CHAPTER SEVEN
KYE
Trell waited until I was happy to ruin my mood.
I left Ari’s birthday brunch with champagne in my chest, leftover French toast in a box, and a picture of all four of us that I actually liked on the first try. The sun was out. My hair was right. My afternoon client had canceled, which meant I had three free hours before Ari’s birthday dinner.
Then, I saw Trell’s Charger parked beside mine.
He leaned against the hood with my spare key looped around one finger.
My good feeling folded itself up.
“What you doing here?” I asked.
“What it look like?”
“Like you don’t have a job.”
He didn’t smile.
I looked toward the restaurant entrance. Ari and Jori were still inside waiting for Nae to come out of the bathroom. People crossed the parking lot carrying shopping bags and takeout containers. Broad daylight. Cameras over the restaurant doors.
I reminded myself of all of that before walking closer.
“Why you got my key?”
“You left it at the house.”
“I didn’t ask you to bring it.”
“You also ain’t ask me before you went to Philly.”
I stopped a few feet away. “We talked about that last night.”
“No, you talked. I listened to you tell me why you should be able to do whatever you want.”
“That’s usually how being grown works.”
His eyes lowered to my dress. It wasn’t even a dress, really. A fitted black jumpsuit with a cropped jacket. Nothing hanging out. Nothing I hadn’t worn around him before.
“You wore that to brunch?”
“Yeah.”
“With who there?”
“My friends.”
“Any niggas?”
“At a public restaurant? Probably.”
“Kye.”
“What answer you want?”
He pushed off the car. “I want you to stop playing with me.”
I laughed, but it came out thin. “I’m not doing this shit in the parking lot.”
“Give me your phone.”
“No.”
His head tilted.
FIVE MONTHS EARLIER:
The first time Trell made control sound like trust, we were naked in his bed.
It had been one of the good nights. Dinner from the little spot he liked in Camden. Music low. His phone on the dresser instead of in his hand. No questions about who liked my pictures or why a client had called after business hours.
Just us.
Trell had taken his time with me, kissing down my body until I forgot every smart thing I had planned to say. I loved the way he watched me when he touched me, like confidence was something he could pull from beneath my skin with his mouth.
“Tell me what you want,” he said.
I reached for him. “You.”
“That ain’t specific.”
“You want a written request?”
He laughed and rolled me beneath him.
The condom wrapper tore near my ear. He slid it on, then paused between my thighs.
“You good?”
“I was good before you stopped.”
“Smart mouth.”
“You like it.”
“I love it.”
At the time, the word felt easy.
He entered me with one slow push, and my joke broke into a breath. Trell held my hip and moved with the kind of control I liked then—steady, deliberate, making me ask for more before giving it.
I wrapped one leg around him. “Faster.”
“Say please.”
“Boy—”
He stopped completely.
I stared up at him, half-irritated and half-ready to laugh.
“Please,” I said.
His grin flashed before he gave me what I asked for.
The bed knocked softly against the wall. I dug my fingers into his back while the pleasure climbed, sharp and hot. Trell whispered things against my mouth that sounded like promises when I was close enough to believe all of them.
“Mine.”
“Only me.”
“Ain’t nobody ever gonna know you like this.”
I came with my face against his neck, holding him while the feeling moved through me.
Afterward, he stayed wrapped around me instead of reaching for his phone. That part mattered. Men before him had made getting dressed feel like an emergency. Trell pulled the blanket over us and kissed my shoulder.
“I could stay like this all night,” I said.
“Then stay.”
His phone buzzed on the dresser. He reached for it, unlocked it, then placed it in my hand.
“Code is eight-two-one-seven.”
I looked at him. “Why you telling me?”
“Because I ain’t hiding nothing from you.”
He opened his messages and scrolled like proof of access was the same as honesty.
“You can check whenever,” he said. “I want us to be different.”
Nobody had ever offered me that before.
It felt intimate. Bigger than sex. Like he was handing me a key to the part of him other women had to wonder about.
Then, he held out his hand.
“What’s yours?”
I hesitated just long enough for his expression to change.
“You got something to hide?”
“No.”
“Then, what’s the problem?”
I gave him my code.
Trell kissed me and called it trust.
At the time, I thought him wanting access to every part of me meant he wanted all of me.
Within a month, he was reading messages I sent before we met and asking why I had laughed at jokes from men whose numbers were not even saved anymore.
