Aminah laughed as I snatched my phone back from her. “Look, he’s taking the initiative to get to know you in a regular way. Nothing wrong with that. Besides, don’t you have to be comfortable with each other to pretend to be a couple for two months?”
The validity of her point was inconvenient. “Fine, yes, sure, but this is how he wants to get to know me? You don’t think this is kind of overly familiar?”
“You literally have had the boy’s tongue in your mouth.”
“Notwithstanding—”
“Notwithstanding?”
“Why is he asking me to hang out through the construct of a booty text? At eleven thirty p.m.? He couldn’t ask me out for a coffee? I told you he was a Wasteman. I mean ‘You about?’ Who even says that?”
Aminah bit her bottom lip in a way that looked suspiciously close to her restraining a laugh. “Uh, someone who wants to know if you’re about, innit. It’s sexy.”
I grunted, rolled my eyes, and walked out of the fluorescent industrial lights of our flat hallway, pushing into her warm, lamp-lit room, ushered in with the comforting scent of coconut oil, designer fragrance, and the sound of Drake murmuring from her speakers, as I said, “You’re not taking this seriously.”
Aminah walked in after me and watched me sit on her plush pink beddings, hugging a fluffy fuchsia pillow to my chest. “I think you’re taking it too seriously.”
I shook my head. “I can’t deal with this. I have a stress headache. Also, I think I’m getting sick. I’m sweaty. My palms are sweaty. The inside of my stomach feels sweaty.”
Aminah nodded and sat next to me, pressing the back of my hand against my forehead. “Poor baby. Did the sickness start the second he texted you?”
“What? Maybe? I don’t know. I didn’t look at the time—”
“You’re nervous, Keeks.”
I lifted my head up from the pillow I had been squeezing and stared at her. “About what?”
Aminah scooted back on her bed and folded her legs. “About the fact that a boy you’re attracted to just texted you. I know you’re not used to that emotion but it’s pretty normal for us mortals—”
“Your logic is flawed. I was attracted to Zack and I never—”
“You were physically attracted to Zack, sure. But you and Malakai connect. You have like a . . . vibe. There’s a different dimension to it.”
I opened my mouth to argue but Aminah shook her head. “Don’t bother to deny it. Don’t think I wasn’t watching you guys at the park being all deep in conversation. I swear I heard you giggle. It was like you were being pulled toward each other. Your arms kept bumping and you were wearing his hoodie—”
“I was cold. We were arranging our projects. Also are you forgetting the fact that he admitted to using me?”
Aminah flipped a hand, shooing that little titbit away like it was an inconsequential piece of information and not potential evidence proving that the boy was a sociopath and master of deceit.
“Please, I don’t care what he says. That guy likes you. I saw it in his face.”
“Maybe he’s attracted to me. I have tits and I breathe. He’s a twenty-year-old man. Physical attraction is separate from liking, Minah, and that’s the mistake a lot of girls make.”
Aminah raised up a palm to silence me. “He could have left you at any point to fix this mess on your own, but he didn’t. Besides, you used him too. Also, I don’t think Kofi would be friends with a dickhead. Kofi swears to me that Malakai’s not a dickhead, and Kofi knows that if he ever lied to me, I would cut his ogede off.”
I stared at her. “How many times have I told you that referring to a penis as a plantain is very disturbing to me. I don’t like it. Plantains are sacred. Don’t ruin them for me.”
Aminah smirked and stared pointedly at my phone.
Aminah’s erroneous thoughts aside, I might as well get this out of the way. We had to meet at some point. I tapped my reply before I could think my way out of it.
Keeks: Depends what I’m meant to be “about” for.
Aminah peered over my shoulder and grinned. “Hey. Is that my Killa Keeks?”
I was about to toss my phone behind me, forget about it, preparing to be pissed off when he replied in an hour with something monosyllabic, but my phone chirped almost immediately.
Malakai: Food.
A pause.
Malakai: On me.
Keeks: I prefer plates if that’s ok.