"T'was Never Him, Bbg"
Kelani
01/23/22

Quick a/n: That picture is just the outline I had for this story before writing it so it doesn't exactly line up... enjoy :) 

Uncontrollable anger is all Kelani can really feel after yet another terrible experience with her crush of two years.

"It's okay, babe. He's super dense anyway considering he doesn't even realize you're head over heels for him. He really isn't worth it," her best friend, Ida, tries to comfort her.

Kelani quickly downs the drink in her hand, "Ida, this is the third party we've gone to when I'm obviously flirting with him and he still follows some other girl into a room. He's the smartest kid in our school and he's planning on majoring in psychology."

"Yeah... I seriously don't understand how he can't see you like him. You quite literally did all the things that he told us girls do when they like someone after he read his book about the psychology behind love."

"Exactly!"

"Heyyyy Keke!" Crissy said as she and her boyfriend, Tanner came up to Kelani and Ida. They were the most cliche couple Kelani had ever met. The pale skin, the blonde-brunette duo, everything about them screamed high school 'it' couple. Crissy was 5'4, while Tanner was 6'2, they both lived in mansions, rolling around in white privilege and living the all-American lifestyle.

Sometimes, Kelani believed that her Southeast Asian/Micronesian heritage was the reason for her unfortunate past relationships, but tried not to think that way.

Though, blaming white people for all your problems was fun as well.

"Crissy, how many times have I told you not to call me Keke. I have plenty of other nicknames."

Crissy flipped her platinum blonde hair, "Oh, Keke, don't get your panties in a bunch. I just came over here to tell you that Tantan's friend just transferred here from the next town over."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

Crissy had a blank look on her face, "Wait why did we come over here again Tantan?" She tried to whisper.

Kelani couldn't tell if Crissy was drunk or not. It wasn't like she was the brightest even without the added drugs in her system.

Tanner, either being sober or smarter than Crissy, rolled his eyes and told Kelani what they were there for, "My friend, Jai, has been asking about you. He seems interested. Crissy thought you'd like to know."

"Oh yeahhhh! You're so smart Tantan!"

"Oh, she's 100% drunk," Kelani thought.

Tanner rolled his eyes again and started pulling Crissy away.

"Well, thanks I guess, Crissy. You too... tantan," Kelani held in a laugh as Tanner glared at her, more determined to leave with Crissy now.

"Bye Keke! Bye Dada! Haha Oh my gosh I just called you 'Dada,' Ida," Crissy said, laughing uncontrollably, "That's so funny!" She was still laughing as Tanner basically carried her to another room.

Ida snorted, "So... you have some mysterious guy named Jai staring at you... from somewhere."

Kelani smiled, "Yeah that's totally not creepy at all. Do you think it's Jay with a 'y' or Jai with an 'i'?"

"Either way I'm hoping he's hot for your sake."

The girls both giggled together and went on with their night. Kelani was silently hoping that this Jai guy, whether it be with an 'i' or a 'y', would show up and be her Hardin, but he never did.

Though Hardin is probably the last person she should compare her dream guy to considering he is a toxic dick. Details, details...

*...*...*...*

"Hey K!"

Kelani turned around and saw the source of all her pain and suffering the past two years walk towards her with a smile on his face. Instead of doing what she's always wanted to do, which was to have a passionate confession of her love in the middle of the hallway and then do nothing but make out with him for the rest of her life, she put on an equally as wide smile and greeted him back.

"Hey, Kaz!"

"Where did you and Ida run off to yesterday night? I thought I was supposed to be your ride?"

After the meet-up with Crissy, Ida and Kelani started talking to a girl who was going on about how she stalked Kaz online and found out that his full name was 'Kazimir Bakker' and that his family was from the Netherlands. She then went on to talk about how her family was from Germany and how that would be a perfect talking point to ask him out and become his girlfriend.

After that, Ida called a cab because she realized that Kelani was too drunk to ignore all the girls at that point.

"Oh, I just got tired. And after a while of drinking and dancing, you realize there really isn't much to do at these parties," Kelani shrugged her shoulders.

"What? You got tired? I've seen you at these parties Kelani you never get tired. Plus, there were tons of games going on in the basement."

"Yeah...well-"

"Hey!"

It was the girl from the party. Kelani couldn't even remember her name.

She glanced over at Kelani, "Oh hey! I... uhm... didn't know you guys were friends."

