ZOEY AKILA bennet !
sugarhill, kennedy heights hs
featuring; @itszoeyb .

ZOEY WALKED OUT her band classroom with her new music sheets for her flute. she was honestly happy to be back to doing music since she had been doin that since she was a literal baby.

now zoey was on to her third period class that she remembers she shared with ddot—which made her face break out into a big smile while she walked to her class. zoey for some reason felt really attached to darrian, like the more he didn't like her the more she liked him.

and even though zoey knew what she had done was wrong but is was obviously working, so that was the point.

the girl walked into third period, already spotting marie who was trying to work on the assignment while her cousins were surrounding her—copying her answers.

"na, that's the answer to number 3 part b nigga." notti pointed out to his brother who let out a 'ohh.' notti smacked his teeth. "dumb ass."

marie lifted her head up seein zoey walk in and she immediately got up from her seat, hitting dd in the nose in the process. dd winced, "why she got man arms what the fuck."

"zooooo." marie smiled into zoey's neck while they hugged. zoey almost squeezed her to death because she's super affectionate, when she was close to you she was gonna give you a lot of physical affection.

zoey looked around when they let go of eachother, seeing that ddot was in fact no here. "do you know where ddot is? like i remember we had this class together but i don't know. it's not like i like waited for this class for him—i didn't by the way, but like where is he?"

marie wasn't even fazed by zoey's rambling, half of the time she was jus talkin to talk but the other half she just wanted to ask something which turned into a whole ass background info  onto why she asked the question .

"he suppose to be here i think? ion no that nigga probably smokin his life away." marie scoffs as she sits back down. zoey frowns at that sentence. one thing about her was that when she heard the fact somebody else was going through a hard time it made her feel like she was to.

"hi z." notti gave her a nickname, dapping her up which made her smile softly.

zoey loved nicknames especially from people she had just met. it made her feel like they have finally officially become her friends. she loved giving nicknames too—she always tried to make them different form the ones everybody else called them.

dd just waves at her which she appreciated too. she really liked the vibe of the two—they weren't unfriendly like ddot was.

or that's why marie quotes him as, "unfriendly ass nigga."

but in zoey's opnion he was really just going through something and he copes it differently. she felt bad but the thing zoey didn't notice was that she had took away one of his only ways of being sane.

zoey ended up finishing the assignment they were supposed to do for the rest of the period, now she had nothing to do since she had finished it and marie had fallen asleep, dd and notti had left to skip somewhere.

zoey decides she'll just go to the bathroom and walk extra slowly to pass the time. as zoey was walking in the empty hallway she smelt smoke coming from somewhere which deadass made her heart jump, there's only one person that's stupid enough to smoke in the hallways.

zoey picked up her pace and walked to where the smell was coming from until she made eye contact with a certain curly head boy. zoey smiled and waved at him while he jus looked her up n down with a unreadable stare.

"hiii i thought you didn't come to school so i left the class to use the bathroom—well not really since i was just bored but i wouldn't count it as skipping. i would never skip—omg your hair looks so cute you should leave it out more." she looks up at the boy, walking in step with him purposely.

ddot looks at her with a weird look. how was it this early and she had this much energy to talk?

"but i've missed youuu. i haven't seen you since last week, it's been so boring." she admits which caused ddot to register her words in his mind. somebody was thinking about him—somebody missed him.

ddot shook his head. "aight you jus talkin to talk na. shut up."

he didn't actually want her to shut up. he just didn't wanna believe that he was getting used to her presence. real bad.

just as usual zoey wasn't at all fazed from his small comment. it didn't really bother her like that since that was darrian, it was obvious to anyone he didn't like her one bit but she was gon make him one way or another.

"have you ate today?" ddot blurts out, making direct eye contact with zoey who instantly turns her eyes away from her. zoey ponders like she was thinking about what she ate today, she didn't eat nothing.

but this honesty scares her. she didn't know he noticed she doesn't eat normally or never really eats in public.  and she wonders id anyone else had noticed.

