I turned around and it was Saraya. I walked over to her and we hugged.

"Bitch I thought you weren't suppose to be here til March?" she said softly.

"Yeah.... Saraya I got to tell you something"

"Girl we can talk outside, there's people outside waiting!" she said as we walked out of the bathroom.

Saraya and I have been friends for 11 years and over those 11 years of friendship Saraya has shown me that she isn't that good of a listener. '

"Y'all look who I found lurking in the bathroom?!" she laughed.

There were 6 people that Saraya came with. The same people she hung out with before I left Heights. Juli, Ron, Rari, EJ, Kay, and Zaven.

Julia and Saraya had beef over some guy, but ended it and became friends sophomore year. Plus she had a thing with my brother, Elias a year ago. Devon, EJ, and Zaven were Tray's friends. As for Kay, that was Tray's girlfriend. Sweet girl.

"Aye! Amiyah, girl what you doing here?!! I thought you weren't supposed to be here til March?" asked Julia.

"Yeah... a friend and I came to visit." I said nervously.

"Oh. Cool." Julia nodded.

"So where is this friend of yours." Saraya said looking around.

"Oh he's getting skates"

"Whoa—HE? Okay Yahyah I see you" Saraya yelled.

Yahyah is a nickname Saraya gave me when we were little. She would call me Yahyah and I would call her Rayray. It's been a while since I heard that name.

"Lemme find out you got a whole boyfriend out here" Saraya chuckled.

"Hey Amiyah I've been looking for you. They ran out of 7s, so I got you 7 and 1/2. I hope that's okay with you. He said as he gave me a bright smile.

"Oooh Amiyah, who's this?" Saraya said checking him out.

"Yeah it's fine. Thanks" I smiled back at him.

"Hi, I'm Evan" he said as he gave a slight wave.

"I'm Saraya by the way, Amiyah's friend" she smiled.

"Nice to meet you Saraya"

"You too." She said in her voice she uses when talking to nonblack people.

A couple seconds later Saraya opened her mouth.

So y'all dating or?...." Saraya said bluntly.

That was Saraya. Straight to it.

"Uh.... I guess that depends how well this date goes" he looked directly at me.

"We'll see" I awkwardly chuckled.

"Oop. I hope I ain't put too much pressure on y'all date" she said as she gave a smirk.

"Nah, not at all" Evan chuckled.

Suddenly a deep voice (yes, deeper than Evan's") boomed behind us.

"Saraya, they don't have the blue raspberry icee. They're out." He said with an attitude.

"Are you sure Tray? Because these folk be lying". Saraya huffed.

"Yes, I'm sure. You made me go back a second time to confirm. They out."

"How you gonna run out of water and CO2?" Saraya scoffed.

"They ran out of the blue raspberry flavor, smartass" he said sarcastically.

Tray walked up from behind us and sat next to his girlfriend. His eyes lit up when he saw me.

"Is it me or does that girl look just like Amiyah?" Tray said as he gave a deeper stare.

"It is Amiyah," Kay joined in.

"Tracy Keon Jones." I said in a raspy voice, attempting to impersonate his mom.

He gave a slight chuckle.

"Amiyah? for a second there I thought my momma followed me here. " he said as he got up to give me a hug.

Tray turned around to face Evan.

"Ah the lions..." Tray pointed to Evan's hoodie.

Heard bout y'all. Nice game y'all played against Danning "

"Thanks." Evan beamed.

"Tray plays basketball too" Saraya blurted out.

"Yeah...Brooklyn Heights. Mavericks right?"

"Yeah man." Tray said with a surprised look on his face.

"Uh-we should probably get going. We told Daniel we were going to stop by the hospital" Kay interrupted.

"What happened to Daniel?" I asked.

Daniel is one of Tray's closest friends and teammate. Everywhere Tray was, Daniel was right by his side.

"Daniel got in a car crash. He tore his ACL so he's out for the season."

"Aw damn. Poor Daniel" I sighed.

"Yeah, but we'll talk later. Gotta go before Daniel throw a hissy fit." Tray said with Kay under his arm.

"Alright, bye" I waved.

"Evan, nice meeting you man. Take care of my sister. Make sure she don't do any dumb shit" Tray said dapping Evan up.

"I will." Evan chuckled.

After that we went on with our date.

—————————————————————

"So I gave her the card" Evan chuckled while eating Ben & Jerry's

"Whoa-wait a minute. You gave that girl a valentines! Why?" I laughed.

" I felt bad. Someone told her that I liked her, I guess as some sort of prank. She never got anything. I took the card and candy I planned to give to my crush and gave it to her instead." He smiled.

So much has happened over these past few weeks. I'm happy that we are able to know more about each other.

"Did you ever tell your crush you liked her?"

"Well... I was but I found out she liked another guy so I guess it worked out because she saved me the embarrassment he smiled.

"Aw. That's so sad" I laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... what about you?"

"Well, I never gave anyone a valentines out of pity so..." I said as I gave him a smirk.

"Yeah okay, I meant a little crush in school." he said as he tasted a bit of my ice cream.

"Devin Alan, sixth grade, fifth period" I shook my head.

Evan looked at me in awe.

"Not you remembering the class period" Evan chuckled.

