Page 152 of She will Always be Mine

She stands with her back to me and I speak past the dryness in my throat. “Hey, Monica.” I manage to say past the dryness in my throat.

She’s standing with her back to me, so I’m not sure if she knows it’s me.

When she turns around, I expect everything from disgust to anger to reflect in her eyes but not hurt. “Nyra.”

“Can we talk?” I ask.

Without a word, she walks ahead of me toward the building. I follow until we reach an empty classroom. Words remain struck in my throat as we stand in an awkward silence. The speech I prepared last night might as well be written in a foreign language, because I can’t seem to articulate any of them.

“Look, about yesterday—”

“I’m sorry I ran out on you—”

We both start at the same time and it lifts some of the discomfort. It’s the first time we aren’t able to communicate. I mean, we’d talked about threesomes just yesterday. Shouldn’t this be easy?

“Are you really hooking up with your cousin?” she asks in disbelief.

“It’s not a hookup. We’re dating,” I answer slowly. “We have been for a while.”

“Wow.” Her mouth goes wide in shock and I’m stunned to see her speechless. She takes a seat at the desk as she processes this.

“Well, now you know my deepest, darkest secret. You obviously must be disgusted and thinking what a sick person your best friend turned out to be—”

“Whoa… Slow down. I’m not disgusted,” she cuts me off and winces, “I mean, it is awkward but I don’t think there’s something wrong with you, babe.”

“Please don’t lie to me. You wouldn’t be the first to think that,” I say with a sad shrug.

“I would never lie to you, Nyra.” Her voice is serious as she says this, and she curiously questions, “How long have you two been together?”

“Almost a year now,” I reply. “We did break up for two months, though.”

“Wait… Was he the reason you went home?” she asks, wide-eyed.

I ponder how much to tell her and decide to tell her the truth. I’m done with the secrets and lies. “My mom found out and she didn’t take it well.”

“I’m so sorry,” she consoles.

“Don’t worry. It’s in the past.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t see it. I always thought I imagined the jealousy on your face anytime I mentioned flirting or asking him out,” she says, amused. “I’m hurt you didn’t tell me sooner.”

“You seem to be taking all of this really well, Monica.” I laugh. “Especially after the way you ran away last night. I was sure you wouldn’t want to be friends with me anymore.”

“I told you I don’t judge people, Nyra,” she says genuinely before shrugging. “It will be weird when I’m around you both but I won’t stop being your best friend. You can trust me with your secrets.”

“I never doubted that.”

“Does everyone in your family know?” she asks cautiously. “Do you love him? Like want to spend the rest of your life with him?”

“Yes and no,” I answer without any hesitation. Leaning my hip against the desk, I cross my arms and stare at my feet as I share, “Other than our moms, our dads and Pri doesn’t know about our relationship. Despite my mom’s opposition, he’s the only man I’ve ever loved and will continue tolove. What we have is strange and complicated to the world but for us, it’s as simple as breathing.”

When I look up, she’s watching me with a soft smile with her chin resting on her fist. “I wanna know everything as soon as we have another girls’ night.”

“Soon.”

“Do you guys live together?” she suddenly asks, then gasps. “Is that why you never let me visit your apartment?”

“Maybe.”

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