"i had a bottle of water this morning then ate pancakes for breakfast. but then i didn't want the rest because i like waffles over pancakes to be honest. but then—yeah." she stutters over her words.

ddot just hums knowing that she was lying so bad right now. but he wasn't gon push it.

"have you ate today." she reversed the question. ddot just shakes his head—he had no reason to lie.

zoey purses her lips softly. she wished she had bought at least something for him but she never has food on her, but one thing she always did have on her was cash. so when she saw the vending machine in the corner she dragged ddot with her to get something.

zoey stands there like a mother with her hand on her hip. "i mean do you like cheetos? cause that's all they have here."

ddot shrugs. "ion kno."

zoey then thinks when was the last time this boy ate if he didn't know or remember how hot cheetos taste like. the girl proceeded to put in her dollar and get one of the chips for ddot.

"here." she smiles at him and handed the chips to him but he just looked at her with a skeptical look. "this yours not mines."

"whatever is mines is yours soooo. it don't really matter." zoey makes sense out of the sentence she just made.

ddot actually feels his heart melt from that one simple sentence. zoey talks a lot but she always had a way with her words sometimes.

ddot tried to hide the smug smile that was tryin to make its way on her face. "nigga shut the fuck up. wit ya corny ass shit." he mumbled as he open up the bag of chips. he handed it to her after he took a handful.

zoey shakes her head. "i don't wanna any." she pushes the bag back to ddot but he pushes it back. "ion care you eatin that shi. right now."

the girl pouts her lips. "but i don't want tooooo."

ddot shrugs, "you needa eat, you already skinny as hell." zoey feels her heart drop to her ass when he said that. she thought she was gaining weight not loosing it—the he says this.

she don't know if she's just sensitive but that small comment hurt. and it just made her stomach burn.

zoey ends up eating the bag of chips with little bites but she didn't want to. it makes her feel bad about herself in a way. when she finishes the cheetos she throws it away now her head was hurtin along with her stomach.

zoey didn't take her medicine so eating without it felt wrong and she felt like she was gonna through it all up on the floor,

"zoey why you look like you gon throw up?" ddot asks with a bit of concern laced with his voice it made zoey smile even though she felt like she might explode. "i'm find my stomach jus hurt." she admits—holding her stomach in pain.

ddot furrows his eyebrows. he pulls zoey close to him, holding her down by the waist while he looks around. "you wanna go to the nurse?" he looks down into her brown eyes.

zoey shakes her head because if he was for take her to the nurse and stays there he would learn that she has ed and that was one thing she didn't want him to know.

"why?"

the girl shrugs. "i don't know." that was the only sentence she said. ddot noticed that she didn't give a whole bunch of details onto why she didn't wanna go to the nurse which he found weird.

he was so used to her talking that her not talking felt weird, it felt odd.

"you not gon say anything else?" he says to her when he lets her go so she leaned her body against the wall next to the vending machine. zoey bites in her nails, "you want me to?"

"naa." he changed his mind again. zoey deadpans him. "then why did you ask me?" she asked in a way that ddot had never heard before, not like she had a attitude but from the way she said jus didn't sound like her.

ddot sucks he's teeth. "aight imma take you to that nurse since you wanna have a fuckin attitude." he grabs her wrist with force that it made zoey wince.

"i don't even have a attitude!" zoey told the boy because now she did have a attitude. "yes the fuck you do now get in the fucking office and tell her whateva ya feel since you wanna act like a lil kid."

zoey frowns. the way he said it made her feel like she was wrong for feeling a way and he was mad at her. she hated people being mad at her, she always wanted to find the quickest solution to make them not mad at her.

but with ddot it was like he was always mad at her. especially when he was just being sweet.

"i'm not actin like a lil kid," zoey purses her lips together.

ddot mugs the girl, he honestly didn't know why he was bein mean to her all a sudden but he was not used to people being nice to him and zoey was way more than nice.

