"She's having a panic attack, someone hurry up and do something!" China yelled jumping out of her seat kneeling down next to my chair.

The whole room erupted into chaos as everyone ran over to me. I could barely breathe, I was feeling faint and my vision began to blur. I'm scared.

"Everyone, please remain calm and move away from her, I'm calling the nurse." I heard the teacher say

"It made me feel somewhat better that I can protect you from getting hurt and prevent you from going through the shit that I'm currently still going through."

I'm sorry Jasmine for being such a bad friend. You're always there to protect me, but I'm so useless I could never protect you. I'm sorry.

"Daddy, I'm fine," I said rolling my eyes blowing a raspberry. I appreciate his concern but it was only just a panic attack. "You can go back to work, I'll have China and Kae over," I took my phone out and texted China

"Trin are you sure? I can take the day off, whatever you want." He said setting down the mint tea he made for me on the coffee table.

"What I want is for you to go back to work before your lunch break is over. China just confirmed that they're coming over as soon as school is over." I said reading her response

He sighed looking down at me scratching the back of his head "Okay baby girl." He said kissing me on my forehead. "I'll see you in a little while."

"Bye daddy," I said sitting up on the couch adjusting my mermaid tail blanket.

"I'll see you later, love you." He said throwing his scarf on and picking his keys up from off the coffee table.

"Love you too!" I called out

He then headed to the front door and waved goodbye as he went through the door.

'''

"Trinity." China cooed slightly rubbing my shoulder.

My eyes fluttered open and standing before me was China, Kae, Micheal, and Chris. They all still had their book bags on.

"Hey, you okay?" Kae asked smiling at me

I just nodded and sat up. Michael then tossed a plastic bag on my lap and went to go sit down. I scrutinized him all the way to his seat. They all took seats in the two recliners and the love couch leaving the three seater all to myself.

"Thank you." I said cutting my eyes at him and taking the huge bottle of Arizona green tea out of the bag.

"I heard you got called to the office, what did Joey say?" Michael asked scrolling through his phone.

I chuckled "Oh so you, along with Kae calls the principle by his first name?"

"We all do," China answered nodding her head.

I shook my head "He talked about him not knowing me well to me having potential and he doesn't want to see me fail. He just let me off with a warning I guess." I shrugged. "But enough about me, what's this listening party you're trying to do?" I asked looking at Michael.

"Oh yeah, facts." He said sitting up. "Over regents week we're gonna debut our collab mixtape. Yo, it's gonna be fucking lit!" He yelled getting excited.

"When is regents week?" I asked

"The eighteenth through the twenty-second." Kae answered

"I'm so proud of you love," China said blowing him a kiss from across the coffee table.

"Thank you baby, I'm gonna have you in one of my music videos, just watch." He said winking at her "But damn Trinity, can you feed your guests? I'm hungrier than a bitch."

"What the hell, I invited China and Kae over last time I checked. You should've eaten the school lunch." I said shrugging and turning on the television.

"Eat the school lun—ladies and gentlemen Trinity James the worst fucking host ever." He said holding up his phone to his face.

"Michael stop being annoying and leave me off of your Snapchat!" I quickly said picking up a pillow and tossing it at him but in god's favor, the pillow hit Chris instead.

Michael snorted laughing "Oop."

Everyone's conversation seized as we all were waiting for Chris' reaction. A loud car's horn then disturbed the silence catching us all off guard.

He looked up with a slight smirk tugging at his lips, then reverting his eyes straight to me. "That's Lauryn, I'll see yall niggas later." He then stood up and walked to the front door, pulling up his slightly saggy pants. With that, he left.

"What was that about?" Kae asked reclining her seat back and kicking her feet up.

China nodded looking from Kae to me "What's going on with yall two?" She asked knitting her eyebrows.

I looked at the three of them as they were all looking at me. "Don't act like you're all clueless. I'm pretty sure you know what's going on."

"One minute yall ignore each other, next minute yall good, yall ignore each other again, and the cycle just repeats," Kae said.

"The night we came home from the mall after the fight, we were so good. He took me to this bridge that had a great view of this running stream. I'm not even sure if we were still in queens, he was flirting with me hard and it was so nice. Then the day before New Year's Eve, literally two days later, I saw him in the mall and him and Lauryn was all up on each other so I fell back."

"Michael where did Lauryn even come from?" Kae asked reclinging her seat up.

"Facts, shawty came out of nowhere." China chimed in.

