Kalopsia

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Jelani Chanel Adisa

"You think he's stalking you?" My eyes bulged out of my head as my neck snapped in Ni'ella's direction.

"What? No. Not at all." After informing her of everything that went down yesterday, Ni'ella's crazy ass immediately assumed Mazi was a stalker. I strongly believe she processes things differently.

"I mean, you did see him at Starbucks, and now he's in your psychology class. What if he has this weird obsession with you and watches your every move, and is in love with you?"

"Ni'ella this isn't no damn Lifetime movie plot. This campus is small as fuck, and people run into each other."

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn if you if he breaks into our dorm and tries to make you marry him."

"That will not happen, I'm sure of it."

The rush to Tashani's class was something serious. My feet crossed the threshold just as the bell rang.

"Almost late Mrs. Adisa." Tashani sat on the edge of his desk, his hand clutching a Tim Hortons coffee cup.

"I apologize." Feeling numerous eyes beaming onto me, my head stayed low as I made my way to my seat.

"Okay class," setting his coffee cup to the side, Tashani placed his hands on each side of him and boosted himself off of the desk, "We are going to be easing ourselves into a debate project, which is one of the reasons as to why we have been debating lately. Another reason being, yall's responses are amusing to me." Multiple chuckles sounded, as Tashani wore a smirk- his signature expression. "Keep in mind, you will be debating a topic and presenting it to me. Therefore, if one of the topics debated in class interest you: write it down, write down your stance, and some of the responses. Okay," clasping his hands together, "let's get started with this debate. The question today is, what are the essentials for a relationship and why?" Hands immediately shot into the air. Tashani pointed towards Mari and gave her the floor.

"Well, I feel the main essentials are respect, trust, and time. There has to be a level of respect, or else the relationship is toxic. Time is needed to form bonds and build connections, and without trust, there is no relationship."

"Okay, thank you for that Mari. Peace?" Peace, one of the more quiet girls in the class, leaned back in her seat a little- relaxing.

"I feel like relationships need consistency and agreement. People can't be wishy washy because that leads to insecurity which causes cracks in the relationship. They also need to have agreements on what they want to do within the relationship. How far they want to take it, etc."

"Thank you, Peace. Alexis?" Turning back to face her, she sat up and cleared her throat slightly.

"Well, attention is one because you have to show that you care, just as well as acceptance, appreciation, affection, and allowing. If you don't allow your partner to be himself or herself, then it's not really a relationship. Love is all about accepting, appreciating, and allowing one another." Many mumbled in agreeance, and some clapped. Tashani pointed to Tiara, the big sister of one of the female sororities.

"I feel like trust is big. Trusting someone can lead into everything else. Without it, your relationship is a dub."

"Valid point, Tiara. Marci?"

"Trust and communication, like it was said. You have to be able to talk through your issues and trust your significant other." Mia had her hand up, yet began to slowly put it down as Marci continued her reasoning.

"Mia, you have something to say?"

"Well, I agree with Marci. I feel like if you truly love someone or something you'd be committed to it. In order to maintain a healthy love or relationship, you have to have trust. Lastly, there has to be good communication or the relationship won't be healthy and in most cases lead to disagreements or arguments."