When I enter the room the room I can see the surprised looks on many of my classmates' face and envy in the eyes of the guys I turned down. Clearly I'm a topic of discussion since I showed up with Mekhi, so I do my best to ignore the whispers and looks and focus on the work ahead of me. The professor instructs us to continue sketching our self-portraits so I pull out my sketch pencils and head over to get my sketchbook to pick up where I left off. I return to my seat and clip my book to the easel I'm stationed at and secure my photo in place before picking a pencil to start with. I clear my mind and concentrate on the task at hand when my friend Susu taps me on the shoulder. "Hey girl, how was your weekend," she asks moving both her stool and easel a little closer to mine. "Exhausting but fun," I say. I know she's curious we talk like this every class, but today is different because I showed up with Mekhi. "Yeah, you wer

I lead Mekhi through the entrance and the living room straight to the kitchen. He sits at the breakfast table with a satisfied look on his face and I go to wash my hands. After I begin to remove the containers holding last night's dinner from the refrigerator and open the lids.   "You can wash your hands at the sink," I say to him pointing to the kitchen sink.   "Okay," he says getting up to wash his hands.   I grab two plates for us and return to the island holding the containers. Just as I am about to load up the first plate with food I feel two hands slide around my waist and meet at my belly. I automatically freeze as I feel Mekhi kiss me on the cheek. With a sigh I lean into his embrace and try to continue filling our plates, but find that I can't.   "I can't make our plates like this," I say to him in a small voice.   "Baby relax. You're all tense and nervous. I'm not going

A few minutes after I'm propped up against my pillows in bed watching TV my phone starts ringing. Checking the screen, I see that it's Mekhi calling so I answer.   "Hello," I answer smiling.   "Baby…" Mekhi says sounding a little distant.   "Hey, what's wrong," I say a little worried.   "Nothing, I am tired," he says with a yawn.   "Oh, then why did you call? You could've just sent a text," I say scolding him.   "Because I wanted to hear your voice. I won't be seeing you for a few days," he says easily.   "Awww…hold on," I say and hang up the call on him to video call him.   "You hung up on me," he says with shock written all over his face and in his voice.   "Yeah, but now you can see and talk to me," I say blushing because I'm in my hair wrap and a night shirt.   "You're rig

When we get back to campus, I go to my car and text Nova that I'm waiting for her in the parking lot so that we can go to our History class together. I see her car after a few minutes and flag her down so that she can park near me. After she parks she walks over to me with a ridiculous grin on her face and the only thing that comes to mind is: Mekhi. "Lenaaaaa," Nova says in a sing song voice. "Yesssss," I reply in the same voice that she uses wondering what's going on. "Have you looked at the school's gossip page today," she says locking her arm with mine and showing me her phone with the other. "No…" I say as I look at her phone recognizing different pictures of me and Mekhi together in various places on campus. I am shocked even though I'm not surprised. Our pictures are candid and cute. "Well…what do you think," she says looking at me. "I ho

When we finally decide to call it quits Rylie shows up asking a million and one questions about what happened earlier in the day. Nova tells her what happened as I'm so over the topic that I don't want to keep talking about it. After Rylie hears everything that happened down to my phone call to Mekhi and the (obviously) the video being posted online she's seething with anger.   "How can you be so nonchalant about this," she asks me.   "Nonchalant! It took me a while to calm down! She's lucky I didn't break her face," I say to her defending myself.   "I would have," she says.   "Yeah, then what good would that have done me. It doesn't look good for me or Mekhi, restraining her was the best and safest method to take her down and exit the situation," I say to her logically.   "How could you remain calm to even think about any of that," Rylie says. She has the hottest temper in our g