Lei dipped her sandwich in the chipotle sauce, before taking a bite out of it. She was currently out to lunch with Elias and his friends. For the past week, Lei had been re-kindling her relationship with Elias, which meant spending a little more time with him and a little less time with others.

However, Lei made it clear to Elias that they weren't in a relationship, and she wasn't planning on having sex with him until they made it official again. He was fine with the terms, as long as he had her back in his life. His friends teased him whenever Lei was around, telling her that he was lost without her and became depressed.

She knew that they were only joking, but by the way he became flustered with embarrassment each time was slightly cute and amusing to her.

"Lei, you going to that party this weekend?" Jaelyn asked her, wiping her mouth with a napkin. Lei looked away from her sandwich, giving her a confused look.

"What party?"

"The one that Marco is throwing," she told her, grabbing her bottled sprite. "Me and Elias are going,"

Lei bit the inside of her cheek, glancing over at Elias who was on his phone. "Oh really? Didn't know that," she dryly spoke, grabbing her phone from out of her lap as it began vibrating.

She saw that Raj wanted to FaceTime her. She slid her finger across the screen, to accept the call. Seconds after, Raj's face popped up onto the screen. "What's up fake ass?" Raj said, attitude filling his voice.

"Don't start your shit Siraj," Lei laughed, seeing he held a mug on his face. "Stop looking at me like that, you know you missed li'l ole me,"

"Nigga I don't miss people who talk to me on their own terms because they done got a li'l boyfriend," Raj rolled his eyes, throwing his hoodie over his head. Elias ripped his attention away from his phone, beginning to frown.

"That's not even the reason, I been busy wit' school. It's not like you cared anyways, you haven't been over my house all week. So if anyone fake, it's your beanpole built ass." She sassed him, as he sucked his teeth.

"Girl whatever, I'ma handsome beanpole," Lei laughed again, as Raj started to grin. "Nah but Maj misses you, he be like 'why we don't pick up Lei anymore?'"

"He probably didn't even say all that," Lei laughed harder, "Bring him by today, I miss my Dooda." she poked out her bottom lip.

She felt as Elias placed his hand on her thigh, before he leaned over nibble on her ear. Lei jerked her body away from him, instantly giving him an annoyed look.

"...yeah we going over my mama house later, so if it's not too late I'll bring him by." Raj raised an eyebrow, watching Lei closely.

Lei deeply sighed, returning her attention back to Raj. "Okay, um, we'll talk later. I gotta get to my next class," she said, getting up from the table.

"A'ight," Raj simply said before ending the call.

Lei grabbed her things, a little irritated by Elias's actions. He got up as well and started following behind her out of the café. "Lei, come on, don't start this man." he sped up a little to catch up with her.

"Bro you didn't even have to do all that, fuck are you trying to make your presence known for?" she snapped, whipping around to face him.

"That nigga talkin' crazy bout me, of course I'ma let my presence be known. He need to mind his damn business, he doesn't even know me and got an issue wit' me. You act like I don't be noticing the way he be mugging me and shit," Elias defended himself, Lei sucked her teeth, rolling her eyes.

"He didn't even say shit about you, ain't even say yo' fuckin' name — so how the fuck was he talkin' crazy about you? You just lookin' for a reason to start shit, and I don't like that." Lei argued, turning around to continue her walk towards her next class.

"I'm not tryin' to start nothing. Listen Soleil, he need to respect our relationship — shit to be honest, I really don't like you hanging out wit' him."

"Here we go," Lei semi-yelled, shaking her hands in frustration. "Siraj has been around since I was in high school, if you think I'm gone drop him just because you don't like him — you must be out of your fuckin' mind."

"I'm not asking you to drop him, I just don't like you hanging out wit' him. Y'all never hang out before so why the sudden change?" Elias questioned her, following behind her as she started to walk away again. "Stop walkin' away from me Soleil, you know I hate that shit."

"Elias please get the fuck out of my face, because you are really pissing me off right now." she spoke truthfully, continuing to walk. She heard him smack his lips, walking behind her.

