season 3, episode 13

"Stay"

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"I can't find my toothbrush!" K-Ci stressed as he threw the pillows off the couch and started searching through the cushions.

"Here's a crazy idea," JoJo said sarcastically, "Did you try looking in the bathroom?"

"Obviously!" K-Ci rolled his eyes. "It ain't in there!"

Randomly, Dalvin stopped by holding a pair of sneakers that were crisp white. "K, I hope you didn't mind me takin' your toothbrush. I used it to clean my shoes!"

Dalvin placed the toothbrush down on the counter and started to walk again but he didn't get very far because K-Ci tackled him to the ground.

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Tanai was currently at Natalia's house, upstairs in her room. She noticed the many stacks of envelopes sitting on her dresser and picked them up. "Girl, you gotta hella junk mail."

"I know, this is all from today. I didn't bother to look through it cause if it ain't a letter from a fashion school then it doesn't matter," Natalia looked through her closet.

"Letter from a fashion school?" Tanai repeated. "It's right here." She held the envelope up. Natalia's eyes widened before she snatched it. She teared the seal and opened up the letter that was inside.

She gasped before she started jumping up and down. "Nai! They accepted me! They accepted me!"

"Congrats pretty, I'm proud of you!" Tanai told her as the two shared a hug.

"Wait!" Natalia stepped back. "I need a girl to model my clothes and what better than...." she trailed trailed off. "Me?" Tanai guessed.

Natalia nodded with a smile on her face. "Yes! So are you gonna do it for me?"

"Yes!" Tanai said without hesitating as her and Natalia hugged again.

"Great!" Natalia clapped. "The acceptance letter says we have to be in London by next week so we should start packing tonight or tomorrow."

The happiness on Tanai's face disappeared. "Next week? In London? London, England?"

"Yeah, girl! Now help me with these clothes!" Natalia walked back over to her closet as Tanai slowly sat down on her bed.

•

Later that day, Tanai and DeVante hopped on the phone. "Let's talk," Tanai nervously played with the telephone cord.

"We are talkin'," DeVante replied dumbly.

Tanai let out a puff of air and tried to ignore her boyfriend's stupidity. "No, dummy. I wanted to tell you that Natalia got into this fashion school she applied for."

"Good for her."

"She also asked me to be her own personal model and I said yeah. But the problem is, the school is in London and we have to leave as soon as possible....like next week."

"Aye! You goin' to London, Nai?" K-Ci was listening to the conversation on the phone downstairs. "Save me a croissant! London has those, right?"

Tanai shook her head. "That's Paris, dumbass."

"Hang up the phone," DeVante told K-Ci. He waited a couple seconds to make sure it was just him and Tanai on the phone before talking. "You jokin' right?"

"What could I possibly be joking about?" Tanai furrowed her eyebrows and DeVante switched the phone from his left hand to his right. "You just gon' go to London and forget about us?"

"Nobody said I was gonna forget about us, DeVante. You actin' like I ain't supposed to take good opportunities that come my way!"

"You clearly don't see the problem. Go on off to London, I never wanna see you again anyway." DeVante said harshly without thinking, as usual.

Tanai let out a laugh. "Okay, Donald. I'll go, but please don't call me when I'm out in England enjoying my life and you've been in your room blasting Purple Rain and crying all day!"

"Hey. I know this probably ain't the time right now," Dalvin picked up the phone. "But I heard some type of conversation about croissants goin' on with y'all and K-Ci and I just wanted to ask, how do you spell croissant?"

"Hang up the phone!" The angry couple yelled before hanging up themselves, leaving Dalvin to listen to the dial tone without having his question answered.

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8pm was just hitting and Tanai was sitting on the porch. Her flight was in the morning and she just wanted to take a minute to think about things. She got up to go back into the house but as soon as she put her hand on the doorknob, a voice made her stop in her tracks.

"Hey."

Tanai slowly turned around to meet those familiar hazel eyes that she would often get lost in. As much as she wanted to run over to him and melt in his arms, she held her guard down. "What you doin' here?" She crossed her arms.

"Come here, Nai." DeVante led her over to the porch steps so they could sit down and talk. The tension was thick considering the fact that the last time they spoke, they had an argument. It had only been a week since then, but to them, it felt like a century. "I lied when I told you I never wanted to see you again."

"So why'd you say it?"

"I don't know..." DeVante trailed off. "I wasn't thinkin'."

Tanai didn't say anything after that, leaving the two to sit in an awkward silence for a minute.

"Remember back in middle school when I was runnin' in the halls but the floor was just mopped and I ended up slippin'?" DeVante reminisced, trying to spark up another conversation.

"Oh yeah!" Tanai recalled. "And I ran over to you and we both ended up on the floor." The two laughed at the memory. "And remember when we got caught passin' notes in Ms. Frazier's class and she read them out loud?"

"Then the whole class found out I knew all the lyrics to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," DeVante shook his head in embarrassment before laughing. "Remember back in seventh grade when K-Ci got suspended because he pulled your skirt down in front of everybody in the schoolyard?"

Tanai's smile faded and she mugged her boyfriend. "That wasn't funny! Everybody saw what color panties I had on and I was so embarrassed, I ended up crying in the bathroom."

"I see what color panties you got on all the time and you don't run to the bathroom to cry, what changed?" DeVante joked.

"Shut up, De! That's not even the same thing!" Tanai playfully pushed him as he laughed and threw an arm around her, pulling her closer to him. "See how many memories we have together? Now why you wanna go and leave me?"

"I have to take good opportunities that come my way. This could be a fun experience for me." Tanai clarified.

"Why can't you just tell Natalia to find somebody else who'll model for her? This long distance thing ain't gon' work out," DeVante stressed. "Will you miss me?"

"Don't start asking dumb questions, DeVante. You know I'm gonna miss you."

DeVante wasn't thinking straight, so he said the first random thing he could think of to influence her to stay. "Let's get married."

"What?" Tanai looked at her boyfriend with a shocked expression. "We're way too young for that."

"It doesn't have to be right now. I can get you an engagement ring and you can wear it until we're actually ready," DeVante cleared up.

Tanai laughed, not believing the whole conversation. "You don't wanna marry me, DeVante. You just talkin'."

DeVante stood up and pulled Tanai along with him. "I've had tons of girls in my life but don't none of them compare to you. I wasn't even in real relationships with 'em and I never told them that I loved them. Honestly, I ain't know the true meaning of love until I got with you. I've had a crush on you since seventh grade when we were just friends and I'm blessed that God brought us closer together as somethin' more. You're my heart. Trust me, I wanna marry you one day, Tanai."

Tears started to form in Tanai's eyes after listening to DeVante pour his heart out but she blinked them away quickly. "I love you."

"I love you more," he replied before sighing. "I'll miss that pretty smile of yours. I'll miss your voice and the way you talked. I'll miss your soft lips. I'll miss the way you said my name. "I'll miss everything about you."

Tanai shook her head, looking down at the ground. "Don't make me cry, Donald."

"I'm not tryin' to, but I don't want you to leave. What you want me to do? You want me to get on my knees? Cause I'll do it. You see how serious I am? You can't leave." DeVante grabbed Tanai's face, forcing her to look at him.

Suddenly, rain started to slowly drop down before it broke into a full-on downpour. There was nothing either one of them could say, so they just allowed the rain to embrace them, as they embraced each other.

to be continued.

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this shit gave me disney channel vibes cause it was dramatic, extra, & lowkey sad as fuck but I'll see y'all in pt. 2. 😭