Page 37 of Loyalty, Lust, Love
“I’m not trying to marry him, but it would be nice to say I had one date before graduating high school. I don’t care why he asked. I’m going,” Fateema declared.
“That’s the main reason you shouldn’t be going with him. Rodney gets around, and you, on the other hand, have never been on a date. He’s a little out of your league,” Octavia said.
She’s not wrong,Fateema thought.
Rodney Jacobs was a very popular student and track star. Even though he seemed to always be attached to one girl or another romantically, he flirted with Fateema every day at track practice, and she’d caught him staring at her several times. Tatiana was his most recent girlfriend, and apparently, he’d cheated on her. Fateema wasn’t interested in that title, but she was excited about going to prom with him.
“Did you tell Lynx?” Octavia asked.
“No, I haven’t seen him yet. Why?”
“You don’t think he’ll be mad?”
“Why would he be mad?”
“Because he thinks we’re all going as a group,” Meaghan interjected.
“It’s not like I won’t see y’all there. Lynx won’t care.”
Octavia and Meaghan looked at each other knowingly. Although Fateema and Lynx claimed only to be best friends, Lynx had been giving off different vibes lately, and it seemed everyone had picked up on it except Fateema. He hadn’t admitted it to anyone, and no one had confronted him with their suspicions.
From the moment Fateema sat across from him at the lunchroom table in sixth grade, Lynx enjoyed looking at her, although he may not have described her as pretty way back then. Over the years, he watched her morph into the prettiest girl he’d ever seen but didn’t acknowledge to himself that he was physically attracted to her, until recently when she forced him to go prom dress shopping with her.
Every time she stepped out of the dressing room in another beautiful dress, he had to talk his dick down. By the time they finished shopping for the day, he was angry with himself for thinking such unpure thoughts about his best friend.
Over the years, he’d honestly never thought of her as anything but his best friend until that day in the boutique. Sincethen, thoughts of doing nasty things to her had taken over his mind.
“I won’t care about what?”
The girls looked up and saw Lynx, Adam, and Joaquin. Lynx looked at Fateema and waited for her to respond to his question. He’d just found out some upsetting news but refused to believe it until he heard it from Fateema.
“Hey! If y’all were coming to the mall, why’d you have us taking the bus?” Fateema questioned.
“When we changed our minds, y’all had already left. What won’t I care about, Bunny?” Lynx repeated his question.
Fateema noticed his weird energy and wasn’t sure why it was directed toward her, so she ignored it.
“You don’t care about me going to prom with Rodney, do you?”
“I thought we were going as a group,” he replied, ignoring her question.
“Y’all can still go as a group, and I’ll see you there.”
“What about group pics and the seating arrangements, Bunny?”
“Lynx, it’s not the end of the world. We can take pics before Rodney picks me up, and I’m sure we can move some things around when we get there.”
“Rodney treats girls like shit, but if you want to go with him, it’s your choice.”
He pulled out his phone as he turned and walked away, leaving Adam and Joaquin behind.
“What’s his problem?” Fateema asked the boys.
“If you don’t know, we sure ain’t telling you.”
The boys left, and the girls finished eating. After they finished shopping, they took the bus to their respective homes. When Fateema arrived, she found her father, Frasier, watching a game show in his recliner.
“Hey, Daddy,” she greeted before leaning down to kiss his cheek and sitting on the couch.
