She hesitated before putting a light hand on my shoulder and squeezing, then swiftly and elegantly sashayed away.
Aminah scratched the side of her nose and smiled widely, nodding rapidly, terrifying with faux nonchalance. “This is why he’s a DJ, innit.”
I chilled. Earnest use of British slang? She was beside herself.
She pulled up a chair and sat beside me. “Of course he’s good at spinning when all he does is spin lies and deceit.” I refrained from saying that DJs didn’t actually spin records anymore.
“Why wouldn’t man wanna be a music producer,” Aminah said, “when all he knows is to push people’s buttons?”
Aminah was jabbing the air with sharp acrylics, eyes narrowed, making her lashes look like fanned daggers as she stared in the direction of Kofi. Indeed, when I turned to pree what she was looking at so I could tell her that it surely wasn’t as bad as it seemed, I was faced with Kofi’s arm around Zuri as she held a headphone pad to her ear. Kofi’s gaze flicked toward Aminah’s almost imperceptibly, before turning back to Zuri.
I bit my lip. I didn’t think I’d ever seen Kofi give attention to a girl that wasn’t Aminah. “Huh. Okay. Yes. He’s trying to make you jealous. Which is a really dick move that doesn’t sound like Kofi. Did something happen between you guys?”
Aminah’s mask of fury shook a little, and I caught a glimpse of something softer. She took a hold of it, fixed it properly on her face, and frowned. “Why does something have to have happened? Why can’t you just accept that he’s being a prick for no reason?! Stop trying to rationalize this, Kiki. This isn’t one of your Brown Sugar dilemmas. Is it because you made up with Rianne that you’re feeling all kumbaya?”
I looked at my best friend and saw the hurt that she didn’t want me to see. I leaned in closer to her and held her hand. “Do you want it fixed?”
“No. I hate him.” But her eyes were glistening, anger weakening.
I nodded, hearing her loud and clear. “Okay. Then we’ll fix it. Walk me through it.”
Aminah sighed. “Alright. So, um, we were talking by the bar when Osi came up to—”
“Osi? First Year Osi?!”
Osi Ummoh was the last guy that had got Aminah stressed—a theatre and lit student, as tall as he was vacuous, actor by study and actor by personality, presenting himself as the perfect boyfriend to Aminah and three other girls on campus simultaneously. He didn’t cheat but he was close enough to it to drive Aminah to distraction till the trance broke.
“Yes, Keeks, that Osi. So, we were right next to him, and I had planned on ignoring him, but then he was all, ‘Hey, Disney, looking good,’ and you know Disney was his nickname for me, right? Because he said I reminded him of a Disney Princess. Anyway, I rolled my eyes, yes, but I smiled a little, you know? Because Osi is still fine as hell. Then he was like, ‘I miss you. It would be good to catch up these days.’ And I was like, ‘What we gonna talk about? How you fucked up a good thing?’ and Osi was like, ‘Maybe.’ And then he smiled and walked away. That was it! That is all that happened. And then suddenly Kofi starts acting all weird, just moving mad awkward, and says, ‘What was that?’ And I said, ‘What was what?’—and he goes, ‘Aminah, are you serious right now?’ And then it’s time for his set to start and I come here and then the next thing I know he’s basically smashing Zuri Isak on top of his decks!” Aminah paused to take her breath and skip a look across me. “Okay, what? What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Um.” I folded my hands together on the table. “I just want to clarify that Kofi was there the entire time that this interaction occurred with Osi?”
Aminah looked less indignant. “Uh, yeah—”
“So, I just wanna break it down. Kofi was stood there as you flirted with your ex-boyfriend? Who didn’t acknowledge his existence? And you didn’t bother to introduce Kofi.”
Aminah swallowed. “When you put it that way it sounds bad but . . . we aren’t even technically together.”
“Uh-huh. So then why are you pissed that he’s flirting with Zuri right now?”
Aminah’s face fell. “Oh shit.”
“Do you want to be with him or not?”
“Obviously!”
“Who is it obvious to?”
Aminah’s lips parted to speak but nothing came out. I moved closer to her, squeezed her arm. “MiMi, Kofi has always been straight up about his feelings for you. He probably thought you guys were getting closer to getting to be a thing and then, well, you kind of mugged him off. Tell the truth, you knew talking to Osi would make him a little jealous, right?”