July 26th, 2023 | Tuesday

Josiah bit down on the inside her lip, squinting her eyes as she focused on her iPad screen in front of her, studying the video that was playing in front of her carefully. She had her all black beats planted over her ears, they had a few jewels on them but she didn't go overboard with her junk beats. Using her index finger she turned the video up a little louder to hear every crucial sound being made.

"Aye sis I-" She jumped in her spot on the bed when she spotted her room door fling open from her peripheral vision. "Ewww Jojo what the fuck!" Tre exclaimed looking back out of the room to censor his eyes from the fact that she was watching a porn video on the large ipad. She quickly began scattering her things, removing her beats and she made an exit from the original video laying, turning the device off shortly after.

"Why did you just barge in! Gosh!" She shouted right back at him, confused because she could've sworn she locked her room door to ensure more privacy for herself while she handled her business. She was beyond irritated and it was obviously written across her face as she began to fold the small throw cover laid across her bed out of nerves. She always found random things to do when she felt nervous or under pressure.

His jaw dropped at the fact that it sounded like she was angry with him and he was very unsure of what he had done wrong. He understood she was embarrassed but he wasn't judging her. "What did I do wrong?! I was standing here knocking on the door for like a full minute straight and yo ass still ain't came and got the door so I just came in to see if you was sleep or something." He explained watching her face flush before she dropped it.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath desperately trying to recover from what had just occurred between the two of them. "It aint my fault you couldnt hear me over them big booty ebonies or what ever you was watching." He recalled the little piece of the video he had seen making her groan in agony. "Nah im just fucking wit you, chill." He assured her deciding not to bother her anymore about it.

"Can I help you Treyvon, I was actually about to leave anyway." She effortlessly lied. She wasn't actually about to leave, but knew that since she had just lied she would have to stick to said lie in order to save face. When he tilted his head in question for her to continue she went on to say, "Gonna go get a few things for college and stuff, the end of july is coming up very quickly." She moved her hair out of her face.

Not believing a word she had said he went on, "You think 'cause you got yo car that you can just go everywhere now, matter of fact, share that location I gotta make sure you safe wherever you be at." After his words he watched her roll her eyes because the way he said it made it seem like she wasn't a grown adult. "Ian showed you everywhere, you might find yoself in a dangerous predicament cause you wandered in the wrong place." He preached.

Sighing she picked up her phone, "Fine, whatever. What did you want?" She asked while unlocking her phone. Even though she didn't want to, his point was very valid to be truthful. She wasn't completely familiar with the area just yet so it would be best for her to see where she was in case of an emergency. She watched him cross his arms over his chest and lean on the door frame.

"I was just trynna tell you i'm finna be gone for like the next three hours so be thinking about what you wanna eat so I can pick it up on my way back home." He informed her watching her begin to ponder. "You don't gotta decide right now, imma hit you up and ask what you want when im on the way back, just have something in mind when I call you though." He reminded her.

When he began backing away she looked up quickly, "And share your location with me too." She told him with a look on her face that dared him to challenge what she was telling him. He was able to easily pick up on it, so he just pursed his lips and nodded in agreement.

"I will." He assured her before fully backing out of her room and closing the door behind him.

Once he was fully gone she let out a breath that she was holding before heading to her closet to find something to wear. Stressed from the encounter she just had to endure with her brother, she hoped he was mature about it to let it go because she wasn't in the mood to keep reliving that particular moment. "Lord, Josiah." She muttered to herself.

After picking out a quick but stylish outfit, she laid it on her bed and quickly began getting undressed. While standing in her Victoria secret underwear, she decided she wanted to smell fresh for the day—so she picked up the Shea Butter EOS lotion, and rubbed it in her body then she sprayed her favorite Mod vanilla Arianna grande perfume on her hot spots.

She finally put on her two toned brown star shirt , and paired it with her animal print mini skirt on after. She chose her red handbag that matched the red bows on the back of her skirt switching her belongings to it, then got her shoes to match her color scheme. She quickly fixed her baby hairs before retrieving her keys and heading out the house.

Unsure of where she even wanted to go, the girl made it into her car that had finally been brought to the different state she now resided in. Bringing  her pinky nail to her mouth, she thought about which store to make a trip to for supplies and decided on target. It may have seemed a little early but shopping during back to school was like pulling teeth. Everything was always sold out.

