Best Friends (ON HOLD)

Chapter 23.

•Justis•

When I woke up this morning I forgot where I was for a minute. Then I saw all my cousins around me sleep, or awake and on their phones, and remembered that we came to Aunt Kristen's hotel room last night. I grabbed my phone and checked the time and it said 11:03.

"I'm hungry!" My 7 year old cousin, Zack, Aunt Kristen's son whined. "Ask mom to take us down for some food then." Daelynn, his 9 year old sister said. "I'll go get her." I said. I went to the bathroom, and knocked on the door. "Come in!" Aunt Kristen said. I walked in and Aunt Kristen was leaning against the sink looking pail. "You alright?" I asked. "Yeah. I'm just not feeling well at the moment. What do you need?" "We're getting hungry." "Okay. Santo!" Chresanto came in the bathroom, looking tired as fuck. I've never really thought about Santo. I only call him Chres, Chresanto, or Lorenzo Romelo when he's getting on my nerves. But Santo, that never came to my mind once. "I need you and Justis to take y'all cousins to the breakfast buffet. Everything is free, so your good. Make sure none of them-" "Alright!" We walked out the bathroom and got the attention of our cousins. "We all about to go down to the buffet to get some food. You better not be loud or nothing, so we don't get kicked out." I said calmly, not really wanting to yell this early. They ignored me and kept going on with their business. "Yo, did y'all hear Justis?! You must not be that hungry if you ignoring her like that!" Chres just said out of nowhere. "Chill." I said. "I'm trying to eat, but I can't go down until they ready. Can you people hurry up!" "Aye, stop all that yelling. I got a headache." "They wasn't listening." I said. "Put that stuff down and pay attention," they all put their stuff down and looked at us, "Get up, get dressed, and wait for Justis and Chresanto to take you down to the buffet for some food." Aunt Kristen commanded. They all scrambled to get their clothes out to get dressed. Aunt Kristen is very intimidating. That's one of the reasons why she's the best celebrity lawyer out there.

    I was already dressed because this isn't the first time this happened. The us having to go stay with a family member thing. It happens probably every other holiday, so I know to bring comfortable clothes. Chres and I were sitting on a bed, trying not to go back to sleep. "Did she call me, Santo?" Chres asked. "Yup. It sounds nice. You are going to be a celebrity soon, so if you're doing a stage name that could be one." "I guess." "But if you want to be noticed quicker your stage name should be Lorenzo. I would laugh so hard at your concerts." "I may not use a stage name." "Your name is pretty unique. Chresanto August...the boy who used to want everyone to call him Roc Royal." "We will never talk of that again. I was weird." "It was cute. You had your little rap stuff going on. Those were the days." The kids were ready, so we headed downstairs. Since there was like 16 of us, and there were only tables of 4, we made sure they were all close to each other. I wasn't that hungry, so I just got a hot chocolate and two biscuits. Chres sat down across from me with this big ass plate. "Remember when we were younger and everyone used to make fun of me for always writing stuff?" Chres asked, with a mouth full of food. "Yeah. And I told them 'You make fun of him for writing poems, but watch when you gonna be singing along to them'. I had bars back then." I chuckled. "At times." "Now, let me ask you. What's going on between you and my sister?" "Sister? You mean Andria?" "Duh." "Oh...nothing's going on." "You such a lie." "I'm not!" "Boy, we all saw you two kissing. Why are you keeping a secret?" "We're not dating! Just taking it slow." "Chresanto Lorenzo Romelo August. You and I both know you like her. Not even like her, you love her. You know that you're probably not the only nigga that want her. The name Eric Butler ring a bell? He wants Andria. You ain't going to stand a chance of you don't step up your game. It doesn't even matter if you've known her since forever, if you don't make your move, you're going to see another nigga in the spot you want."

    I had to tell it to Chres straight. I can tell that he thinks that he'll always have Andria's heart because of how long they've known each other. That's not how it is. Yeah, maybe there will always be a little love for him even after she's married, and it isn't with him. "I know...but I'm leaving in like two weeks." "And when will we see you again? After we graduate? Andria could be in a relationship with a boy that won't let her go, and she won't let him go. Some boy that's committed, and has in emotions in place. You don't have your emotions in place. You say you want to be with her, but won't tell her that, and you're taking it slow. Nigga you know everything about her! You know what she does when she's nervous, when she's lying, when she's telling the truth, when she's guilty...everything! Why are you holding back?" "I'm scared she'll reject me." "We've all been rejected. I've been rejected, Jacob's been rejected, and Andria's been rejected." "Who rejected her?" "John. Cause remember when we were freshman, she had this crush on him, and she told him but he said he doesn't like her back. She was fine after that too, and you want to know why. It's because she never really liked him." "Well how do you know she really likes me?" "Didn't you guys kiss. She wouldn't have kissed you if she didn't feel the same. I'm telling you Chres, you need to make a move."
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     We just pulled up to Chres' house and now he was unlocking the door. When we walked in all the family members that had gotten drunk, were slowly walking around the house. I found my mom and helped her to the car. Please don't throw up. I thought to myself when I started her car. Luckily, we got to the house without her throwing up or anything. When we walked in the house, I went to the kitchen and got her a bottle of water. "Thank you, sweetie." She said. "You're welcome." I said, on my way up the steps. I started texting Andria and just chilling.

Chres needs to get his act together.