"My mother is coming to visit again."

I was not sure why Gay was telling me this. I was not dating Diallo anymore, so I did not care to meet with her mother again.

"Oh, well warn me so I can hide out somewhere else."

Gay laughed at me, but I was so serious. Not that I thought her mother was a horrible person, but I could tell under her scrutiny, I did not meet her standards for her son. Maybe she needed to look closer at her son.

Hopefully, Allura would do better under her scrutiny.

"Both my parents are coming this time. It's like I'm not an adult and they need to watch over me."

"All parents are that way."

"I doubt it."

I was not kidding her. I did not want to be around when her parents came to town. She could visit with them all she wanted, I did not have to meet her parents. I made plans to be out of my room all day Saturday while they were in there. I wished I could have spent the day with King, but he left for the weekend to go home to Kansas City.

First, I studied at the library. Then I roamed around campus, shopped at the bookstore for the essentials I needed, and then decided I needed to do some real shopping. I stopped to get my favorite drink at Starbucks, then I headed to the mall. A girl could never have too many shoes, dresses, purses, and accessories. New earrings, hair clips and headbands, a hat, and loads of new lipstick.

While I was thinking about it, I bought King a KC Royals jersey. It was his team he loved. I bought myself a Cardinals jersey because we were the better team and I had to let him know.

I had to stop and eat something at the food court. Nothing was too appetizing for me, but I settled on some Panda Express. I'm sitting there in the nearly bare food court, minding my business eating my horrible food and people watching when I see a familiar face.

It's Allura, and she's holding hands with a boy I don't recognize. It's not Diallo.

I stopped mid-chew of my orange chicken, mouth gaped open, watching Allura with all smiles while holding hands with this tall, attractive, but looked nothing like Diallo guy.
What was I supposed to do?

She did not spot me there as she walked along hand in hand with the guy. It was no Jon either, although she for sure had a type. He looked like her ex except with darker hair and a bit taller. What was she doing with another guy that way when she was with Diallo? Was she cheating on him?

If his parents were still in town, surely he was with them, why hadn't she spent time with his parents?

I texted Gay: Are your parents still here?

Unfortunately. Did get a free meal...although it came with a lecture on my behavior

Is Diallo with you?

Of course, the narc is

Hmm, how was I going to ask my next question?

Did your parents get to meet his new girlfriend, Allura?

She flaked out, something about a project. Whatevs

Oh wow. So she lied to get out of meeting the parents and now she was hanging with some other guy. Poor Diallo.

I could pay her back for what she did to break me and him up, take pictures of her, and send them to Diallo. Revenge would be so sweet.

Or I could stay out of other people's business as Diallo always told me to do concerning my friends. Here's the thing, I did not consider Allura nor Diallo my friend anymore. I would always look out for my friends.

These were not my friends.

I finished my food and headed out of the mall. I had enough drama for the day. 

I was going to head back to campus and chill out in my room. If Gay and her parents stopped by at my place, oh well, let them. They did not have to like me, and I did not have to like them.

After putting my things away, I showered and changed into lounging attire then grabbed a blanket and sat on the sofa to catch a movie.

Should have hidden out in my room. Gay comes along with her parents and Diallo. I knew my face showed fret because Gay mouthed "Sorry" to me as she headed into the kitchenette.

"Well, there she is. Hello Rayvn." Mrs. Azzouzi walked to me and opened her arms for a hug.

I hugged her back. "Hello, Mrs. Azzouzi. Are you guys enjoying your visit?"

"Always look forward to hanging with my babies," she said.

"Baby?" Gay mumbled. "I'm nineteen!"

"Always my baby," Mrs. Azzouzi said. "Rayvn, you haven't met my husband. Honey, this is the nice girl Diallo was seeing. Sorry you two couldn't work it out. So pretty!"

I only glanced at Diallo, to see what he thought of that. He was looking my way but did not say a thing.

I stretched out my hand for a handshake, which he took. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Azzouzi."

