Chapter twenty-one
Dylan
A month and a half later…
Junior year started with more attention than I knew what to do with. I noticed it the second I walked through the double doors. Girls were staring at me while whispering and giggling. Then looking away when I caught them.
At first I thought I was tripping then Malik confirmed it. “Boy.”
I looked over at him cheesing like a minion.
“What?” I asked.
“When did you pierce your ears?” he inquired.
I laughed and replied, “A couple days ago.”
He stared and nodded. “No wonder.”
“No wonder what?” I asked.
“No wonder all these girls keep looking at you like you won the Super Bowl or something.”
I rolled my eyes and scoffed. Man, ain’t nobody checking for me.”
Malik pointed out and I followed his finger. Three girls quickly turned away giggling. My eyebrows rose.
“Oh, aight.”
“Exactly,” he said.
I laughed as the bell rang. We started walking towards class.
Malik shook his head. “Tattoo.”
I looked at him with a confused expression. “What are you rattling on about?” I asked.
“Earrings.”
I laughed harder and asked, “What?”
“You got a tattoo, your license then pierced your ears. That’s why they all trippin’ on you,” Malik said.
I rolled my eyes. “Dude, shut up.”
“Nah.” He pointed again. “You done had a whole glow up ma boy.”
I almost choked laughing. “A glow up?”
“That’s what the girls call it,” he said.
I shook my head. “Whatever nigga.”
Malik grinned. “Has your girl seen the earrings yet?”
“Who?” I asked.
“Devyn dude.”
“You could’ve just said her name.”
“Nah.” He laughed. “I like watching you get defensive.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ain’t nobody defensive. And no, I ain’t showed her yet.”
“You ain’t tell her?”
“Nigga, I just got them,” I said.
“So? You tell her everything,” Malik said.
I shrugged and chuckled. “I’ll tell her eventually.”
Malik stared at me then shook his head. “Boy.”
“What?”
“You act like y’all married,” he joked.
“We ain’t even together,” I argued.
“Yeah right.”
“Well, we ain’t.”
“If you say so,” Malik said with a nod.
I couldn’t stop laughing because Malik was hilarious.
The rest of the morning flew by. A few girls spoke to me, several of them smiled at me and one even asked me for a pencil she definitely didn’t need. I couldn’t even lie but all that extra attention felt weird.
Six months ago, nobody was paying attention to me like this but Tyla. Now suddenly, everybody wanted to be friendly.
By lunch, things got even crazier. I walked into the cafeteria with Malik and immediately froze. Tyla, Ava, and Shari were all sitting at the same table.
Oh hell!
Malik saw it too. His grin nearly split his face.
“Oh, this is about to be good,” he said with a smile.
“Shut up,” I whispered as I rolled my eyes.
“Nope.”
I already knew where this was going. The second Tyla spotted me, she smiled, waved, then called me over.
“Dylan!”
Unfortunately, a few heads turned when she did that. I walked over to their table.
“What’s up?” I asked.
Tyla immediately moved her backpack and patted the seat next to her. “Sit.”
I looked around sat down. The problem with that was Ava immediately scooted closer to me and so did Shari. I shot Malik a look and could tell that he was enjoying this way too much.
“So…” Ava smiled. “How was your summer?”
“It was cool,” I responded.
Shari smiled too. “Did you do anything fun?”
“Not really,” I said.
That was a lie, but explaining my summer would’ve taken more time than I wanted to spend talking about it. Meanwhile Tyla was quietly glaring… not at me though, but at them.
The realization almost made me laugh. Then Ava reached over and touched my right ear.
“I like your earrings,” she said.
“Thanks.” I smiled.
“Are they real diamonds?” she inquired.
“Everything about me is real,” I stated.
“Oh-kay,” she said with a smile. “I like your tattoo too.”
I glanced down at my wrist where she was tracing my tattoo with her finger. This shit was crazy because last year, Ava and Shari didn’t even give me this much attention. They were both cheerleaders, so they normally gave all their attention to the athletes.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Shari nodded. “It is cute,” she cosigned.
Tyla’s eye twitched slightly, but I caught it, and so did Malik. The fool immediately started coughing to hide his laughter. I kicked him hard under the table.
“Oww bruh!” He winced.
Everybody looked at him, including the girls.
Malik quickly pointed at me and said, “Dylan kicked me.”
