The Collegiate Chronicles

Chapter 16

(Winter Break)

The front door opened, and Mae and her father, Pastor Nicholas Crawford, entered.

First Lady Dr. Rutina Crawford leaped up from her seat and rushed over to Mae and hugged her, "Welcome home, baby. I missed you so much!"

"Missed you too," Mae couldn't even muster up enough fake enthusiasm for her mother, "I have to go to the bathroom, and then I'm going to take a nap. Is that okay?"

"Oh! Of course," Rutina said before releasing Mae. She went for her bags, but her dad stopped her.

"I'll bring these up for you, don't worry about them," Nick told his daughter.

Mae nodded with a soft smile before going upstairs.

Rutina looked at Nick, concerned, "What's going on? She came back earlier than expected."

"She didn't say anything in the car. You know she never tells me anything."

"I'm going to go up there and ask her what happened. She knows she shouldn't keep stuff bottled up,"

"Rutina, barging into her room just after she got home, doesn't seem like a good idea. See if she'll sleep it off first, at least. Maybe she's just stressed."

Rutina sighed before heading back to the couch, "I suppose you're right. I'll give her some time."

"I'm always right," Nick grinned before walking over to Rutina and giving her a kiss.

---

Mae wound up sleeping through the rest of the day, waking up around 11 pm. She checked her phone to see a few messages containing sad emojis from Natalia. With an eye roll, Mae deleted them.

On Instagram, Mae noticed that Kynsey already blocked her. She checked Natalia's page, only to see that she posted a picture of her, Deion, and another girl an hour ago.

'Celebrating the end of fall semester right! #WinterBreak' was the caption on her post.

"Yeah, you look real sad," Mae said sarcastically as she looked to identify the mysterious woman in the photo. She checked the likes on the picture to see if the mystery woman liked it. She had.

"Artisha Wright?" Mae nosily tapped on Artisha's profile. She was light-skinned, had Bantu knots, and a couple of piercings. Mae thought she was pretty cute.

"Must be my new replacement."

Mae lurked through Artisha's Instagram, making it through two years worth of photos before accidentally liking one."

"Shit!" Mae whispered to herself. She quickly exited out of the app and cringed from making such a rookie mistake.

She closed her eyes, opting to go back to bed. The light from her cell phone caused her to open them back up. It was a notification. Artisha Wright liked one of her photos.

And then a second one. And a third.

Mae got back on Instagram just in time to receive a DM from Artisha.'Classic lurker mistake lol. I ain't mad tho ;)'

Mae blushed as she responded back to Artisha, 'My bad. I was nosy and have nothing to do. Just laying in bed hating my life.'

'Maybe joining you in the bed would help you feel better?'

Mae wasn't used to this type of straightforward behavior, but she was ready to embrace it, 'I wish. My Pastor and First Lady parents wouldn't like that idea much.'

'What are you doing tomorrow night?'

Before Mae could even respond, Artisha responded with an address. 'You should come,' was the message attached.

---

Mae arrived in the parking lot of Artisha's apartment complex. Artisha was already waiting for her.

"Mae Crawford in the flesh. You're even cuter in person."

"You're not so bad yourself, Artisha."