Their father looked so much like Diallo it was insane. An older version of him with short hair. At least I could see how Diallo would look in twenty years, still handsome. Gay looked like a combination of both parents, being beautiful was in their gene pool strong.

"Nice to meet you Ms. Rayvn. Would have been nice to meet the current girlfriend, but I guess we're not that important."

Again, I looked to Diallo to see what he was thinking. I could not read his face at all. Good thing, because if he could read my face, I'm sure it stated he was dating a cheater. But that was not my business.

"Dad, you didn't meet Gay's boyfriend or question it." Diallo came to sit next to me, which made me very uncomfortable, but I didn't say anything.

His father only grunted at that. "Gay, I thought you were into girls?"

"Both! I'm bi, sheesh, how many times do I have to explain it." Gay came on my other side. "Aren't you two done checking up on...I mean, visiting us? Don't you have a life back in Jeff City? We're not dead or drugged out or anything, see, we're fine."

I was in the middle of a disaster for sure.

They definitely had a weird relationship. I understood overbearing parents, my father could be at times, but at least they were nothing like my mother. They cared to check on them. My mother never once called just to check on me, she called with a handout. My mother would never dare come visit me, she couldn't care less about my college experience.

My father visited once, and so did Angel. I was sure they would have visited me more this year, but Angel was pregnant. I would not mind if they came to visit me every weekend, I loved seeing them. Okay, that was overboard, maybe once a month. Better yet, I would visit them once a month.

After their parents left, Diallo stayed sitting next to me and Gay huddled under the blanket with me.

"Can I stay and hang with you girls?"

"No!" Gay quickly shouted.

"Sure," I said, although I was only being nice. I had no desire to hang with him, not knowing what I knew.

Diallo ignored Gay and grabbed some of the blanket so he was under it as well.

"Big brother, don't you have any friends you can latch on to or your new girlfriend? Go help her with her little project or whatever."

I think I tensed when she said that, and I'm sure one of them noticed.

"Gay, why do you act as if I'm this horrible brother to you, I'm not. I did not tell Mom or Dad anything bad about you because you have been doing good in school. I'm just looking out for you. That's what brothers are for."

Gay rolled her eyes and groaned. "You won't let me be me just like they don't let me be me."

"Rayvn, what do you think?" Diallo asked me.

"Ummm..." Now why did he put me in the mix of their drama?

I did not think Diallo was all that bad towards Gay because Gay was a wild child. It's like with me and Symone. We're nothing alike. Though we're farther apart in age, we're still pretty close. If Symone was doing things that questioned her safety, sure I would let my parents know.

All Gay did was smoke a little weed and maybe experience with her sexuality. Those things could get out of hand, but for now she was being responsible with it.

"You know what?" I jumped up causing the blanket to drop to the floor. "You two should have brother-sister time without me. I'm going to go to my room, go to bed early, and-"

"No wait Rave, don't leave." Diallo grabbed my arm. "Stay, I want to hang with you too. I miss us...hanging out like this."

Gay moved toward us and forcefully yanked my arm from him.

"Don't you have a girlfriend to miss and hang with, go find her!"

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well, but not too brave to say.

"No," Diallo said as he stood and faced me. "I messed up. I don't care about her the way I still care for Rayvn."

What in the world was this boy saying? Was he serious right now? He dumped me! He did not trust me! He made himself look undesirable to me, even when I thought he was so perfect. Why was he still chasing after me when I moved on?

"Diallo, you're with Allura. I'm with King."

"Yeah, and we both know they're not right for us. We belong together."

"Oh fuck!" Gay smacked herself in the face. "Idiot of the year goes to my brother!"

"I'm being serious," Dialla said and took my hand. "Rayvn...I'm in love with you."

O M G!

A/N: I swear, I pinky promise I did not plan for any of this to go down like this. I was going to have Rayvn drama-free for the rest of the book. Well, in typical my style...not going to happen.