"Ughhhh," She groaned, throwing her head back when she remembered that her brother walked in on her watching porn. The worst part about it was that she wasn't even doing anything but watching it. She had a bad habit of just watching the videos when she was aroused during ovulation week. It was a secret she kept to herself, and not even Micha knew that. "I gotta live that down." She uttered to herself before starting her car.

Taking a squat in front of the pens and pencils, Josiah clicked her tongue and reached out for the 7mm Bic mechanical pencils. Collecting them, she then collected the multicolored pack of paper mate pens. Putting them in her small carry basket, she stood to her feet and selected a box of regular wooden number 2 pencils as well before backing away.

"No Dayvoni do not go fucking bother that girl bruh!" She heard a feminine voice growing closer to her, and Josiah whipped her head just in time to see a boy and the most prettiest dark skinned female approaching her. From what she could tell, the boy was trying to address her, but the girl was trying her best to stop him from doing so.

Furrowing her eyebrows, she took a step back as the boy who she assumed to be Dayvoni paused right in front of her. "Excuse me, but I was just wondering if you had a man." He spoke openly. Josiah looked confused because although it sounded like an open-ended question, something about him told the girl that he wasn't straight.

"Yes I do actually." She had to correct herself from the fact that she had almost answered no. Within her time of being in Florida, she had only spoken to Micah a few times which was way out of his character. It was beginning to worry her, but he assured her everything was fine and his home life had gotten much more busy due to it being summer.

She didn't know how much of that she wanted to believe, but she decided she wouldn't breath down his neck about it either. The truth would come to the light and she just prayed that nothing he had told her was a lie. "Damn," Dayvoni shook his head in disappointment. "Well yo outfit cute as hell, and... wait what you be saying riyah? Yo body is tea."

"Can you stop messing with her? This poor girl looks so confused, it ain't funny." The girl who had approached Josiah with him spoke up, prompting Josiah to giggle because she was right in a sense. The entire interaction was confusing if you asked Josiah but she would stick it through. Maybe this was her opportunity to make new friends. "I'm sorry girl, that's just his weird way to say how pretty you are. Which you definitely are, I'm Sariyah." She introduced herself.

Josiah laughed but stuck her hand out. "Nice to meet you too, I'm Josiah, or Jojo." She introduced herself as well watching Sariyahs slim hand fall into hers giving her a respectful handshake.

Dayvoni crinkled his eyebrows. "You from here, sexy? You got a accent on you." He pointed out which she gracefully nodded at, figuring she would get that a lot around there.

"Nah, from Chicago. What about you guys? I assume Florida but Daytona or somewhere else?" She went on to ask giving them the same energy in an attempt to start better conversation in hopes of making friends without the help of her brother. At the rate she was going, she would be stuck with Lilah. Though she felt like nothing was particularly wrong with Lilah, she couldn't help the fact that Paris words were sticking to the back of her mind.

He'd successfully manipulated her.

Sariyah was the first to shake her head no. "Dayvoni is from here, but I'm from orlando. I mostly stay down here during the summers, but my auntie and my daddy are currently letting me stay here for a year to try it out." She over-explained as always. If she and Josiah ended up being friends she would have to get used to the girl and her mouth because it had always been a part of her.

Josiah tilted her head starting to walk down the aisle with them next to her, stopping in front of the journals. She had been saying that she needed one, and not just for school but for personal reasons, with everything going on she just needed a way to vent without having to spill her personal problems to others. So far she was doing just fine, but her mother hadn't called her yet and it was worrying her, she missed her with every bone in her body. "Why do you want to stay here for a year? Isnt Orlando pretty cool?"

From what Josiah knew, that was one of the biggest tourist areas due to the amount of theme parks and attractions there. "I mean yeah but I grew up there the shit ain't new to me. I started coming to live with my cousins during the summers when I was sixteen, and it's pretty cool most of the time. Oh and I also love it here because of my bestie Dayvoniii." She threw her arm around his shoulder.

Dayvoni smacked his teeth. "Aside from her ass, I'm from here." He shortly explained, wondering why he and Sariyah were still walking with the stranger. Of course he approached her so he wouldn't voice that, but he hoped Josiah wasn't trying to steal his best friend because she was quite literally his only friend. "How old are you?" He decided to still carry out the conversation.