She felt his hand wrap around her wrist, pulling her back to him. "If you don't get your fuckin' hands off me Elias — you're really pushing it nigga." she snatched away from him, not bothering to face him.

"Lei come on man, I don't want to argue, we just got on good terms." Elias pleaded, quickly jogging to step in front of her. She started to go around him until he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Look I'm sorry, okay?"

Lei paused, flicking her gaze upward at him. "Okay, now get out of my way before I'm late to class." she shoved him out of her way, leaving him in the same spot.

She felt her phone vibrate in her hand, looking down at the screen, she saw that Raj texted her.

💙

allat was unnecessary af 😂

Lei scoffed, turning the screen off, not bothering to respond. She didn't have time for a feud between the two guys, she wanted to dead that before it could go any further. However, she knew that Raj never had an issue with Elias up until he broke up with her. He remained respectful towards their relationship, even though he didn't respect Elias for what he did.

Lei yawned walking into the building where her class was. She saw a few other people standing in the hallway, waiting for their lecturer to end the current class.

"What's up, Lei?" She heard someone speak from behind her. She turned around and saw Kelz, who was also in the same course as her.

"Oh hey, what's up?" she half smiled, stopping in her tracks to give him a friendly side hug.

"Not shit, ready to go home." Kelz yawned, leaning against the wall, rubbing his arm. "You coming to our game tomorrow?"

Lei playfully rolled her eyes, as a smirk formed on her face. "You know I am, I gotta support my li'l ugly ass boys." she joked.

Kelz grinned, shaking his head. "You always gotta talk shit, ain' gone be satisfied until someone snatch yo' li'l ass up." He said.

"And the day someone put their hands on me, is the day I'll send them straight to their maker." Lei rolled her neck, gesturing her hand towards the ceiling.

"Crazy ass," Kelz laughed, watching as the other students came pouring out of the classroom.

"Lei Lei!" Semaj exclaimed, running into Lei's legs as she opened the door. She cheesed and knelt down to his level, extending her arms to grab him into a bear hug.

"Hey Dooda! I missed you! Did you miss me?" she kissed his cheek, as she picked him up, carrying him into the kitchen where she was cooking dinner.

"Damn that's the only person you see?" Raj gave her a funny look, walking into the kitchen behind her. Lei glanced back at him, and grinned.

"Hi Siraj," she spoke, sitting Semaj down on the kitchen counter.

"What you cooking?" he asked her, the aroma of whatever she was cooking filling his nostrils. He hadn't ate since this morning when he grabbed breakfast before work.

He was fully booked today, plus had to fill orders before the weekend rolled around. To say the least, he was extremely busy and didn't have much time to eat. Even when he stopped to his mom's house, he wasn't able to eat anything because he had an important phone call to be on.

"Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn. You want some? The meatloaf is almost done," she told him, opening the oven to check on it once again.

"Absolutely," he quickly answered.

"How was school Dooda? Are you makin' friends?" Lei stood in front of Semaj, gently running her hand over his haircut.

He nodded his head, playing with the zipper on the jacket she was wearing. "Yea' I'm goin' to a sweepover," he sheepishly grinned.

Lei poked her bottom lip out, finding it cute how he tried to pronounce 'sleepover'. "Is he?" Lei questioned Raj, raising an eyebrow.

"Mhm, one of Mena's friends got a son that goes to the same school, and his birthday was yesterday but his mama throwing a li'l sleepover this weekend for him. So we lettin' him go, we figured it's time for him to start being around kids his age. As much as we'll be on edge the whole time he's gone, it'll be good for him." Raj explained, scrolling through his Instagram feed, double tapping a picture of Lei that she posted earlier.

"You took this picture today?" he glanced up from his phone, showing her the picture.

"Yes and get off my page sir," Lei narrowed her eyes at him.

"Girl don't get bigheaded, you know IG algorithm trash as hell." he shot her a funny look, before returning his attention back to his phone.

"Anyways, that's good y'all letting him do stuff wit' other kids. He won't be socially awkward like his Godfather was," Lei walked back over to the oven, she grabbed the mitten and slipped it over her hand before reaching in to pull the meatloaf out.