"nigga you can't even eat ya own food the fuck? you is a little ass kid now go be a big ass baby and go to the nurse cause you can't eat. annoyin ass." he mumbled under his breath before he leaves zoey that was standing in front of the nurse office.

zoey felt like crying right then and there because she was acting like a little kid. she can't even eat anything without feeling bad or even eating the whole thing.

zoey sucks in the tears that were threatening to spill out of her eyes and walk in the nurse office to take one of the extra anorexia pills she had in there. when she swallows the pills down with water she immediately leaves.

zoey walks with a small frown on her face. she felt embarrassed, like the biggest fool ever.

"yo z, wassup my heart." zoey hears the deep voice of notti call out from behind of her. zoey can't even force a smile on her face but she waved at him causing him to jog up to her.

notti wraps a hand around her, noticing how she wasn't talking. "na what happened z? you ain't talkin my ear off?"

zoey shrugs. "i talk too much i guess."

notti kisses his teeth, yes she did talk a lot but that was jus what zoey does and it's not like it's hurting anybody. "what makes ya think that? ya rambles be cute."

zoey began biting on her nails again. something she did when she was nervous or when she didn't know what to say which was rare cause she always had something to say. but now she just felt stuck.

"ddot i act like a lil kid—is it cause i talk too much or is it something else?" zoey's voices cracks.

she looks up to notti who looked annoyed now, a mug plastered on his face. "you don't act like a lil kid z, i been know you since you was a lil kid and you not the same. gangsta."

zoey still felt insecure. it was so weird how she lets ddot play with her mind like this because when anybody else says something like that it doesn't affect her cause she doesn't know them.

it was something zoey always stuck with, if she didn't know the person like that whatever they say she doesn't let affect her cause she don't know them like that so why bother? but when somebody close to her says small slick comments it affects her. real bad.

"you gon be aight don't let that nigga make you feel bad at about yourself he jus fried in the head right now. one minute he gon act okay then the next he suddenly hates you."

zoey nods, taking in notti's words but she knows that whenever ddot says something like that she's gonna start crying all over again. the two walk in the class they were previously in and walked back to their seats.

"zoey bro i was lookin for you and called you before i realized you left your phone here. the the bumass teacher wouldn't let me leave." marie whines as she hugs zoey tight.

zoey giggles slightly, "i'm sorryyy. i thought you knew where i went."

"well obviously not zo, you done took half of the period in that bathroom—and doin what?" zoey just laughs softly, ignoring the question.

unknowingly the first thing that her eyes landed in when they were searching the room for a certain someone was ddot. he was on the other side of the room and when the two made eye contact she look away fast.

she didn't even wave smile or non of that. she felt like he didn't deserve her kindness at the moment. yeah she was nice but she knew her boundaries sometimes.

✿ ✿ ✿

"HELL NO NIGGA we havin a sleepover no one goin over to your bumass crib." jahzara told the boys with attitude as she cleans her nose ring. all three of the girls planned on having a sleepover since the first two weeks of school have been kickin they ass.

zoey just sits on her large pink bed, playing a mobile game on her pink ipad and getting mad every time she loses.

they were all in matching pajamas and none of them were planning to leave zoey's house and dd was definitely not gonna make them change their mind. "but jah bro, ma is askin for all of y'all. man she think you dead marie."

marie wasn't even paying attention, she was trying to find a good movie to put on zoey's tv. jahzara snickers, "and i dead don't care. jus tell her we'll come around another day." she mumbled.

dd sucks his teeth. "bro jahzara."

zoey's head snaps when dd calls jahzara her full name. no one really called her that, she always informed them jus to call her jah; nobody expect zoey knows the real reason onto why.

jahzara feels like her full name is deadass just ugly, that's why whenever the teacher asked for her name she would always just leave it as jah. she says that it feels icky to be called jahzara especially when she's been bullied about it since little.

so why was dd callin her full name?