Josiah mindlessly selected a journal that had floral designs in pastel purple on it for herself, and then another with school designs for school. She was unsure she would even need one, but push comes to shove she would use it as a planner or reminder. " Im nineteen," She responded calmly, while Sariyah took interest in the journals they were in front of as well. She was a journal writer through and through ever since she was a child and her aunt recommended it.

"Oh, Dayvoni is nineteen too, I'm eighteen, but I'll be nineteen in september." Sariyah enlightened before picking up a journal for herself. "This one is so cute, I'm gonna get it." She thought out loud before looking up. Letting out a sigh she finally looked back at Sariyah. "So since you new around here, you wanna hang out with us, we be doing fun stuff all the time." She claimed.

"Fun stuff like what?" Josisah was skeptical of her words, but she realized how else would she make friends without giving them a chance. She was so used to already having friends so she did not know how to make friends on her own.

"Shit like events, parties, traveling, toe tag nights be the best though," Dayvoni inserted himself and Josiah smiled feeling like she would have fun with them. She desperately needed things to do, even once school started she didn't just want her life to consist of school and going home. She knew she could have fun with her brother, but being with people who weren't related to her would allow her to be a little more loose in that department.

Still their words confused her a little bit since she wasn't familiar with their lingo, or maybe it wasn't even their lingo and she was just so out of touch with reality because of the way she was raised. "What is toe tagging?" She questioned.

"Illegal so shh." Sariyah quickly answered since she was being a bit more loud than intended. "Let's exchange numbers boo, we can keep in contact with each other." She offered, and Jojo was more than happy to do so. Instead of grabbing her phone, Sariyah went to her contact card, and put her phone up to Jojos allowing the information to transfer over. "Hit me girl, lets go Dayvoni with your ghetto ass."

Jojo laughed watching them depart when Sariyah slapped the boy upside the head. She felt like she would have a lot of fun with them and that's truly all she was really hoping for, some genuine friends she can say she made on her own, even though they approached her first. Looking down at her phone, she saved the information, and quickly sent her a text letting her know it was her before pocketing her phone.

After shopping for a little longer, the girl finally purchased her small amount of items, deciding now that she had the essentials she would come back to target when back to school shopping was occurring to get all the extras. On her way back to the car, she thought about her boyfriend and decided to give him a call. Setting her bags in the backseat of her gray Audi, she got settled in the driver seat.

With a sigh, she opened her phone and called out to siri. "Hey siri, call Micah." She turned on the car to get the air conditioning started.

"Calling Micah, red heart."

Pulling her mirror down, she placed the phone on speaker and began fixing her hair as it rung. "Yeah, baby, whats up?" He sounded panicked and out of breath which instantly alarmed her.

Furrowing her eyebrows she went on to speak. "Hey baby, are you okay you sound flustered or something?" She was seriously worried.

Micah covered his nervous chuckle with a fake laugh. "I'm good I was just yelling at Devin cause we were playing Dice." Micah excused, and the word Dice instantly made her think of her brother's best friend.

The way Paris made her feel was odd because she never in her life let another man besides Micah get her flustered the way he had. He was confusing because he openly flirted with her, but it was subtle at the same time to where it could also be taken out of context. She felt like he was playing games with her and she didn't know whether she liked it or wanted it to stop.

"Oh wow, sorry for interrupting, I just feel like we haven't talked much. Aren't we at least supposed to call like once a day to even attempt making this work." She complained slightly, not wanting to sound whiny but Micah was literally all she had back in chicago, and he was all she knew.

"Yeah you right baby, but I gotta go this shit getting intense, ill call you back tonight to make it up to you." He hung up without allowing her to reply, and she raised her eyebrows. She was nowhere near stupid. She wasn't about to let him play her for a dummy, but she just had to sit back and see what would happen.

Blowing out a breath, she put her car in reverse to head back home.

The drive was smooth and simple, and once she got home she collected her things from the backseat and ensured that her doors were locked. Trudging up to the house, she used her newly made key to let herself in and close the door with her foot hurrying back to her room. "Hey, where are you coming from?" Natlia's voice made her whip her head because she was unaware anyone was home.

