The following morning, Lei got up and washed up. As tired as she was from last night's party, she didn't want to bail on the plans she had. She made sure she was decent enough, before grabbing her house key and heading out the door.

On her mini walk, she checked her messages seeing a few from her friends on campus, as well as a text from Elias. She texted everyone else back except Elias, still needing time to process their conversation from the night prior.

As much as she wanted to give in, she knew she couldn't be so naïve this time around. He was the guy that broke her heart, the guy that claimed and made her believe there was no love between them anymore. How do she go from thinking that there isn't any love between them, to now knowing that he lied, and he did in fact love her?

The situation weighed heavy on her mind, but for the sake of her plans, she wanted to push it to the back of her mind for now.

She approached Ms. Jean's front porch, and ring the doorbell, waiting a few minutes. Finally, the door swung open, revealing Ms. Jean on the other side of the glass door. She pushed open the screen door, letting Lei walk in.

"Good morning Ms. Jean," Lei smiled, embracing her.

"Good morning baby, he's in the back still getting ready." she told her, shutting the door and locking it. Lei walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa, seeing that Law and Order was playing on the TV.

Lei thought Ms. Jean would follow in behind her, but she didn't. She cleared her throat, settling back into the sofa, focusing her attention on the TV, since Law and Order was one of her favorite shows. A few minutes later as Lei became more indulged in the show, Ms. Jean returned to the living room with a bag in her hand.

She handed it over to Lei, who was now sporting a confused look. "Isidro told me that you missed my banana pudding, so I made enough for you and your friends." Ms. Jean explained.

"Oh! Thank you so much, I already know this isn't going to last long in the house. The last time I brought some home, it only lasted a day, because Xahir ate most of it and tried to bribe me to get you to make more for us," Lei smiled, slightly laughing at the last part.

"That Xahir knew he could eat," Ms. Jean chuckled, taking a seat in the recliner nearby.

"Right," Lei agreed, resting the bag in her lap. "You been okay? It's good to see Rocko moving around,"

"Yeah I'm alright baby, just been finding little things to do around the house until my vacation is over, feels good to be able to relax. Me and Rocko be in here watchin' TV chile'." Ms. Jean told her, resting her arms on the armrest of the recliner, looking through the curtains on the window. It was something Lei noticed she did whenever she sat in that chair.

Before Lei could respond, Isidro walked into the living room, adjusting his apple watch on his wrist. "You ready?" he asked her. Lei nodded her head, getting up from the sofa, making sure to grab the bag out of her lap.

"Um, can I leave this here until we come back? I don't want it to go bad while we out," Lei turned to ask Ms. Jean.

"Oh yeah, of course." Ms. Jean said, starting to get up from the recliner until Isidro stopped her.

"I got it grandma," he told her, grabbing the bag out of Lei's hands. He walked down the hall to the kitchen, to put it in the refrigerator. He returned back a minute later, opening the front door and letting Lei walk out first.

"Y'all be careful!" Ms. Jean shouted after them.

Lei walked to Isidro's car, while he locked up the house. A few days before, Lei made plans with Isidro to take him to a restaurant that had good breakfast. While he did visit Florida plenty of times before, he solely visited for his grandmother and his aunt. He didn't have that many friends that lived in the area, so Lei wanted to show him what Daytona had to offer now that he living there.

Isidro hit the alarm to his car, unlocking the doors. Lei started to reach for the handle, until he opened the door for her. She was taken aback by it, given that the only people who ever did that before was Xahir and her dad.

"Chivalry ain't dead, I guess." She remarked, getting into the car. She heard a laugh slip from his lips, as he closed the door once she got settled in.

"What's the name of the restaurant again?" he asked her, cranking the car up. He grabbed his phone and went to his maps, before handing it over to her to type in instead.

"It's not far from here, just about twenty minutes." Lei told him, typing in the name of the restaurant in the maps app. She clicked the directions, and passed the phone over to him again.

Lei covered her face with both hands, her face turning red from laughing so hard as she showed Isidro her videos from last night's party. The two couldn't stop laughing at Jojo hitting a split in the soul train line — which by the way had gained the attention of many of their friends on social media.

"Damn man," Isidro wiped the corner of his eye, after finally catching his breath. "That party seemed lit, I'm glad you had fun. You looked really pretty."

"Thanks," Lei smiled giddily, picking up her fork to continue eating her french toast. "You definitely would've had fun, the next party we go to, you gotta come wit' us."

"Just say word and I'll go," he replied, dipping his spoon into his cheesy grits. Lei hummed, chewing on the french toast she stuffed into her mouth. Isidro smirked, watching her moan to herself. "Must be really good,"

Lei's eyes quickly fluttered open, she started to blush a little covering her mouth with her hand. "You should try it, I swear they make the best french toast." she cut into the french toast with the knife and grabbed his fork. "Here,"

He opened his mouth, letting her feed it to him. She watched him for a reaction while he chewed. He slowly nodded his head in approval, "It's good, fluffy as hell."

"Told you," Lei cheesed cockily, grabbing her glass of orange juice.