"And then at Khalil's party they were cuddled up so she must be his girl." I said shrugging.

"What?" Michael said mustering up a face of confusion or disgust, I couldn't decipher which one it is. But if it involves Lauryn, then I'll just assume it's disgust. "Lauryn is not his girl." He said chuckling. "She's just someone to have for the moment. I mean I don't think he really likes her, she's just convenient and something to do."

It was now China's turn to muster up a face of confusion. "What does that even mean?"

"Trinity, Chris isn't fucking with shawty like that as far as I know." He said looking straight at me.

"You're telling me this because?"

"Girl don't play!" Kae said chuckling "Everyone knows yall like eachother."

"Yall would look so cute together." China said cooing.

I looked at her. "I thought you were team Dominic."

"I'm team whatever you want me to be." She responded quickly smiling.

"What about Khalil?" I said to myself aloud.

"It's whatever you wan't to do sis. Just know, I got you when it comes to Chris." Michael said siting at the edge of his seat resting his elbows on his leg with his chin in the palm of his hand.

"Meaning?"

"Trinity he likes you, just say the word."

'''

"Okay well since we're most likely banned from the mall," Michael started as he scrutinzed Trinity, "What are we gonna do today?"

We all sat in China's living room dressed with nothing to do.

"It's a new year, I bet all is forgiven." Trinity said smiling wide showing her perfect set of white teeth.

She took a sip of her Starbucks drink that was in a glass bottle staring right at me. I didn't even know they sell those, better yet, I didn't know they sell those in corner stores. She looked good with her hair straight with no makeup on and joggers. Damn.

"There's nothing to do in Queens, all the lit shit is in manhattan or Brooklyn and I don't feel like traveling." Kae said sighing.

"I got a car now so traveling is no problem." Trinity said looking away from me and at over at Kae.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

"Let's go to an arcade. I bet I could find some place on Yelp or some shit." China chimed in.

"Cool with me." I said shrugging.

"Aight, we out then." Michael said getting up and heading out the door.

"Can we stop at Taco Bell though?" China asked.

'''

I don't know how it happened but Trinity and I ended up sitting alone in the booth together while the others went to go play games and shit. She's sitting across from me playing with the pepperoni on her pizza and it was getting me tight cus the pizza here is hittin' and I'm about to eat her slice.

"Boy, what the hell!" She yelled grabbing after her plate.

I took a big ass bite of the pizza and attempted to give it back to her but she sat back in her seat with her face scrunched up and arms folded across her chest.

"You haven't talked to me in a long ass time." I said swallowing the pizza.

"That doesn't mean you eat my damn pizza."

"That was funny though, you can't lie." I said chuckling.

She rolled her eyes and looked away trying to stiffle her laugh.

"You changed." I said getting her attention. "You're cursing now and shit, dressing different. You're more laid back and cool. I like that, you're getting used to the hood."

I watched her as she took a moment to respond "It's not that bad, until someone start shooting out of no where." She said with a laugh.

Hearing her laugh and seeing her smile made me feel releived in some type of way. The tension finally went away and she was less tense.

"Speaking of shooting, remember at your house when we was playing Call of Duty?"

A small smile creeped up on her face "Yeah, I do."

"Wait Christopher, where are you? Theres like five guys shooting me at once!" She yelled at the screen.

I read the look of annoyance on her face when the kill cam popped up on her screen but she quickly ignored it, pressing square to respawn.

I started laughing loudly at her reaction. "My fault I was all the way across the map, Trinity stop running in the open that's how they keep bodying you." I said enjoying her struggling.

Her annoyance was then covered with a smile.

"Okay I'll listen to you since you're like prestige five or something." She said as I watched her duck down in a corner.

"I know you're not about to go camp in the corner." I said shaking my head.

"Stop screen watching!" She exclaimed getting defensive. "Christopher I got a head shot! You saw that?" She hopped off of the couch cheering.

I started laughing so hard at her excitement but laughed even harder when the kill cam started playing. Her face fell instantly as she watched her getting killed on the screen.

"They could've let me have my shine for a little while longer." She said kissing her teeth.

"What happened to those times?" I asked looking her dead in the eyes.

She took a moment to respond. "I don't know," She shrugged looking away.

"You think we could go back to that?"

She sighed and got out of the booth standing next to the table. She then took the pizza I was eating and took a bite out of it while staring me dead in my eyes. She smikred and licked her lips. "Why don't we find out? Play me." She said walking away to the gaming area.