Page 40 of Beautiful Beginning

Nia stepped out of the car. “Oh, Journey. If this goes bad, I’m not going to hesitate shouting ‘I told you so’ in the morning.”

I nodded with my fingertips on the edge of the phone. “You won’t have to.” I stuck my tongue out and swiped it from her. I clicked Chaz’s name and waited for him to answer. It wasn’t quick, and I was in my room before I heard the roughness of his voice.

I sat on the floor in front of my bed. “Chaz…”

“Journey, you good?”

I shook my head and waited till my emotions settled. “I had some drinks,” I admitted. “Then some guys talked to me at the club. I danced with some too. Would you dance with me at the club?”

“Ugh, I don’t dance for real.”

“I thought you’d say that.” I frowned. “But it’s okay. It didn’t make me want to be with them.”

Chaz scoffed. “I guess that’s good.” His voice wasn’t the comforting sound I wanted to hear.

“Chaz,” I whined, “I want to end my night with you.” I didn’t hear him rushing from his place. Didn’t hear him shuffling around or moving at all. “Chaz?”

“I have an exam in the morning.” He informed me, “I can’t come to you tonight.” Then he added, “And sounds like it’d be a bad idea for you to come to me. So, I guess we’ll have to wait on that.”

“Wait,” I reiterated. “Okay.” I would have settled to listening to him breathe all night too. And I tried.

But he broke through my contentment and said, “I’ll talk to you later, Journey. Get some rest.”

“Later, Chaz.” I dropped the phone to the floor and hung my head back on my bed.

ChapterEighteen

Chaz

Not between classes. While she was on campus. After cheer practice. But when she realized she didn’t want the guys who were dancing all over her at the club. It wasn’t exactly the return I expected. I wished hearing Journey say she wanted to end her night with me gave something. Anything. But it didn’t. Not after she said she danced with other dudes.

Not when she knew I wouldn’t dance with her.

But I did have an exam in the morning. And I had no room for error with Dr. Chapman. I could only hope after the liquor wore off Journey still wanted to see me. Because five days was long enough since the last time. The breaks were starting to become more normal than us being together. The longer I sat in them, it made me wonder if there was anything left to hold on to.

I had to focus though, after the interview, I’d find her. Find out if everything I was thinking was way off. I walked across the courtyard and stood next to the cameraman. Waited for some instruction from the reporter.

“We’ll ask a few questions, fifteen minutes top.” She eyed me. “You sure now is a good time?”

I adjusted the collar of my shirt. Decided to unbutton the top button. “Now is good.” Later would be worse. I wanted to get it over with. The university insisted on the interview in the first place. And despite the changes they weren’t allowing me to make, they wanted me to speak about change. There wasn’t much I could say about that.

“Alright,” she nodded toward the cameraman. “Looks like either side is good for you, so I’ll stand here. My left side is better.” She winked and the cameraman pointed. “We are speaking with Chaz Brown, the SGA President of Hillside University.”

After all the times I heard the title behind my name, I still grinned hard when someone said it. But that grin slid away when I heard what the reporter said next.

“Mr. Brown won the special election. The one needed because the prior administration got caught up in a cheating scandal.” The mic posed in front of my face. “Do you have anything to say about that?”

I looked nervously at the cameraman. I didn’t know where to put my hands, so I stuffed them into my pockets. “People make mistakes. There are consequences for actions. Their consequences serve as a warning to those who forget they’ll be accountable.”

The reporter smirked. “I’ve done some digging…” she let her sentence trail.

If I had anything to hide it would be time for me to panic. But I’d seen how journalist try to get politicians to squirm. I wasn’t going to budge.

“And before this, you weren’t active in the campus politics.”

It wasn’t a question, so I kept my eyes trained on the camera. Waiting for her to proceed with something I could respond to.

“Why is it now? Is it because you are nearing graduation? You need the attention to fuel your post-graduation aspirations.”

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