"That nigga was socially awkward bruh," Raj cracked up, remembering that Xahir was much of an introvert and stayed to himself before they became best friends.

"Is Semaj allergic to anything?" Lei asked him.

"Not that we know of," Raj sat his phone down, looking at her again. "Why?"

"I've never asked before, just wanted to know for future reference. He's getting older so he's allowed to eat stuff he wasn't able to when he was much younger, plus I'm gonna start getting him a li'l more often now so I feel I need to know."

"Well, I appreciate you for askin'. But nah, he's not allergic to anything as far as we know. Hopefully he isn't, I think it's wild as hell we don't really know what we're allergic to until we eat, touch or are given something." Raj shook his head, resting his arms on top of the island.

"Right," she cleared her throat, grabbing the plates from the cabinet. "You want some Maj?" she glanced back Semaj, seeing that he was reaching for Raj's phone.

"Yes,"

"Okay,"

"Oh, and before I forget." Siraj said getting up from the seat. He walked around the counter and approached Lei, leaning against the counter. "Don't let that li'l nigga put you on my bad side,"

Lei twisted her face up, jerking her head back a little. "What you meannn?" she tried muffling her laugh.

"I wasn't tryna put you blast earlier cause you was around folks, but how we go from talkin' every day to you barely textin' me back now? And don't sit up here and cap like you be busy, yo' ass don't be on none." he started mugging her, watching her trying not to laugh.

"First of all, you ain' even gotta come for me like that." she pointed her finger at him. "Secondly, I just don't want to make him uncomfortable, he knows you don't like him so I'm just tryin' to kill any tension."

"There won't be any issues if he don't pull no corny shit like he did earlier today, fu—" Raj paused, glancing over at his son, who was too invested in the game on his phone. "Why he tryna make his presence known? I know y'all together — we're just friends so he don't gotta do allat'."

"Look, I already checked him on that — and actually, we're not together. Not until I feel like we're ready to get back into a relationship, y'all niggas are mad annoying wit' y'all egos and shit." Lei rolled her eyes, becoming annoyed all over again. "You ain't gotta check me bout him cause I already did, he didn't say shit to you so why you pressed?"

"Pressed? Let's not get ahead of ourselves Soleil, I don't give a damn about y'all relationship or that nigga, I just don't like the fact that he doing the most for no reason." Raj stood up straight, irritated a little by her sudden attitude towards him.

"Okay Siraj, so what do you want me to do?"

"Well for starters don't act so damn fake wit' me, I understand you have a life and I got one too. I know we not gone talk everyday, but my issue is the fact you literally will not text me back after days of not speaking but be postin' on social media. A simple text back to let me know that you straight, is all I care for." he said.

"Real shit, if I hadn't FaceTime you today, we probably would've went another day without talkin'."

"You're right," Lei agreed, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm sorry Raj, I never meant to make you feel a way, like I said I'm just tryin' to kill any tension. It won't happen again," she continued fixing the plates.

"And that's cool, I understand that but there's no issue on my end wit' him. I don't like his ass, but I'm not gone do petty shit to provoke him or get you in trouble. But his ass need to have that same energy on his end,"

Lei passed a plate over to him, opening the drawer to pull the fork out. "Well I already talked to him Raj, so don't worry about it. He not gone do anything else like that," she assured him.

"Is the food done yet? I'm hungry as hell," Joziah walked into the kitchen, rubbing his growling stomach. "What up Raj, what up li'l man?" he walked over to Semaj, ruffling the top of his head.

"What's good bruh," Siraj slapped hands with him, before sitting the plate down on the counter. He picked up Semaj and stood him on his feet, grabbing the plate again before walking over to the table.

"Yea' call Keia down," Lei told Joziah, sitting the full plates aside as she continued fixing the food.

"Keia! Come get yo' food!" Joziah yelled, grabbing a plate off the counter. Lei paused and shot him a smug look. "What?"

"Nigga I could've did that,"

"Well why didn't you?"

"Please get out my face Joziah," Lei shooed him away, as he kissed her temple. He walked over to the table, sitting down next to Semaj.