The humidity made the mirror and the glass panel doors to the shower fog up.

The beginning of The Way by Kehlani ft Chance The Rapper started to play from her phone located on the bathroom sink.

Noelani hummed along, rubbing the soapy cobalt blue loofah over her shoulders, then tensed a little at the sound of the door to the bathroom opening, "What-?"

The glass door slid open and Jalen stepped into the shower with Noelani, fully exposed.

"Hey. I thought you had taken your shower earlier." Noelani smiled up at him.

"Figured that we should shower together. Water conversation and all that." Jalen flashed a crooked grin down at her.

"It's conservation," Noelani giggled before leaning up on her toes to kiss his cheek.

"Tomato tomato. You look ridiculous." Jalen responded, referring to the leopard shower cap that Noelani had on her head to protect her hair.

"I don't have any of my good hair products." Noelani responded.

"Yeah, okay." Jalen laughed.

"This isn't gonna smell like a female right?" Jalen asked, his eyes on the Dove body wash placed on the corner of the shower area.

"It's just soap," Noelani laughed, "What's wrong with you? Toxic masculinity isn't the wave."

Jalen sucked his teeth, "I'm not toxic. Give me the loofah." Noelani slapped the loofah into his hands.

"I better not smell like roses and perfume and shit." Jalen groaned.

"You came into shower, kid." Noelani shook her head, watching as Jalen began to cascade the loofah back and forth against his stomach.

Jalen rubbed the loofah over his shoulders slowly for a minute then pulled Noelani into his chest.

"Kid," Noelani giggled, feeling Jalen start to press kisses to her neck, "Don't we have somewhere to be soon?"

"They can wait." Jalen muttered, pulling Noelani onto her tippy toes to give her a passionate kiss.

"You told..." Noelani attempted to say between kisses, "You told your friends that we would be there."

"Please shut up." Jalen said in a low tone, pressing her against the wall.

Noelani crossed her arms around his neck as the kiss continued.

The shower head continued to pump out jets of high pressured water as the song switched to Lil Baby's Dreams 2 Reality.

"My life was hard, it just had to be," Jalen pulled away from her to rap loudly.

Noelani cocked her head and sighed at how boisterous her boyfriend was being.

"I'm running, them demons after me, when I pop these Percs, ion do it happily." Jalen continued to rap, now rinsing off in the water.

"Only you would choose Lil Baby over kissing your girlfriend. You are a trip." Noelani rolled her eyes as she stepped out of the shower.

"I love you though." Jalen said with a grin.

"I love you too. This still feels weird to say to someone other than my mom." Noelani responded as she grabbed a folded white towel off of the wire shelf above the toilet and padded out to the bedroom.

Her lotion from Bath and Body Works, her deodorant and her clothes were on the bed next to Jalen's clothes.

Noelani had just begun to slide her black ripped jeans on when Jalen walked back out with a towel wrapped firmly around his hips.

"You know, I would've had to go all the way down to the lobby if I were to get condoms and that shit is embarrassing." Jalen said, continuing their conversation.

"Well," Noelani drawled out slowly, as she plucked off her shower cap and shook her curls free, "It's a good thing that I'm on birth control, then huh?"

Jalen stopped, turned and looked at Noelani with a gape, just as she had slipped on her slightly faded navy blue Sublime graphic shirt.

"But never mind. You might have something," Noelani slipped on her checkered Vans, "I want a Poptart."

Jalen began to stammer, "W-wait."

"Nah, hungry. Bye, kid." Noelani gave Jalen a teasing smile as she slipped out of the hotel room.

Noelani leaned against the teakwood colored headboard in Joshua's room as the four boys sat on the edge of the full size bed.

They were focused on playing a video game while Noelani was scrolling through Instagram on her phone, lightly rapping along to the Lil Uzi Vert that was playing.

Noelani leaned her head onto the wood behind her, "Is this all we're gonna do today? I'm gonna just sit here and watch y'all play the game?"

"Yes." The four boys said in unison.

"Where's Nikki? How'd she get out of this?" Noelani nodded at Brandon.

"She's with her cousin in San Diego." Brandon responded.

"Give me the car keys." Noelani gently prodded Jalen's hoodie covered back with her foot.

"No. Give me an hour." Jalen said, giving Noelani a glance.

Noelani's phone rang with a FaceTime from her friend Jasmine, effectively stealing her focus.

"Is that your other boyfriend?" Jalen asked, not turning around.

"Other boyfriend? I'm just now starting to like you." Noelani answered her phone, "Hey, Jas."

"Hey, I'm bored. Can I come through? All I'm doing is watching Coleman play the game." Jasmine groaned.

"I'm not home, I'm in L.A with Jalen and his friends. We in the same boat." Noelani flipped the camera around to show the backs of Joshua, Brandon, Dior and Jalen.

"Ugh. Boys." Jasmine rolled her eyes.

"Who's the Chinese girl?" Dior scooted back to sit next to Noelani then looked at the screen.

Jasmine gave Dior a dirty look through the screen, "I'm Korean, you dumb fuck. Don't assume every Asian is Chinese, what the fuck?"

"Damn, my bad, bitch." Dior rolled his eyes.

"Jalen, get your elf looking ass friend. I'm not the one." Jasmine said, "Anyway, are you gonna be back up here for Christmas?"

"Probably. I think we're leaving tomorrow." Noelani looked at Jalen for confirmation.

"Yeah, we are." Jalen agreed.

"That quick?" Jasmine questioned.

"Yeah, we've seen everything to see here." Noelani shrugged.

"Aw, 'we.' What'd I say? Dating by Christmas. I should've bet on it." Jasmine said with a smug expression.

Jalen straightened up a little, his stiffening evident, "What?"

"What?" Jasmine responded in a confused tone.

"What are you talking about?" Jalen snapped.

Noelani furrowed her brows, "Lemme call you back. What's your problem?"

Dior let out an immature 'ooh', "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"It's nothing. I thought I heard her say something else." Jalen said, returning to the game.

"You're acting weird." Noelani raised an eyebrow.

"Oop. Trouble in paradise?" Dior asked.

Noelani elbowed Dior in his ribs causing the boy to scream, "Abuse!"

"Dior, shut up! Damn!" Joshua responded.

Noelani gave Jalen another weird look then shuddered a little.

Jalen's outburst was a little unnerving to Noelani.

What had triggered Jalen like that for him to yell at Jasmine?

He usually wasn't the type to heighten his words by yelling.

Jalen didn't need to, his name usually commanded his respect for him.

Noelani narrowed her eyes at the back of her boyfriend's head and glared a bit, trying not to let her trust issues rear its ugly head.

She could trust her boyfriend.

She could trust her boyfriend.

She could trust her boyfriend.

So why was the twist in her abdomen telling her different?

I can trust my boyfriend...

Right?

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