"I guess the girl was nervous about her whole 'I'm German' talking point being ruined."

"Oh, yeah! K and I have been best friends for years now," Kaz strung an arm around Kelani's shoulders and smiled.

Kelani forced a smile, "Yep... besties!"

Just then Ida came barreling down the hallway.

"KELANI!" She screamed, successfully pushing Kelani away from Kaz and the girl from the party.

"Oh my god, Ida calm down!"

"He's real!" She squealed grabbing Kelani's shoulders.

"Who's real?" Kelani and Kaz responded at the same time.

"The mysterious super hottie from the party!" Ida whispered so that Kaz and the random girl wouldn't hear.

"Wait, WHAT?"

Now Kelani was the one yelling.

"What? What happened?" Kaz was still very confused but Kelani was starting to get very excited.

"Well, was it true what Crissy and Tanner said?" Kelani asked impatiently.

"Uhm of course it was why else would I be here screaming at you?"

"Well, how do you know?"

"Well I was walking out of my art class and I heard him and Tanner talking down the hall. They were talking about classes but when they saw me Jai -with an 'i', by the way, I glanced at his schedule- started asking about you."

"No way!"

"Okay, are either of you going to explain to me what the hell is going on!?"

The girls both rolled their eyes and turned in Kaz's direction before Ida quickly explained what they were talking about.

"Basically, there's a super hot new Asian guy at our school and he's already super into Kelani over here and- oh my god he's right there, Kelani!"

"Yes, Ida. I do have eyes too."

"Psh...." Kaz started, "he's not that cute guys."

They weren't paying attention. Well, they weren't paying attention Kaz that is, Jai definitely had their attention.

And suddenly Kelani had Jai's attention. And then they were meeting for the first time.

Jai looked over the three other people around Kelani - including the girl from last night's party, who knows why she was still there - before landing on the girl herself.

"Hey, I'm Jai."

"Hi, Jai!" Kelani and Ida responded while the other two stayed quiet.

"I'm Kelani, this is Ida," Kelani said pointing to herself and then her best friend, "that's Kaz and... uh..." Kelani trailed off because she really did not know this girl's name.

"I'm Carly, but Jai and I already know each other. You went to Crystal High before this right? We met at CHS' homecoming freshman year."

"Oh... yeah for sure," Jai looked like he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Well, nice to meet all of you guys. Uh, anyway I just came over here because Tanner and Crissy told me that Kelani has English first period and I was just wondering if you could show me where that is...," Jai was looking at her... and only at her.

"This is definitely what main characters feel like," Kelani thought.

"Uhm I also... have English first period...," Kaz interrupted both the conversation and their eye contact.

"Yeah, with a different teacher, you dumbass," Ida responded with an eye roll.

"Well, what if he has my teacher?"

Kelani rolled her eyes, "Let me see your schedule...," she scanned her eyes over the piece of paper and looked up at Kaz, "he has my teacher, we good?"

Kelani started walking without looking back, expecting Jai to follow her. Sure enough, he appeared by her side seconds later.

"Is that guy your boyfriend or something?"

"Nope."

"He seems pretty protective over you."

"Yeah, which is interesting considering he's never done that before."

"Oh..."

"Oh is exactly right Jai."

*...*...*...*

"I just feel like you're spending all your time with him and none with me and Ida."

It had been 5 months since Jai showed up and Kelani had gotten a lot closer with him.

"Am I? Because I talk to Ida every day and I was out with her yesterday."

"Okay well, maybe it's just me then..."

"Or maybe you're just delusional, Kaz, we went out last weekend with Ida and Jai."

"I just... I don't know K, I just..."

"You just what, Kaz?" 

"Can I tell you something?"

"Kelani! This Panera is not gonna eat itself!"

"Coming, just give me a sec!"

Kaz sighed, "Could you not have told me he was with you the whole time?"

"It's not like he can hear you."

"No, but he can hear you."

Now, Kelani was sighing, "What did you want to tell me?"

"Nothing... I'll tell you later." 

"Okay... Bye Kaz."

"Bye."

"Hey Kelanlan," he greeted as she walked into his family kitchen. They were hanging out at Jai's place to go over some homework but had gotten hungry.

"Hey JJ"

"So who was that?"

"Who do you think?

"Was he talking about how he 'never sees you anymore' again?"