"Can I ask you something, if you don't mind?" he cleared his throat, wiping his sticky hands off with a napkin. Lei nodded her head, continuing to drink from her straw. "Why are you single?"

Lei sat the glass of orange juice back on the table, taking a deep breath. "Well, I'm not single by choice honestly. My ex broke up wit' me a few months ago and then after my brother died, I wasn't thinking about relationships." she explained, scooping some eggs and grits together on her fork.

"Oh okay, I understand. So like, is he completely out of the picture or?"

"He isn't," Lei answered truthfully, "He wants to make it work but I'm still a li'l indecisive,"

"And why is that?"

"Because apart of me wants to get back together, but then there's another part of me that just wants to let it go." she shrugged, sitting back in the booth.

"Well let me ask you this, did he make you genuinely happy in the relationship?" he questioned her, Lei sat there for a minute, thinking to herself before nodding her head. "Okay, so if he made you genuinely happy, why would you want to let it go?"

"He hurt me..." she trailed off, "He told me that he ran from our relationship because he was fallin' too deep apparently,"

Isidro paused what he was doing, sucking his teeth. "That's why he broke up wit' you?" he looked at her crazy, Lei nodded her head once again. "That's bullshit Lei, I'm gone tell you that right now, coming from a guy's perspective, niggas don't run away from a girl that they really love. If anything, they don't ever want to do anything that'll cause her to leave. It's gotta be deeper than he leading on,"

"And that's what I been thinking, like — how can you just wake up one day and decide you no longer want to be wit' someone you spent every day wit' for the past year? It just doesn't make sense to me," Lei replied, hearing the faint ding her phone gave off. She checked her phone to see that Raj sent her a 'good morning' text.

"Yea' that's a li'l weird to me," Isidro agreed, pouring some more syrup over his waffles.

"I'm sorry," Lei apologized, folding her hands in her lap. Isidro gave her a weird look, sitting the syrup down on the table. "I don't want to lead you on, especially if my ex is still in the picture."

"Nah you good, I appreciate you for being honest wit' me. I know now to just fall back until you make your decision — and if it comes down to you gettin' back wit' him, that won't hinder us from being friends still, cause I do fuck wit' you." He said, causing Lei to smile.

"Thanks for being understanding," she picked up her fork, stabbing it into her sausage links. "So, why are you single?"

"I'm single by choice, I like the freedom of doing whatever I want but at the same time I do miss being up under my significant other." he told her.

Lei hummed, as she chewed on her food. "True, that's how I was after Elias and I broke up but truthfully I'm not meant for the streets," she joked, as he started chuckling.

"I hear you, the streets not built for everybody. There has been a few potential women that took an interest in me but they weren't really my type," he said before sipping on his apple juice.

"What is your type?"

"I mean, I don't really have a type, but like, they weren't—"

"Meeting your expectations?" She finished the sentence for him.

"Right, exactly. I like a woman who goes out and know how to have fun, but I don't like when she's in every nigga face, you know?" he explained, Lei nodding in understanding. "I'm not in every female face, out respect for my girl so I feel like that should be a reciprocated energy. That shit a turn off,"

"I understand." Lei covered her mouth as she spoke, hearing another faint notification from her phone.

💙

u tryna hang out?

no Siraj 🙄 I seen u yesterday

💙

okay 🥺

Lei laughed and sat her phone down, she looked out of the window seeing that the sky was starting to look a little grayish, indicating that it was going to rain soon.

"I don't feel like going to work man," Isidro complained, stacking his plates on top of each other. Lei followed suit, stacking hers on top of his, along with the cups.

"What time you get off?"

"Midnight, thank God I'm off tomorrow. Those late night shifts have my sleep schedule all types of fucked up." he yawned, rubbing his arm. Lei later learned that Isidro moved to Florida for a position at the hospital nearby. He was an RN for the time being, but he wanted to be a nurse practitioner.

"I actually prefer late night shifts, it's peaceful." Lei grabbed her phone to text Keia back, who was requesting her to bring them some food back. "Plus, I have insomnia so I don't sleep throughout the night anyways."

"Have you tried taking melatonin?" Isidro suggested.

"Yeah but it doesn't work for me," she began to yawn, stretching her upper body. "I have a doctors appointment this week, so I'ma see what she say. I can't focus when I'm in class, cause I be so damn sleepy."

"Have you always had insomnia?"

"Nah, it started shortly after my brother died..." she trailed off, avoiding eye contact with him. Isidro started to say something until their waitress approached their table, after seeing their empty plates.

"Are we ready for the check?" she asked them, grabbing their empty plates, the pair nodding their heads as she did so. "Is it separate?"

"Nah it's together," Isidro told her.

The following day, Lei kept to herself majority of the day. She was having one of her days, where Xahir's presence was being missed heavily. She had a nightmare the night before, that the two of them were hanging out like they usually did on weekends, however the dream ended abruptly with them getting into the fatal accident. She woke up in the middle of the night and had been awake since, fearing of having the nightmare again or being in the dark.

She sat on the bench, listening to the music in her headphones, patiently waiting for Siraj. He texted her about thirty minutes ago, letting her know that he was going to be late picking her up.

