately, focusing his attention back on his notebook.

"It's not even that good." He mumbled under his breath. She could tell his hands were shaking again—they were prone to doing that now, and his writing came out a little more scratchier than intended. It bothered him, judging by the way his eyebrows knitted tightly together in annoyance each time he couldn't steady his hand. 

Her heart ached for him.

"What is this even for? Why's Kevin staring at his phone like he wants to kill it?" Khadijah nodded towards their friend, who looked murderous. She wanted to keep up conversation, so she got off her chair, sinking down on the floor beside Arion—not too close that she could see the notebook, giving him some privacy.

"Nigga hates writing," Arion mumbled again, shoving his face into his notebook to avoid her eyes. Khadijah frowned. "B-Lovee called us up the other day—wanted to collab, and Kay wanted to force me into it—so I forced him. Boom." Arion shrugged.