"david shut the fuck up we'll be there." jahzara hangs up on his face but the phone started ringing right after that, the girl kisses her teeth before putting her phone on dnd.

even though dd started pressing the notify anyway and flooding up her phone, jahzara had to put the phone on silent from the way it kept ringing.

"guysss." jahzara trails her words. "yup yup?" marie looks over at jahzara, finally picking out moana to play on the tv. "dd want us to go over." she scratches her hair awkwardly.

marie pouts. "but i just found the movieee. and this is our sleepover the nigga can wait jah."

jahzara honestly agrees but if dd wanted somethin, oh he was gon get it somehow. and jahzara really wasn't scared of him—just scared of the things he can do—to her specifically.

"i know and i been told this nigga that but yk how dd is." she lets out a loud sigh.

marie looks over zoey who shrugs, it doesn't bother her like that, plus they were the ones that were going—not her because she wasn't that close to the reyes family.

marie was cousins with dd and notti so they were obviously close to each other, along with ddot since ddot's been around since little. jahzara knew dd and nem before because their parents knew eachother. zoey only spoke to them on facetime whenever marie was on call with them. not ddot though, she has never seen that nigga in her entire life. well until now.

but zoey did know notti and dd through calls since little since marie been had a phone since pre-k, it was crazy.

but the thing is she's never met their family, none of the so she didn't wanna make anything awkward with not knowing anybody.

"y'all can go, imma jus take a nap." zoey smiles at the two who jus looked at each other before busting out laughing which caused zoey to furrow her eyebrows, she ain't say nothin funny.

marie was the first one to stop laughing a lil, "zo you think you ain't goinnnn? be serioussss." she laughed all over again.

jahzara nods in agreement, cleaning out the spit that had drooled out of her mouth when she laughed—yeah she had a spitting problem. "girl get up and change be fr."

zoey cheesed he face off, picking herself up from the bed and walk towards her closet. while she looked for a good shirt to put on she noticed marie look through the drawers—the drawers the chain was in.

well the wallet that had the chain in it.

"zo you know where my earrings are? i remember i left it in here couple days ago." marie mumbled, picking up the pink wallet that had the chain in it and zoey's heart drops.

she walks over to marie and takes the wallet away from her, laughing so it don't seem weird. "uh na.. i think you left it in the other drawer." she slips the wallet in her hoodie pocket.

marie honestly didn't even notice anything, she wasn't even paying attention and jus looked in the other drawer like zoey instructed her. zoey knew she was gon be paranoid over this whole situation, she really didn't think when she did this.

sugarhill, harlem, reyes household .

"OOO IT SMELLS good in hea." jahzara stuck her tongue out while they walked into the living room. "you always got sum to say about the smell zara." marie giggles.

"ion careee, it gotta smell good or i ain't fuckin wit it." jahzara huffs as she sits down on the couch, seeing dd come into view when he walks downstairs. "oh so you can come over but not answer my texts aight jahzara," dd mugs jahzara.

jahzara puts her hands to her head and shakes it. "nigga whatt? you was the one that asked me to come over. ya kno what—hi notti."

notti side eyes jahzara. "don't come to me na, control ya dog."

zoey puts a hand over her mouth to hold the laugh that wanted to burst outta her mouth so bad. the girl looks away because if she even makes eye contact with marie she gon start crying from laughter.

"anyways zoey better, wassup z." notti hugs zoey who laughs softly. "hi notti."

zoey sits down next to notti and starts talkin his ear off, what she does best. she modestly just rambles but she can tell that notti was paying attention—something she really liked people do.

that even though they weren't saying anything you could tell they was listening. "but you used ta do choir as a kid also right?" notti asks while zoey nods enthusiastically. "i did! but i was sooo bad at singing i changed to band but then i changed to dance, thennn i changed back to band."

this topic as one of her favorites to talk about because she loved to talk about how she grew up doing different activities. one of her favorite things was playing the flute and if was even better cause she had a opening performance in a couple months.

