Chapter Twenty-Six: Glow Now, Cry Later
476 Words
Lyric
I was tired of waiting for him to text.
Tired of reading messages twice to figure out what he meant.
Tired of feeling like I was giving too much just to get not enough.
So I hit send.
“Why you keep coming around if you don’t see me as yours?”
I left it just like that.
No emoji. No softness.
And Zay?
He took hours to reply.
“You already mine. I just ain’t told the world yet.”
That sh*t made my stomach flip. But I wasn’t sure if it was from the butterflies… or the disappointment.
Because I wasn’t a secret.
And I wasn’t gon’ be treated like one.
I started matching energy.
No good mornings.
No heart eyes when he posted.
No jumping at every call.
He texted “u good?”
I replied “yeah.”
He called and I let it ring, then texted “busy.”
He ain’t like that.
I could tell by the way he started watching my stories but not replying.
Too bad.
After school, before work, I linked up with Janiyah at the bench near the corner store.
She looked better than yesterday.
Edges slicked. Lip gloss poppin’.
But I could still see the storm in her.
“What you on?” I asked her.
She grinned slow. “I’m on my city girl sh*t.”
I raised a brow. “That so?”
She nodded, pulling out her phone and showing me her new post — her hugged up with Smoke in a flick from last week.
Caption said:
“Glad you had me first… you’ll always remember me that way 🥀”
I choked. “You tryna die, huh?”
She laughed. “If he ain’t gonna call me his, I’ma let the world think I moved on. Maybe he’ll get the message.”
I shook my head, but part of me felt that energy deep.
Janiyah leaned close. “Friday. We hitting the mall.”
“For?”
“Dresses,” she said. “Tight ones. Soul-snatching ones. Heels. Lashes. And we going out.”
“Girl,” I blinked, “we’re underage.”
“I got my ways,” she said, smirking. “I know somebody who know somebody. We’ll hit a cute restaurant, post up, then slide into the club like we grown.”
I rolled my eyes. “I ain’t tryna get arrested.”
“You won’t,” she said. “We just gotta remind these boys what they fumbled.”
She grinned, scrolling through her feed.
“Let’s glow up and let the men who don’t claim us watch from the sidelines.”
And even though I knew it was messy…
Even though I knew I’d probably regret it…
Part of me wanted to glow so hard it burned Zay’s phone when he saw my post.
- Writer
