His Soft Obsession

Chapter Twenty-Five: You Don’t Even Claim Me

Lyric

Janiyah slid into the booth across from me at lunch like she was barely holding it together.

No lashes. No lip gloss. Just a hoodie and red-rimmed eyes.

I put my phone down. “What happened?”

She didn’t speak right away. Just stared at the table like it did something to her.

Then she whispered:

“Smoke told me he don’t do girlfriends.”

My stomach dropped.

“What?”

“He said… ‘We cool as hell, but I don’t do titles.’” She blinked fast. “After everything we done been through, girl. I thought we was something.”

I reached for her hand. She didn’t pull away.

“I'm so tired of giving men my body, my time, my peace — and still not being enough.”

“You are enough,” I said, gently.

She gave me a bitter smile. “Tell that to the man that keeps calling me but won’t call me his.”

After school, I clocked into my shift at work — just tryna push it all down. Push him down too.

Zay hadn’t texted me since yesterday when he said he had to handle something.

No check-in.

No “good morning.”

Nothing.

I ain’t chase.

I just… waited.

But when I walked out the building after my shift?

He was there.

Posted up on his car, hoodie half-zipped, staring straight at me like nothing happened.

“You really didn’t say a word all day?” I asked, walking past him.

“I was busy,” he said.

“Too busy to send a text?”

He straightened up. “You mad?”

I turned to him, arms crossed. “Would you be?”

He gave me that look. The one that made my heart thump and my spine stiffen.

“You act like I forgot about you,” he said.

I stared him dead in the face.

“I don’t need you to remember me. I need you to respect me.”

He blinked.

Then I hit him with it.

“You ever gonna make me your girlfriend? Or is this just fun for you?”

Silence.

Not even a breath.

Just his eyes on me — unreadable. Cold.

That silence? It told me everything I didn’t wanna hear.

When we got to my house, he pulled up, parked, and waited.

I didn’t say a word.

Didn’t look at him.

Didn’t say bye.

I just got out and walked in.

Heart heavy. Chest tight.

And for the first time since Zay slid into my life…

I felt alone.