Black History Month was upon us, and even though my floor only had the two of us, we made sure everyone on it learned something every day.

This was Gay's forte, as she downloaded facts in Black history and posted them throughout the hallway. She also planned a trivia night for the whole residence hall. She worked with our Resident Assistant, Samantha, and the Hall Director, Ms. Amy. It was floor by floor, and some floors easily had more than fifty percent on their team.

On my floor, without Gay competing, I thought we would come in last place. There were six of us on the team, and my face was the only brown face.

To my surprise, we were hanging in there. The questions were based on the history that Gay posted on our floor, so if everyone paid attention, we all knew the information.

There was another floor, the one with mostly African American students that were our biggest competition. It also happened to be the floor that Rodney was on. They were awesome, like super nerds to know all of that, even though some of those things I would not have known without Gay's help.

"Rayvn, you should know all of these!" Chandler said to me after we missed so many and fell behind.

I rolled my eyes. "Because I'm Black?"

"No! Oh my gosh, I did not mean it like that." Chandler's face turned red, nearly bright as her red hair. "I meant...because Gay is your roommate. You should have all the answers."

"I didn't cheat. I did not look at the answers." And if she thought I should know every little Black History fact simply because I was Black...well, I believed she should know everything because she was white. I was not going to have that discussion with her.

We lost, but at least we came in second place. Pretty good for our floor to have the least amount of diversity. After the game, there was punch and cookies, and music playing so we could hang around and discuss.

"Sheesh!" Gray said when she came over to our group. "Now Samantha and Ms. Amy think I should go out for RA like my brother. No way, so not me."

"You would be an awesome RA!" Chandler stated.

"I'm a rule breaker...I don't like enforcing the rules. Anyway..." Gay grabbed my arm and pulled me away. Guess what?"

"I hate guessing games."

"I know someone who likes you."

I was not here for this. I did not need another boy to obsess over right now. I was doing fine all alone. I could still see King whenever I wanted and throw someone else in the mix when I was still unsure of who I wanted, well, it was not good.

"Gay, I am not trying to date anyone."

"Damn, did my brother mess you over with relationships? The first boy you ever kissed, but trust me, there are more out there."

"And I am not interested." I started to walk away but she pulled me back.

"Rayvn, look." Gay pointed to the group that won where it was five Black players and one Hispanic. All of them were guys, so I had no clue who she was pointing out to me. Besides Terrance, I did not know any of the others.

"What am I looking at?"

"He likes you."

"Who? Which one?"

"The one that kept staring at you the whole time we played. You didn't see him?"

I shrugged. I was not paying attention to the other team, except that they were good. None of the guys were looking at me now, they were all talking and laughing. They were more connected than our floor was, and maybe that helped them to win. Then again, before Gay and I came, there were no Black students on the floor.

"Come on, let's go introduce ourselves."

"Uh...no, I-"

Leave it to Gay to be pushy and drag me along. Soon as we made it over to the group of guys deep in discussion, they stopped talking.

"Hey guys, wanted to congratulate you on winning. Beating my floor and I gave them all the answers."

"Gay, that was pretty dope," one of the guys stated.

"How did you guys know all that stuff? Which one of you is the genius?" Gay asked, looking around at them.

"That would be Perez," Terrance pointed out the only Hispanic guy, or at least, it was my assumption he was Hispanic. He was light-skinned, with just a hint of tan, long, dark brown hair that was wavy. Could be anything, but I would go with my first instinct.

"Perez, have you met my roommate, Rayvn Lawrence?" Gay nudged me to the side and I figured this was the guy that was giving me googly eyes to make Gay think he was into me.

"Hey Rayvn," Perez said to me, with a nice deep voice that was...sexy.

"Hello."

"You gave us a run for our money at some point," he said.

"Nah!" Terrance stated. "We gave them a few points so as not to run the boards. Rayvn's a smart cookie though, was holding her team down."

"No, we all knew the answers, it wasn't just me."

"Well, it was all Perez, he gave us the answers so he wouldn't be the only one buzzing in."

"No, you guys helped." Perez smiled at me then nodded his head in a "No they didn't," manner.

So he was smart and hot. Sheesh! How come I could catch all the hot guys? I loved that about myself. Also, I attracted narcissists and stalkers, they couldn't all be perfect.

"That was pretty cool to do," the guy with long locs said to Gay. "They should have more stuff like this for us. I know we're a small percent at Mizzou, but we want things to do and not just partying."

"Nooo, we need more parties!" Terrance laughed.

"I've seen you around Rayvn," Perez said to me. "You work at the front desk, right?"

"Yes," I said with a smile. "You can stop by any time and chat with me. I don't bite."

"Yes, Rayvn is cool," Terrance said, putting an arm around me. "Her and her roomie."

We all chatted up some more, but nothing too wild. Perez did not ask me out or anything, or even ask for my number. I was kind of disappointed in that. Maybe up close he did not like me at all.

I guess it did not matter. I did not want a boyfriend.

Then the next day while I was at the front desk, Todd stopped by and stood there watching me.

"Uh...hello." He gave me the creeps and I was tired of this. It was not cute at all.

"Hey, Rayvn."

"What are you doing here?"

"I know you said you did not want to be my girlfriend, but I'm just trying to be your friend."

"And I told you, find someone else. I don't want to lead you on like that. Some so many other girls would be interested in you."

"But-"

I cut him off again, frustrated I even had to go through this with him. "Todd, just leave me alone!" I snapped, maybe a little too loudly. A few people around stopped to be nosy. I hated having attention on me. I always seemed to attract trouble.

Todd did not move, he still stood there watching me like a creep. I wanted to cry. My head started to pound and I wanted to get far away from him. I would not look up at him, only down, rubbing my temples.

"Hey, everything okay Rayvn?"

I looked up to see Perez. I was not going to drag him into this.

"Hey, I'm fine," was all I said to Perez.

"You sure?" Perez turned to Todd. "Did you need help with something?"

"Is this your new boyfriend?" Todd asked.

"What? Oh my God!" I sighed heavily, in disbelief. "Todd, can you please go away? Just leave and stop bothering me."

"But I just want to talk."

"Did you hear her?" Perez said.

"Rayvn, come on, you're acting like I did something to you."

"Bye Todd!"

He scoffed, then turned and ran...not walked away as fast as he could out of the building. Yes, that was very weird, and I was super creeped out now. I shivered at the thought of that boy knowing too much about me already.

"Who was that guy?" Perez asked.

"Nobody."

"You don't look like it's nobody. Rayvn, I don't know you, but if that guy is harassing you or has done something to you, you need to report him."

If I reported Todd, he could get in trouble and all I wanted was for him to leave me alone. I had to somehow get through to him.

"In the meantime, if you need me to be your bodyguard," Perez said with a grin at her. "I can stay here all night while you work, every shift."

"That's nice, but no."

"Then maybe take you out on a date."

This did not feel like the right time to ask me out, but I did not want my distrust in Todd to bleed into how I felt about other guys. They were not all like Todd.

"Okay, a date it is."

A/N: I hope Rayvn reports Todd because nothing seems to be getting through to him. And we need to know more about Perez before we see if he is any good for Rayvn.