Norman was out, she didn't even get a chance to see where he was going, and Tre would be gone for the next two hours. "I was just getting some stuff for school, now that all my stuff is here I wanna start organizing my belongings and getting everything in order so i'm not behind when it comes to my semester." She explained with a soft smile at her step-mother. "Is everything okay?"

Natalia just nodded her head, "I just feel like I should let you know I don't like the constant going in and out of the house, you know?" She tilted her head, and although she didn't she would pretend that she did.

"Sorry, I didn't realize it was much of an issue. Are there certain time windows you would prefer?" Josiah hadn't even realized she was leaving the house that much. She was pretty sure Tre did more than her, but she had just chalked it up to her getting confused and thinking it was her when it was really her brother.

"Just try to limit it at all times since I'm constantly working. Thank you," She focused back on her laptop, and rolled her lips into her mouth to dismiss Josiah.

She nodded silently and continued back to her room. After closing her door she immediately began shedding from her footwear, kicking them off and rushed over to her bed to get off of her feet. She had sat her bags in the swivel chair in front of her desk. "Alexa, play SZA." She called out to her Amazon Echo Show 8.

"Playing SZA on Apple Music."

Using the music to drown herself out, she reminded herself to put sheets on her bed later since they had lacked them all day. She had just been laying on her new mattress as is. She was very bored, and had no idea what to do. Thinking about Paris made her smile slightly. She wondered if she should text him since she had his number after all.

Trying to think of an excuse to even contact him, she decided it would be corny but she had nothing better to do. Going to the message he already sent , she clicked on the number to add him to her contacts. Making her way back to the messages she decided to text him.

She thought back to something her brother had told her when she first arrived, and figured she could use that as a conversation starter. When she sent the message, she nibbled on her bottom lip nervously after noticing how quickly the bubbles appeared to respond—taking note he didn't have his read receipts on.

She stifled a laugh at his response, before they quickly began engaging in a back and forth conversation.

🗼
Today 7:05 pm

Where can I get boiled peanuts?
That's what they are called right?

😂😂😂
Jit u serious?

Yeah!
My brother was telling me about some
Now I kinda want them

U lyin like shit
Why u ain't text him den

Bc I didn't duh
You gonna tell me or no?

Tell yo brother to get u sum den

Why are you trying to prolong the conversation

Why we asking stupid questions?
You kno I think you fine eshit
U texted me first now I'm entertaining it

Without answering my question may I add

But u ain't address the other shit I said

Bc u didn't answer my question 🤨

Fuck dat question

So basically you want me to starve

I bet u giggling hard asf over dat bullshit u js said

I'm not wrong obviously

Wyd

Did you js ignore my question?

U aggy af yk dat😂

Js wanna try some boiled peanuts

The best place in a hood ion feel
comfortable sending you to

Oh, I guess I do have to wait
for my brother after all

Still what do you recommend?

I can get em

...
Really? I'll pay u

In what?

What else ? What the heck?

I meant money...

Duh

Mhmmm
So when can you get them

Js chill.

Her eyes furrowed at his last sent message instructing her to chill. She assumed he would probably bring them before her brother got a chance to, meaning not too long from now. Throwing her phone, she stood to her feet, wondering what she was doing. To her it strongly felt like flirting, but she didn't want to be cheating on her boyfriend. She loved him if nothing else.

Still, as the thoughts ran through her mind her body carried her through her room to retrieve her new set of sheets. She wasn't even sure if he would come in but she didn't want him to surprise her by doing so, and she ended up not having sheets on the bed. She would feel embarrassed for some reason, but she figured it was because of etiquette that had been drilled in her mind since a child.

Spreading the neutral colored silk sheets she carefully applied every corner to its rightful spot, and fixed up her bed before tidying up the best she could. "Josiah stop..." She spoke out loud for anyone to hear.

Praying that she would listen to herself.

Now why she was watching porn🌚 me af

Okay look! Technically I know the time line with Sariyah doesn't necessarily make sense...but this Wattpad and I can do what I want so yeah...

Micah hung up on Josiaj for someone that rhymes with Benzie😱

Not Jojo and dicey texting 🤭

Predictions

Double update bc the next chapter goes hand in hand with this one, you welcome !

MYA OUT🫡