“Because you’re annoying,” I said.
Everyone at the table busted out laughing, even Tyla, which immediately eased the tension. For the next twenty minutes, the conversation bounced around to several topics… classes, teachers, football games, homecoming and random gossip.
The whole time, I felt the eyes of other girls watching me. This shit was so weird. Eventually Ava and Shari headed off leaving just me, Malik, and Tyla. The second they disappeared, Tyla folded her arms like she was angry and I already knew she was about to be on some bullshit.
“What?” I asked.
She narrowed her eyes at me and said, “You know exactly what.”
“No, I honestly don’t.”
“Yeah, you do.”
Malik stood up and I immediately said, “Uh huh dude.”
“What?” he asked.
“Where you going?” I asked.
“This don’t concern me. I’m out.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“Because I enjoy living,” Malik replied.
Tyla threw a napkin at him, and he laughed all the way across the cafeteria. That boy was such a traitor. I looked back at her.
“What is wrong with you?” I asked.
She shook her head then smiled. “I don’t like those other girls hanging all over you,” she said.
“That shit is weird huh?”
“Yeah, but I’m sure you’re enjoying that extra attention from them though.”
“Well, as weird as it is, I ain’t mad about it.”
She really wasn’t thrilled about other females giving me attention, but I had nothing to do with that. I was just doing me. And for the first time ever, I realized Tyla might actually like me more than I even knew.
That realization should’ve made me happy. Instead, my mind immediately drifted to a girl sitting in Switzerland, wondering if I was on her mind the way she was on mine. And that complicated things a whole lot more.
After school, I snapped a quick picture in the bathroom mirror. The fresh diamond studs caught the light and sparkled. I smirked before I sent the picture.
Me: Look
A few minutes later my phone buzzed.
Devyn ??: Dylan WTH!?
I laughed and sent a quick response.
Me: What?
Devyn ??: You pierced your ears?
Me: Yeah
Devyn ??: Since when?
Me: A couple days ago. What’s wrong? You don’t like them?
The typing bubble appeared immediately.
Devyn ??: Take a pic from a different angle
I smiled, did as she asked and sent another picture. This time it was a closeup. A minute passed before she texted back.
Devyn ??: Okay…
Me: Okay what?
Devyn ??: I mean, they look good.
I grinned because I knew they looked good. I couldn’t stop checking myself out in the mirror.
Me: And I know this
Devyn ??: Boy bye!
I laughed as another message came through.
Devyn ??: Why did you pierce them though?
Me: Because I wanted to
Several seconds passed then…
Devyn ??: Why are you speaking to me like that?
I frowned.
Me: Like what?
I was confused as fuck right now because I didn’t realize I was speaking to her any kind of way. I mean, we were texting.
Devyn ??: Like you’re irritated
Me: I’m not
Devyn ??: Dylan…
Me: You asked a question and I answered it
The typing bubble disappeared then reappeared, then disappeared again. Finally…
Devyn ??: I bet those groupie girls like it though huh?
I laughed so loud.
Me: Yeah I guess so
The response came instantly.
Devyn ??: Don’t play with me Dylan
Me: What? I ain’t even doing nothing. You’re the one acting funny with me
Devyn ??: You know what?
I stared at the message and honestly, I didn’t know shit right now. I didn’t know why she was trippin’ so hard.
Me: I don’t know what you’re talking about Dev
This time the response took much longer and when she finally texted back, I was still left with answers.
Devyn ??: Never mind
I immediately knew that was a lie. Whenever a girl said never mind it definitely didn’t mean never mind. There was always an unspoken message behind that shit.
Me: Dev
She didn’t text back. I texted her again…
Me: What is wrong?
The typing bubble appeared but then it disappeared. Then it appeared again.
Devyn ??: Nothing
I released a heavy sigh.
Me: Why you trippin’?
It took several minutes before she responded.
Devyn ??: I’m trippin’?
Me: Yeah, you are! What is wrong?
Devyn ??: Nothing. Don’t worry about it
Me: Aight. You wanna act like that, fine!
The second I sent it, I regretted it because normally I would’ve kept pushing her to tell me what was wrong. I would’ve called and kept going until she told me what was wrong.
But for some reason, I didn’t. Devyn didn’t text or call for the remainder of the night. I didn’t text her either because honestly, I didn’t know what to say next.