"What else, I don't know why he's so obsessed with me now," Ever since Jai showed up, Kaz had been more flirty, touchy, and cutesy with her... basically everything she had wanted.

But, unfortunately, Kelani had moved on and she no longer wanted him to do that stuff, she wanted Jai to do it. And he did do it. Completely unprompted and with no ulterior motives he always made her feel special.

"I don't know why either, but I do know that I didn't buy you this chicken chipotle avocado sandwich thing from Panera Bread for you to sit there and stare at it so eat!"

Kelani laughed, "I'm not sure that's what it's called...," Kelani said slowly lifting the sandwich out of the box.

Jai laughed, "I don't care, just eat it!"

*...*...*...*

"Hey, Inaya, have you seen Kaz at all today?" Kelani asked one of her close friends when she walked into school earlier than usual.

Kaz had texted her saying that he had something to tell her before school, but she had no idea where he was.

"Uhh yeah. I think I saw him walk out into the courtyard."

"Okay, thanks babe, see you during 3rd!" Inaya waved at her.

She walked out into the courtyard and saw Kaz standing there pacing back and forth.

"Hey, Kaz!"

He looked up at Kelani and smiled, "Hey, K."

"So what did you wanna talk to me about."

Kaz sighed, "Look K, I know I've been making a big deal about us not hanging out a lot recently and you're probably really confused but... ever since Jai came around I started to realize that there's a real possibility I could lose you. I think I've always really liked you but I just never really could come to terms with it until-"

"Stop," Kelani cut him off mid-rant, "You definitely have not 'always liked me, Kaz,' so I don't want to hear that bs. Whether you were conscious of it or not, I think you've always known that I liked you and once Jai came along there was a possibility that I wouldn't be there chasing after you like a dumbass lapdog. This isn't you realizing you like me this is you trying to keep me where you want me for your own benefit and I'm not going to pretend like I'm rejecting you when I'm not. I can't reject someone that doesn't like me."

Kaz just stared at Kelani and when she finished his eyes fell to the ground. She stood there staring at him for a couple of minutes until she turned around and went back inside.

"And this, my friends, is why we don't fall in love with white boys," she thought to herself.

*...*...*...*

"So... Kaz gave me this story about how he's actually in love with me and that's why he's been acting so weird lately," Kelani and Jai were in Jai's car on their way to his house. His mom had asked them to sample some of the new sweets she was making for the cute little Southasian bakery that she had opened.

Jai rolled his eyes, "And what did you say?"

Kelani didn't answer, she wanted him to think she had fallen for Kaz's dumbassery for a second just to see what he would say.

"No!" He looked over at her from the driver's seat, "Kelani, baby, don't tell me you fell for it," Jai had been calling her baby on a regular basis as an endearing term, but that did not help her heart in any way.

She started laughing, "No, no, I told him to fuck off."

"Don't scare me like that, Kelani," he held his hand to his heart but kept the other on the steering wheel. "So what? You're not absolutely head over heels in love with him anymore?" Kelani had told Jai about the situation when Kaz started acting weird. 

"Nope. Currently dealing with another brain-dead boy who has no idea when a girl is flirting with him."

Jai had just pulled into his driveway and put the car in park, but he seemed intrigued, "Oh? Would you mind sharing?"

Neither of them made a move to get out of the car. Kelani smirked, "His name is pronounced like a letter of the alphabet which is kinda weird not gonna lie."

Jai started laughing, "Shit, didn't I just tell you not to scare me like that, Kelani? I thought you were gonna name some other guy."

It took her a couple of seconds to understand what he was talking about but when she did her eyes widened, "Wait what the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I've been waiting to ask you out until I knew for sure you didn't like Kaz anymore but I didn't want to ask and out myself for liking you."

"Well, you know damn well I don't him like now."

"Exactly! So, Kelani..." He looked up at her and smiled and she smiled back, "wanna be my girlfriend?"

"Uh, duh."

Jai ran over to the other side of the car and pulled Kelani out of her seat to hug her.

"C'mon lemme reintroduce you to my mom!"

"Uhh... okay?"

He opened the door and they found Jai's mom in the kitchen with her baking supplies.

"Mom, I'd like to reintroduce you to Kelani as my girlfriend."

Jai's mom started screaming then hugged both of them shouting something in Sanskrit.

"She just told my dad that we finally got together," Jai said to Kelani.

"Wait were they waiting for this?"

"I may have mentioned being interested in you once you twice or twenty times..."