It was close to the time that Keia would be getting out of class, so she was contemplating to herself about texting Raj, to let him know he wouldn't have to worry about it.

Lei got up from the bench, sending the text message to Raj. She began her walk to the other side of campus where Keia class was. On her trip there, she waved to a couple of her friends she passed by. She wasn't in the mood to talk, she was currently stuck in her mind, trying to pull herself out of the deep end.

As Lei passed by the gymnasium, a couple of guys were standing around nearby. Amongst the group, was Elias who was engaging in a conversation until one of his homeboys tapped his arm. "Aye, there go ya' girl,"

Elias paused and turned in the direction his friend was looking in. He quickly jogged over to her, gently grabbing her wrist. Startled by it, Lei snatched away. She relaxed once she relaxed it was Elias, taking one of her headphones out.

"Oh hey, you scared me," she said, pausing the music on her phone.

"My bad, what you still doing here?" he questioned her, as they both stopped walking.

"I was waiting for my ride, but I just decided to wait for Keia instead. She gets out in thirty minutes," Lei explained, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh.." Elias trailed off, he cleared his throat, beginning to scratch the back of his neck. "I can take you home if you want, I was getting ready to head to my place real quick before practice,"

"Um," Lei hesitated, glancing around. She deeply sighed, knowing she really didn't want to wait another thirty minutes for Keia, and she didn't know how long Raj would be either. She wasn't in the mood to hang out any longer on campus, she wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed. "Straight home, Elias." she finally said in a stern tone, pointing her finger at him.

"Straight home, I promise. I wanna talk privately anyway," he threw his hands up, slightly shrugging his shoulders.

Lei gestured for him to lead the way. He started to walk, as Lei followed behind him. Neither spoke as they walked to his car, however, Elias didn't expect her to say anything, knowing that she probably was still a little upset with him from Saturday.

After he texted her Sunday morning and not receiving a response from her, he figured he'd just give her another day to think on what he said. Deep down, he was hoping she would give in, because he was missing her badly.

Once they made it to Elias's car and got settled, he wasted no time pulling out of the parking lot. Neither really spoke much, instead letting the music fill the silence for them. Lei yawned, leaning her head against the window. Her eyes were heavy, but she was scared to close her eyes.

All she could see each time was the horrifying image of her brother, that was forever burned into her mind. It genuinely scared her to see him like that—she hated that she had to see him like that. She hated that it was the last memory she had of him, she didn't have the luxury like everyone else to remember him with a good memory.

She deprived herself of sleep, drinking coffee and taking pills to keep herself awake.

Lei had become so engrossed in her thoughts, that she hadn't realized Elias pulled into the driveway of her house. She snapped out of her thoughts and unfastened her seatbelt. "You can come in," she told Elias, getting out of the car.

He followed suit, also getting out. Before she went to the front door, she walked down the driveway to check the mailbox. "What's up Soleil!" she heard someone call her name, she glanced over and seen Isidro still in his work clothes.

"Hey!" she waved to him, a small smile on her face. "Getting ready to leave for work?"

"Yes ma'am,"

"Oh okay, hope you have a nice shift. Drive safe, okay?" Lei said, slowly walking back up the driveway.

"Will do, enjoy the rest of your day." He grinned, getting into his car. Lei simply smiled and continued the short walk to her front door. After unlocking the door and disarming the alarm, Lei walked upstairs to her room.

She could feel Elias presence behind her, making her a little nervous as she haven't been alone with him since months ago.

"Who was that dude?" Elias finally asked her, sitting on her bed.

"Isidro," she mumbled, walking into her closet to kick her shoes off. "You can start talking now, I got shit to do." she turned to look at him, wanting him to say whatever was on his chest.

"Did you think about what we talked about?" he questioned her.

Lei shrugged, "I have and to be honest with you, I do miss what we have, however — I don't know if I'm ready to get back into a relationship with you just yet." she sighed, walking out of the closet.

"That's fine wit' me Lei, if you want to move slow and ease back into a relationship, that's cool. I just know for sure, I want you back. It was a huge mistake, you know, breakin' shit off wit' you." Elias said, Lei slowly nodded her head. The room fell quiet, as Elias intently watched her. She stood a little distance away, with her arms folded over her chest, chewing at her bottom lip.

"Come here," he beckoned her, Lei obliged and made her way over to him. He placed his hands on her hips, pulling her a little closer to him. "I really missed you," he said, planting small trail of kisses down her stomach.

Lei remained quiet, watching him unbutton her jeans, before sliding them down her legs. She let go of a shaky breath, causing him to pause what he was doing and look up at her. "You want me to stop?"

She shook her head 'no', stepping out of her jeans. He proceeded the same steps with her panties, before picking her up and shutting the bedroom door.

Meanwhile, Raj sat at stop light, talking to his one his homeboys that called him in regards to an Instagram post the shaderoom posted. Unfortunately, someone took a picture of him and Raegan together as they were a little cozied up and the shaderoom posted it, speculating that he was Raegan's new boo.

Raj couldn't absolutely stand when his privacy was being invaded, or when people assumed without knowing the facts. Since that post, he gained a lot of followers, in a way it was good for his business but he hated the attention.