"Not you judging me Mr. Willy Wonka" I said as I playfully rolled my eyes.

"Anyways... he was new. He came around the second trimester. He was cute and sweet. The reason why I liked him was because he seemed a little more mature than most guys. I pretty much spent the rest of the school year secretly crushing on him. I never intended on telling him how I felt or anything until he came up to talk to me one day" I chuckled.

I could tell Evan was paying attention to everything I said because he close to me and looked me in my eyes whenever I said anything.

"Oh please do tell" he said as he leaned in more.

"He came to me during lunch wondering about an assignment we had during fifth period. That kind of jump started a conversation between us. After our conversation that day we would casually talk to each other during the school day so I guess you can say we gradually became friends. One day after lunch he asked me to meet him after school in the parking lot. I was kind of nervous about what he was going to ask me. So it's 2:10 and school is over, I make my way over to the parking lot and Devin is there looking good. He walks up to me and tells me that he had something on his mind for a while now, but he was contemplating on whether or not to tell me. " I smiled.

"looks like somebody's got a date!" Evan smiled.

I laughed and proceeded with the story.

"He tells me he's been wanting to say this but was nervous to tell me. I assured him there's nothing to be nervous about and that he's a great guy."

"Awww" Evan said batting his eyes.

"Shut up" I cackled.

"He took a deep breath and asked if Tray would be interested in going on a date with him."

Evan's whole jaw dropped after I finished the story.

"Damn and I thought I was down bad" he shook his head.

"Count your blessings baby boy" I said before I told a bite of my ice cream.

"Well... Miss Amiyah you never seem to amaze me with your stories. You have a gift" he said putting ice cream down and leaning in towards me.

"Me?! Let's talk about you, Mr. Evan" I chuckled.

"What about me?" He whispered in his deep voice.

"You knew that I used to come to here to skate when I was younger and brought me here on our first date. That pretty impressive young man." I said waving my spoon at him.

"Well.. I wanted you to feel comfortable on our first date. I thought why not bring you to a place that feels like home?

When he brought me back to Renzo's I was genuinely happy. I didn't feel nervous around him after that he made me feel at ease. I felt comfortable. I felt at home.

"Well.." I said as I put my ice cream down and leaned in towards him"

"Well..." he whispered as his thumb gently stroked my face.

"I'm comfortable" I whispered as I leaned in for a kiss.

Evan leaned in closer towards my lips and paused.

"What?" I smiled.

"This is a little awkward....I don't normally kiss girls on the first date" he grinned.

This boy plays too much.

"Boy bye!"I said as I playfully slapped him on the arm.

He leaned in until his lips gently touched mine while his hand slowly caressed my face.

His lips slowly moved away from mine and he paused for a brief moment as he stared deeply into my eyes.

"What now?" I chuckled.

"To be honest, if I keep going I don't know if I'll be able to stop" he whispered my ear.

"Who said I wanted you to stop?" I whispered back.

——————————————————————————-

"Girl!!" Taylor screamed on FaceTime.

Taylor was talking about her date with Leo.

"You said Leo did what again? I'm sorry I couldn't hear over all that screaming you were just doing earlier" Noelle asked.

"I said he had a picnic date planned for us!"

"Oh that's cute." Noelle and I said simultaneously.

"Like he had chocolate covered strawberries, sparkling white grape juice, and peonies, my favorite flowers. Y'all he had everything! The best part was how natural it felt. I was nervous that it would awkward that we were going on a date.

"Taylor, Leo has always liked you. It's not surprising that knows what you like" I chuckled.

"It sounds stupid, but in that moment I felt so appreciated. The fact that he took the time to prepare that picnic.... It just made me feel good, honestly. I haven't felt like this in a while so... " Taylor said calmly.

"It's not stupid" I disagreed.

"Yeah, this is the first time a guy has really making an effort to get to know you and is making you happy. You are not stupid for feeling like this. You deserve this Tay" Noelle concurred.

" I appreciate y'all for real, love you guys!" Taylor beamed.

"Love you!" Noelle and I said simultaneously.

"Amiyah I thought you and Evan had a date today?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah. I just got back from our date" I smiled thinking about our date.

"How was it?" Noelle asked.

"Thoughtful. Evan took me back to my hometown and we went rolling skating. Nothing too big"

"Okay....well did Evan roll you some tongue on this rolling skating date?" Noelle questioned.

"Yeah , I'm tryna figure what else was rolling?" Taylor asked.

Listen, I've never been the "Kiss N Tell" type. Although Evan is a good kisser and he makes me feel sexy. I don't necessarily want to go around telling people that. I would like to keep that private.

"Evan was a gentleman on this date. He told me he has this thing where he doesn't kiss on the first date." I said trying not to laugh.

"You telling me he drove all the way to your hometown and you ain't slip him no tongue? Not even a peck?" Taylor said in disbelief.

"Not even a kiss on the check?" Noelle jumped in.

"Amiyah, please tell me you gave him a hug?" Taylor laughed.

"Of course, I did"

"Good, cause if I were him and you didn't I would've made you pay gas money on the way back home" Noelle laughed.

"Bye Noelle!" I laughed.

——————————————————————————-

😂