I was over being nice.

Things were not getting any better with the Todd situation. He was at my residence hall every day claiming he had friends there. He either hung out in the lobby while I worked and tried to talk to me or worse, just sat there. Or his other thing was to be in the cafeteria when Gay and I were having dinner.

Gay told him off twice, but that did not stop him.

Even Perez said some things to him again when he caught him hanging around, it did not matter.

Todd was going around campus telling people I was his girlfriend. How did I find out? My old suitemate, Allura.

"Is it something I did? Did I lead him on?" I asked her.

"No! This isn't the first girl he's done this with. He gets pretty creepy when he likes a girl."

"What?" I could not believe Allura was telling me this now. "How come you never told me he was borderline insane? You know, when I first started hanging out with him?"

"My bad!"

I ran into Allura at the Campus Union and she stopped to talk to me. We already worked out our issues so I thought we were cool. How could she never warn me about Todd? What kind of half-ass friend was she?

"He's harmless though, just a bugaboo. You should be flattered a cute guy likes you."

I rolled my eyes at that. I did not find Todd cute anymore, not at all. What if I would have chosen him to date as my boyfriend? I could not imagine how that would go. Much worse than Diallo for sure. I sucked at picking guys, that's why I was still hesitant to cross that threshold with King.

Allura weirdly smiled at me before she asked, "Is your friend still going out with Donnell?"

I did not know if I wanted to answer that. What business was it hers?

"No," I simply said. Chantell was doing fine planning to raise her baby all by herself and even started a job making more money.

"Good. Girl, you should have heard what happened the other day on our floor. I guess Donnell was messing with this girl that had a boyfriend and the boyfriend was ready to fight but Rich came and the guy didn't want to be double-teamed, so he left. All over a girl? Ugh!"

"How's Twyla?"

Allura shrugged. "Girl, we roomed together like that but we're not that cool. I haven't heard from her and that's fine by me."

Talking to Allura I could tell she was a sometime-y friend. Sometimes she was cool, other times she seemed like a basket case.

I had to report him and not care about getting him in trouble. I first went to my Hall Director and told her that he showed up multiple times hanging around the lobby for no reason. He never followed me upstairs to my room, far as I know, but I wanted him banned from entering where I lived at all.

She said to further help, file a complaint with Student Services. It was not like a restraining order or anything, but he would be notified to stay his distance from me or get expelled from the school. He would not like that at all, so hopefully, he left me alone.

"He won't," Gay said to me while we hung out in my room eating chips and drinking wine coolers she snuck in. I was a lightweight, even something that tasted like fizzy juice got me lit.

"I can't believe he's that gone. I hung with him for weeks and he was fine."

"Girl, what kind of magic did you put on him?" Gay laughed. "Did you give him a taste of all the goodies?"

"No!" I could not believe she said that to me. I was not interested in giving anyone the goodies, especially him. I never even considered that with her brother.

Maybe King.

I shook the thought from my head.

"So Spring Break...want to go to Daytona Beach?"

"Hell yeah!"

I already looked up flight info and found us a place to stay, but I did not want to finalize unless Gay was down for it. This would be my first, grown-up vacation all on my own without my parents. Some well-off kids my age probably traveled alone many times. This would be my second time ever flying.

"So how'd you come up with this idea?"

I smiled, thinking of King. I was going to be on vacation with a hot guy that I totally wanted to be more than just a friend.

"Oh, this is about a boy." Gay nudged my arm with hers. "King! Girl, you better go. Why are you still stalling with him, snatch him up."

She made it sound like it was easy. "I don't want to rush into anything. I like King, I do. And we make great friends but once it changes to something else, well...maybe I won't like him anymore."

"And maybe you will. And maybe you will fall in love, get married and have oodles of babies. That sounds like something you would do."

She was not wrong about that.

"As for me. I'm just here living up my life while I'm young and I'll think about the future in like, five, ten years when I'm really old."

I chuckled at that. "We will not be old in five to ten years! We will be mature. Well-seasoned."

"Whatever." I know I don't want to look back at my teens and twenties and think shoulda, coulda, woulda. I'm going to make a mess of my life, but long as I don't die or kill someone I'm okay."

Gay always had a way with words. A knock on the door startled me.

"Expecting someone?"

"No, ignore them. If they didn't text to let us know they were stopping by, we're not cool with them."

It could be Todd. The hairs on my arm stood up as a new fear unlocked. He knew where I lived and would camp out there all night.

More knocking on the door.

"We have to answer it," I whispered to Gay.

"No, we don't."

I fretted over who it could be while Gay seemed to think nothing of it.

"I know you guys are in there. Open up." It was Diallo.

"It's your brother."

"So?"

I jumped up from the couch to open the door. Just because I did not want to date Diallo did not mean I couldn't be cordial to him.

"Hey," I said with a smile. "What's up?"

"Can I come in?"

"Sure." After he walked in, I closed the door behind him.

"You could call or text to warn us you're coming to our room. Geez!" Gay stated.

Diallo turned to me. "I heard about that guy harassing you."

How did he find out? Was he stalking me too? This was so not cool.

"I haven't told anyone," I said. "Did my Hall Director or someone say something or-"

"Allura told me."

"It wasn't her business to tell you."

"She was just looking out for you. I know you're still upset with me...and you've moved on to that King guy, but...I still care."

"You have nothing to worry about, it's all taken care of." I sat back on the couch beside Gay.

Gay looked her brother over standing there, watching us, not moving or saying anything. I looked at her and raised an eyebrow. She narrowed her eyes at her brother.

"So uh...you and Allura, what's up with that?" Gay asked with no hesitation.

Diallo fidgeted a bit then scratched his head, all of a sudden uncomfortable. "Yes, we're kind of dating.

Shut the front door! Why did I not see that coming?

A/N: What is up with Allura? Already moved on with Diallo? Yes, that is no kind of friend. But wait till he finds out she also kissed Gay.