Jalen plugged his AirPods in his ears, "What's good?"

"Aye man." Joshua greeted him.

"Drip lord." Jalen smiled, taking his phone out and closing his locker.

Through the screen he could see that Joshua was somewhere outside, the sky blue above him.

"Is that Jalen? Give me the phone." Jalen overheard Dior say off camera.

"Get away from me, Dior," Joshua said, then the sound of someone being slapped could be heard.

"Damn!" Dior screamed.

"Could you calm down? I barely touched you dumb ass." Joshua rolled his eyes before turning back to the camera.

"Y'all don't have practice?" Jalen furrowed his brows.

"Nah. Where's lady unicorn?"

Jalen snickered, "'Lady unicorn'? Ain't that the shit Sharife came up with?"

"Yea-."

"Imma hit her in the DMs." Dior says, finally appearing on camera.

"She don't want you," Joshua laughs again, "What's her name again? Nicki?"

"Noel." Jalen answers with a sigh.

Dior started to laugh, "Oh, this nigga in love. Look at how he said her name. What about the pizza pockets?"

Jalen snickered, "That's little kid shit."

"Fuck you talking about? That was you four months ago." Joshua cut in.

"Summer me was on his bullshit, it's getting cold. Time to grow up."

"He gets a girl and swear he's mature." Dior shook his head.

"I'm on my grown man shit now." Jalen leaned against his closed locker.

"She got some cute friends?" Dior asked.

Joshua slapped the back of Dior's neck and he started yelling, "Assault! This man just assaulted me!"

"Whatever, bro. You still coming to see us and Brandon?"

"When is that?"

"A couple of weeks from now."

"Yeah. Think imma take her with me to see y'all. She's never been to L.A."

"Oh, we meeting her?" Dior asks.

"Obviously. You asked her to be your girl yet?" Joshua asked.

"Nah, I'm doing that today. Ion have practice so I'm bout to go get the flowers and chocolate and shit."

"What if she says no?" Dior laughed.

Jalen snorted a little, "She's not gonna say no."

Jalen looked up just as Jack was walking out of the men's bathroom.

"Aye, imma holler at y'all later."

"Aight." Then Joshua ended the FaceTime.

"Jack, come here for a second." Jalen waved him over.

"I can send the money over aft-." Jack started but Jalen held up a hand.

"That's what I came over here to talk to you about. Ion want that money. Let's just forget this whole bet shit. It was stupid anyway." Jalen spoke in a low tone.

Jack was clearly surprised, both eyebrows raised, "Uh-."

"It never happened, aight?" Jalen said calmly, reaching a hand out to Jack.

"So Nimari was right? You really like her huh?"

"Just shake my hand so I can go," Jalen laughed, "I got stuff to do."

"Alright," Jack chuckled and the two did an elaborate handshake ending with the snap of their fingers.

Jalen stood in Noelani's bedroom, a mixed bouquet of sunflowers and red roses in his hand.

On her bed behind him was a goodie bag filled with candy, framed pictures of the two of them and an unopened box of pizza.

Only Jalen and Alejandro, Noelani's father, were in on the surprise and because of that Jalen was forced to go missing, in a sense, to keep everything he was doing a secret.

The front door opened and slammed shut and Jalen could feel his hands start to get clammy.

Then Jalen glanced over at the photo booth strips of the two of them at homecoming that was positioned by the framed photo of Noelani and her mother, sitting on her night stand, and took a deep breath.

The door to Noelani's bedroom opened and Noelani walked in, her phone capturing her attention, then closed the door without looking up.

She was dressed in baggy jeans with a chain hanging from the left side with a cropped graphic band tee shirt.

Her hair had returned to its natural state, her curls tied into a high ponytail to show off the hoops in her ears.

As expected when Noelani saw Jalen standing there, she froze.

Then she got visibly angry, screwing up her face a little.

"What the fuck, Jalen?" Noelani dropped her school bag and stepped closer to him, "Don't you know mad people have been looking for you? I've called you like seven times. Go home, Jurnee is worried sic-."

Noelani's gaze dropped to the flowers in his hand, "Uh... What is going on? What are you doing?"

"I wanted to do this for you."

"Is there a reason why?"

"I can't just be nice to you?"

"No." Noelani narrowed her eyes, clearly annoyed.

"Open the pizza box and you'll see." Jalen mumbled then glanced at the box behind him.

Noelani slowly strode next to him and flipped the top of the box over.

Written with pepperoni slices in the middle of the pie was the question, 'GF? Yes or no?'

Noelani tucked both of her lips in, "Are you sure about this?"

At the question Jalen furrowed his brows and Noelani continued to speak, her eyes still on the pizza, "I'm asking because... Because I ain't never been someone's girl before. I don't know what being in a relationship means. This commitment shit is new to me. I'm gonna need you to be patient and teach me. So again... Are you sure about this? Are you really sure about me?"

Jalen sighed, "I'm not used to this relationship shit either. We're gonna have to learn from each other as we go. So yeah, I'm sure. The only other thing I'm this sure about is basketball."

"Until I mess up. Or I get scared. And then you're not sure anymore." Noelani responded quietly.

"Imma always be sure about you."

Noelani let out a sigh then looked at him and smiled, no, grinned.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll be your girlfriend."

Jalen let out an exaggerated sigh, "I thought you were gonna say no for a minute," Jalen pulled Noelani into his chest with his free arm, "I hope you know you not going no fuckin' where."

Noelani snickered for a couple of seconds then stopped at Jalen's expression, "Oh, you serious."

"I'm so serious right now. You in this for life."

"Oh, you toxic," Noelani laughed again, "Is it too late to change my answer?"

Jalen put the flowers down on the bed and scrunched his nose up, "Yes. The fuck? Ain't no leaving now."

Noelani kissed her teeth, "You should seriously go. I was on the phone with your mom earlier and she's ready to kill you."

"You ain't even look in the bag. Plus I want a couple of slices of that pizza." Jalen responded turning to the box and snatching a slice out of the box.

Noelani picked the bag up from the ground and began to shift through it, then smiled.

"Who took this?" In her hands was a framed picture of the two of them on Halloween, hand in hand as they walked down the sidewalk, Jurnee in front of them.

"Some fan," Jalen shrugged, "I saw the flash and got the picture."

"That's not creepy at all." Noelani snickered.

She set the bag down on the bed and gave Jalen a kiss on the cheek.

"Why not a real kiss?"

"I know for a fact that your breath smells like pepperoni right now."

"Oh. Right."

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