******
Back in the restaurant parking lot, his body made the space between my car and his feel too small.
“My phone is in my purse,” I said.
“I know.”
“That means it’s staying there.”
He stepped closer. Not touching. Just using his body to make the space feel smaller.
“You brave when your little friends around.”
I glanced toward the entrance again. “Move, Trell.”
His eyes followed mine. “Call them then.”
The challenge in his voice made my skin prickle.
He knew I wouldn’t.
Ari would cry and swing. Jori would call the police before she got out the door. Nae would have Amir with her and still try to stand between us. The whole thing would become real in a way I had been avoiding.
My phone vibrated inside my purse.
Trell heard it.
“Who that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Check.”
“I’ll check when I leave.”
He reached for the bag.
I jerked it behind me. “Don’t.”
The restaurant door opened.
Jori stepped outside first, scanning the lot until she saw us. Ari came behind her, still talking to Nae.
Trell moved back before any of them could read the distance between us. His smile appeared so naturally, it made me sick.
“What’s up?” he called.
Ari looked from him to me. “Hey.”
Jori didn’t speak.
Nae hugged her purse to her chest. “Kye, you left your food.”
“Keep it. Amir can have it.”
“He don’t need no more sugar.”
Trell opened my car door like he had come to be helpful. “I brought her spare key.”
Jori’s eyes went to the keys in his hand, then to mine.
“You locked out?” she asked.
“No.”
“Then why—”
“I left them,” I cut in. “He was bringing them.”
Ari’s birthday smile had disappeared. She watched me the same way she had watched my wrist the night before.
“Y’all good?” she asked.
“Great.” I took the keys from Trell. “I’m about to go get ready for dinner.”
He bent and kissed my cheek. His hand settled at the back of my neck, fingers pressing lightly beneath my hair.
“See you later,” he said.
It sounded like a promise and a warning.
I waited until his Charger pulled out before getting into my car.
Jori stayed beside the open door.
“What the fuck?” I asked.
“He made you give him your phone?”
“He didn’t make me do nothing.”
“I heard him.”
“You heard half a conversation.”
“I heard enough.”
Ari came around the other side. “Kye, we’re not judging you.”
“Then, stop looking at me like I’m a shelter dog.”
Her face changed.
I hated myself immediately and doubled down because apologizing felt too much like opening the door.
“Y’all got your own shit,” I said. “Nae’s money acting funny. Jori looks like she ain’t slept since orientation. Your man got a hostess on his hip. Please don’t come save me because Trell asked who texted my phone.”
Nae flinched at the money part.
Jori went cold. “You don’t know anything about my school.”
“Exactly. Because you don’t tell us nothing.”
“And you do?” Ari asked quietly.
That shut me up.
It vibrated again.
I pulled it out, mostly so I didn’t have to look at them.
Two messages waited.
The first was from Cam.
Cam: Keep whatever you think you know to yourself tonight. Don’t ruin her birthday over nothing.
The second was from Sade.
Sade: Since that’s your friend, tell her stop acting slow.
A picture loaded beneath it.
Cam sat in the passenger seat of somebody’s car wearing the white T-shirt from Monday’s hotel photo. Sade’s bare thigh filled the bottom of the frame. His hand rested on it, silver watch bright against her skin.
A timestamp sat in the corner.
Monday, 2:06 a.m.
My mouth went dry.
Ari leaned toward me. “Who is it?”
I locked the screen too fast. “Nobody.”
Her eyes dropped to my phone, then lifted to my face.
“That’s becoming your favorite answer.”
She walked away before I could stop her.
Nae followed, calling her name.
Jori stayed for one more second.
“You keep lying because you think the truth is going to blow everything up,” she said. “Sometimes, the lie does more damage.”
“Go study, Jordyn.”
Her mouth twisted. “Go home, Kyla.”
When I was alone, I opened the picture again.
Cam’s hand on Sade.
Ari’s smile behind a birthday sparkler.
My own face in the black screen between them.
I typed to Cam first.
Me: You tell her tonight or I will.
His reply came before I could put the phone down.
Cam: Then make sure you tell her everything. Including senior year.
The air left my lungs.
Four years ago, I had convinced myself one mistake didn’t deserve to destroy a friendship.
Now, that mistake had grown teeth.
My phone rang.
Trell.
I declined it and stared at Cam’s message until another one appeared.
Cam: Pick which truth you want her to hate you for.