"hollon—imma use the bathroom real quick." notti tells zoey who nods with a smile on her face. "okayy."

zoey looks around, seeing that there was two women that were walking in the living room who looked similar to eachother. she knew one was dd's mom since she knew her already, but she didn't know the redhead.

zoey kept a warm smile on her face when she saw their mom look at zoey, "omg zozo! thas you i ain't even noticed."

the girl nods as she lets the older women walk over to her and lean down to hug her when she stood up. "you look so beautiful mija, you're hair looks so nicee omg i missed you." her dominican accent rolls off her tongue as she speaks.

"thank you, you looks so nice too—your hair looks really good too." she compliments her.

crimsley waves her off. "oh you too sweet zozo. hollon dd where's my baby boy?" she mentions notti who was in the bathroom. "he prolly peein himself in that bathroom."

marie punches dd in the shoulder. "you so unserious nigga."

zoey tunes them out, looking around when her eyes land on the red head who was passing out food. "here i made this shi too." she cheeses real bad when she gives jahzara her plate—completely skipping over zoey.

zoey doesn't let that effect her that hard since she probably didn't even know she was coming over. but she still felt away.

notti walks back in and that's when zoey remembers, darrian.

she hasn't seen or heard him this whole time. but when she smells smoke, that's when she notices his presence. zoey doesn't look his way even though she can feel him staring at her.

"melz, why zo ain't get nothin?" notti questions his older sister when he takes his own plate of food. melz scrunches her eyebrows together. "who dat?" notti nods his head towards zoey who waves at her and smiles from the mention of her name.

melz pulls a face. "i mean does she need mo food.. go damn." she chuckles but notti's face instantly falls at his sister's snarky comment. and he can tell zoey heard it cause she looks away quickly.

"nigga is you dumb? get ha a plate the fuck?" notti defends her, putting his own plate down on the coffee table.

jahzara furrows her eyebrows, from notti's tone everybody in the room can tell he was pissed and when notti was pissed? whewww. "what?" jahzara asks curiously.

notti shakes his head. "nothin, nothin."

zoey on the other hand felt like crying. this morning she was too skinny and now she was fat? like this is the reason she hates eating or wearing revealing clothes cause this is what happens.

"z you good, she gon get you ya plate aight?" notti wraps his arm around zoey who nods but now she didn't even feel like eating, not that she was looking for to it anyway.

"but what was you sayin? sum bout flute right, c'mon talkkkk." notti puts his hand on both of her cheeks so it looks like her mouth was moving which caused her to giggle. "okay yeah i did flute for a long time, and i have to perform in a couple months ya know that??"

notti raises his eyebrow, munching on the food he jus put in his mouth before swallowing to speak. "oh wrd? when da date?"

"uhh it's the 28th of november, i think it's on a friday too but i don't kno, i'm so excited! imma be performing for a lot of people that day too sooo. you gon come?" zoey limits her words cause she didn't wanna start rambling since that makes her a little kid. according to ddot.

before notti could even reply melz popped in with zoey's half assed plate. "uh do you not stop talkin? jus askin cause ya ass stay talkin bout sum." melz told the girl in a snarky attitude.

"bro melz shut ya big bodied ass up. why it bother you she talk? at least she look good unlike ya ass." ddot's voice defended her out of nowhere causing the whole room to go into silence.

"mhm like word." dd nods to stop the tension but was stopped when jahzara punches him in the shoulder. "you goin to hell bro." marie mumbled, plopping a strawberry in her mouth.

zoey purses her lips, seeing as melz didn't even give her the plate but the only thing she served her was a mug before she turned her ass around.

the girl looks across the couch to see ddot scrolling on his phone. she didn't even know how to feel with ddot anymore.

he's too bipolar.

F SPEAKS 🫶🏾

NOTE— i'm sorry i ain't update in so long yoo 😭😭. but atleast it's long right?? i think, chile idk. but school ends in on tuesday fa me so yolo!! how we feel bout this chapter periodd. y'all i have a new cover fa this book but i don't know if y'all gon find it ugly or not 😔. anyways fia loves youu 😝💗💗.