"Who even is this guy?"

"Relax sis, it's my homie."

"That means nothing to me. You've only been at Ranken a few months, you never told me about this guy. Is it someone you're seeing?"

Her sister means mugged her. "Now you know-"

Her sister came out to her as a lesbian just a year ago. No one else in the family knew unless they could tell by the way she dressed and carried herself. She was more on the soft stud side, not dressing in boy's clothes, but not dressing in girly things either. Never a dress or skirt, no make-up, and wore her hair cut low in a fro.

She scored her first tattoo at sixteen and had not stopped getting them on both her arms and on her back. Johanna was afraid of getting tattoos. Needles made her want to pass out. Even getting a shot would make her woozy. The sight of blood was ick.

"But how do you know him? I mean, do you really know him? He's a stranger! You want a strange man in our house...living under the same roof as us?"

"That's the point. Look, lil homie hangs out with me a time a two on the yard during breaks and shit. You know Ranken is not like your university or anything. We are in one class, or workshop all day. We have lunch and breaks and that's when I hit up lil homie."

"So he's in the auto repair program?"

"No! There are other programs there. He's studying maintenance-type stuff. He fixes things."

"Oh." That would be good to have around. Her uncle fixed the hot water, temporarily he stated. They used the money their grandmother left them for a brand new range stove, fridge, washer, and dryer. Then Uncle Billy made a list of things the new handyman/roommate could repair.

"He's on his way over any minute."

She still was unsure about this, but the least she could do was meet with the boy. If her sister trusted him, he could not be that bad.

Before the doorbell even rang, her phone notified her someone was at the door with the camera. The added safety was a blessing. She looked at the person standing there as he rang the doorbell and showed the phone to her sister sitting beside her on the sofa.

"Is this him?"

"Yeah."

"I'll get him." She rushed to open the door to greet the guy.

What she saw she was not expecting. By Zee calling him "lil homie," she suspected a little guy, not the giant, big, hulky guy standing in front of her. He was tall, she did not even know how tall, just tall and big. Not skinny, but muscled in build. He was fair-skinned, a light honey brown, and he wore a fitted Cardinals baseball cap on his head, but she could see he had long hair pulled back in a ponytail.

But his face. The man was gorgeous. He left her speechless. Dark brown eyes, nice, thick lips, even skin tone with a goatee perfectly trimmed. She had never seen someone so mesmerizing in her life.

"Yo, wazzup, Zee here?"

"Huh?" What did he say? He could have said the sky was pink and she would agree and want to stare at it with him.

"Zee here?" he asked again.

"Uh..."

"Yo, wazzup homie!" Zee nearly pushed her aside as she dapped up the guy.

This could not be "lil homie." There was no way she could live with a guy she wanted to stare at all day.

This reminded her of her high school days when all she did with the guys she liked was stare and wish she could say something to them. Even "Hello," or "How are you?" but instead, she said nothing. She spent four miserable years of high school daydreaming about talking to a boy, or at least one noticing her.

Not that she was ugly, more so plain looking. Not glamorous or dressed in trendy clothes. Sometimes she wore the same thing to school in the same week. And it was noticeable. Mostly hand-me-downs from her sister, so they were too big. Or thrift store clothes her grandmother would buy her.

"Come on in and have a look around." Zee let him in, and Johanna moved away, stood back, and felt invisible.

"Nice crib." He looked around as he said that. "What the hell are you doing with a big ass crib like this? You win the lottery?"

"No man, my GiGi left it to us. Oh shit, my bad, this my little sis, Johanna."

Zee introduced her as if she was an afterthought. Zee never had problems making friends. She did not date either, spending her high school years in the closet before coming out to her. Even after that, she did not date much. If she met a girl she would then have to hide it from her mother.

"What's up lil sis," was all the guy said to her. He looked her over. "You two look nothing alike. That's cool. I don't have any sisters or brothers."

"Come on, sit, my sis, thinks she needs to interview you and get to know you before we come to terms on this."

She did not want to interview this boy. Yet, she wanted to know more about him. It was not that she was shy, but that she became very introverted when it came to guys.

She walked fast past them and into the living room, taking a seat on their plush sofa. Her aunt sent over a tenant application and leasing agreement. Pretty straightforward. They both agreed that they wanted a guy to do the small handy work around the house which included fixing any small appliances, plumbing issues, and minor maintenance. Also included yard work as needed. In return for that really low amount of rent.

They did not want to charge at all, but their Aunt Rita insisted that the going rate for renting a room in a house that size, minus the handy work, there was still a need to charge. They would negotiate with him and agree that if there was a drastic amount of work to do he could pay lower rent.

The rent he paid, would then go back toward the house when they needed to spend money to get things fixed. They would split utilities three ways.

"Ask me whatever you like," he said with a slight smirk at her as he sat on the sofa across from her.

She immediately knew what kind of guy he was. He knew he was hot. And she knew he would never go for a girl like her.

"I don't even know your name. My sister just calls you her lil homie."

He chuckled at that and Zee joined in on the cackle.

"That's an inside joke," Zee said. "Lil homie...because he ain't little."

She rolled her eyes at that. Somehow she was annoyed that they were already chummy with inside jokes, leaving her out of it.

"Sorry, my bad. My name's Tristan. Tristan Mathews. Me and your sister hit it off right away. She is like a homeboy or something. It's all good."

"I told him I'm small, but I'd still kick his ass."

Tristan raised his hands in surrender. "I'm good. We good. Now let your little sister ask me whatever she needs to get comfortable with me."

He stared at her, with those eyes and again she forgot her words. "Uh..."

"Okay listen, it's like this. We need a guy up here, one, who keeps the wanta-be gangstas away. Two, help out around this big ass house. Our GiGi loved this house, and we do too. But shit, we need some help. You're Mr. Handy Man right now, so I thought about you."

"That's what's up."

"Why are you willing to move in with some girls?" she finally was able to ask.

He took a hand and brushed it over his lips before replying. "I've never lived with anyone but my mom. Now we're close and all, but hell if she gets on my nerves sometimes. Growing pains I guess. She's been hinting at kicking my ass out and she's been charging rent on a brother, so I finally stacked some bread and been looking for a place."

He looked around the place. "Not what I imagined, but hey, for a nice lil rent and I get to do what I love, fixing shit, why not?"

Zee hopped back up "This worked out perfectly. Come on, let's get a tour."

"Wait...I...I didn't say yes." Already they were ignoring her. If this was what it was going to be like having this guy here, she did not want it.

Tristan leaned a bit forward in his spot as if to get closer to her. "What you need from me, lil bit? I'm harmless I promise. I have mad respect for my girl Zee, and I wouldn't want to fuck this up. I just need a place to lay my head."

"JoJo, don't trip, he's good peeps."

"I guess it's okay," she mumbled, not knowing if they heard her.

"Great!" Zee was overly ecstatic. "Let me show you your room. There are three bathrooms, but you'll have to use the one downstairs unless lil sis wants to share her bathroom adjoining your room."

What? He was going to be in the room adjacent to her? The only thing that separated them would be a bathroom. No way would she share it with him.