Chapter Thirty-One: Unbothered
449 Words
Lyric
It had been two whole days since Zay left through that window.
No texts.
No calls.
Just silence.
I didn’t blow his phone up. I didn’t chase him.
I stayed in my lane… and quietly waited for that pain in my chest to shrink down to something I could ignore.
But by the third day, I started thinking maybe I overreacted. Maybe I came off too strong.
So I did something stupid.
I went to his page.
His story was still up.
Black background. Loud music playing.
A caption that said:
“Ion chase nobody. I fall back.”
The next slide?
Him.
In a dimly lit lounge. Leaned back in the booth.
Bottle on the table. Smoke curling in the air.
A light-skinned girl next to him — lashes for days, body in that tight-ass romper, kissing his cheek.
His arm was around her waist.
And the caption?
“Unbothered 😈”
My stomach dropped.
I blinked.
Refreshed the story.
Still there.
I locked my phone fast like it burned me.
I paced my room, heart pounding.
Trying to act like I wasn’t affected — but my whole body said otherwise.
He was with another girl.
Posting her.
Letting the whole world know he good.
After all that…
The drawer.
The text.
The “you mine” talk.
He out here with a random, and I’m supposed to just sit quiet?
Nah.
I called Janiyah.
“Bestie. I just saw Zay’s story.”
“Oh… you saw it too?”
I froze. “What you mean too?”
> “Smoke showed me. Said he being petty. Said he trying to see if you gon’ bite.”
“So that girl ain’t nothing?”
“Not from what Smoke said. Zay don’t even talk to her like that. She just one of them club girls. But still…”
My throat felt tight. “Still?”
“Still, bestie… that sh*t hurt.”
And it did.
Even knowing it was a game didn’t make the pain hit less.
He wanted me to react.
To fold.
To chase.
But he had me twisted.
That night I stared at my screen.
Typing. Deleting. Typing again.
I wanted to ask why.
I wanted to call him out.
But instead… I posted a new story.
Just a video of me laying in bed, hair laid, lips glossed, lashes done.
Song playing in the background:
Summer Walker – “No Love.”
“I just want it my way…”
Caption:
“The quiet ones always leave the loudest.”
💋🖤
Let him feel it.
Let him wonder.
Let him know:
I’m not his maybe.
And I damn sure ain’t his backup plan.
- Writer
