Zavrina POV

In a few more months and she would leave the campus of Illinois State University as a student. She was sure she would be back for Homecoming weekends and maybe other events, but this was going to be it for her as a student, so she savored it.

What was odd, was her being out and public with Kenyon. She knew the girls on campus treated Kenyon like a carnival ride, all wanted their turn on him, but him choosing just her, was too much for those silly broads to handle.

Did it stop once they knew he was in a committed relationship?

Hell no! If anything, Kenyon said it was worse. He constantly forwarded her thirty DMS from scandalous girls shooting their shot, sending naked pics, and coming on to him strong. Every time one followed him around campus, he called her up and chatted with her till they got the picture. Kenyon was so fly, teachers were at him too.

It was pathetic.

One thing she could not tolerate, was when they did it in her face.

When she walked into the Student Union to meet up with Kenyon, he was sitting in the corner, two horny broads on either side of him, talking his ears off, but he already texted her what was going down. Soon as he saw her, he stood and walked away from them and to her.

"Hey, babe." He gave her a simple kiss on the lips because she was not one for PDA, but she didn't mind a little bit to keep those girls in check.

"Sorry, I'm late. I need my coffee." She headed over to Starbucks to get her morning cup.

"You know it's too damn early for me, I don't do morning."

"Why did you agree to meet up with me?"

"Because it's the only time I could see yo lil ass," he grinned. "You trying to avoid me or sumthin?"

"Something," she smiled at him.

"You need to come back to my place. You ain't been since my first night."

"And I told you, I have been busy, super busy. Plus been covering rounds for some other RAs, so I can't keep sneaking out. Now if you want to sneak in and-"

"Maybe I will."

"Hey, Kenyon!" A tall, gorgeous chick with blue contacts and ebony brown skin, and long tiny braids down to her past her butt came up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

The hell? This girl was bold, bold.

"Come on Jackie, get off me," Kenyon said, prying her from him. "You see me with my girl."

"Your girl?"

So the girl didn't even see her standing right there?

"As in my girlfriend."

She finally looked over at her, rolled her eyes, and huffed. "I thought that was your little sister or something."

She saw red between her eyes, she wanted to snatch all those braids from her head, individually.

"So now you're gonna disrespect my girl? Girl, gone!"

Little Ms. Jackie gave her the stank eye and she gave it right back. Then she stomped away.

"See what I deal with? Why can't they fucking leave me alone?"

She grabbed his face between her hands. "Look at this face. It's gorgeous."

"Only you can do that shit, girl stop playing," he said, grabbing her hand. "I'm serious Zav. What am I supposed to do? Cuss their ass out? Disrespect their ass? What should I do?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because it's harassment, right? If I was a girl and stupid dudes were feeling me up and sending sexting messages, you wouldn't brush that shit aside, now would you?"

"But see, you liked that attention before, Mr. Playa Playa! You preyed on that attention before and smashed half the female population. Now that you're off the market...well, they don't want fun times with Kenyon Barnes to end."

She ordered her coffee and they waited for it to be made. She got a text message as they waited, it was from her aunt. She ignored it, for now, she wanted to finish the conversation with Kenyon.

"So exactly how many of the girls have you...let's say slept with?"

"Oh, we talking body counts now? You're gonna tell me your body count?"

She shrugged. It wasn't that high, she was sure it was nowhere near Kenyon's. She started having sex her senior year in high school with her long-time boyfriend. Nothing special, and once they started having sex, she lost interest in him. She did not have sex again till college when she wilded out a little bit, a few random guys, then Kenyon.

In between the Kenyon breakups, she may have messed around with other guys, but again, nothing serious. So really, Kenyon was her only real relationship, everything else was just hookups.

"No, I don't need to know your number. I wanna know if a chick gets in my face disrespecting me again, how much of you have they enjoyed."

"Man, why do you need to know that!"

"It must be that bad." This she knew, but she still wanted to know. "That chick, Jackie-"

"I fucked her once or twice."

Great. She had opened the floodgates.

"What about Brenna? She loves to throw that in my face."

"I mean, everybody done hit that. She likes the frat guys the best."

She groaned, rubbing her eyes. Did he have to be honest?

Her coffee order was ready and she finally read her text from her aunt.

"Oh no!"

"What babe?"

"Jossie invited you over to her house for dinner. She's so cruel."

He chuckled, putting an arm around her. "Oh come on, you know Auntie loves me."

She knew Jossie wanted to get to know Kenyon, but she was super nervous about the dinner. What if Kenyon said something crazy and her aunt threw him out or something? Maybe she knew about his wild days and all the notches on his bedpost. And then her uncle would be there. He was typically a say whatever he wanted type of guy. He would grill Kenyon for sure.

Kenyon claimed he was ready for it. He picked her up and he looked fresh, cleanly shaven, hair pulled back in a ponytail, and dressed in his best. She didn't want to go over to her aunt's, she wanted to stay alone with him and do some things.

"Later babe, tonight. Your place or mine, whatever, but I need to get some of you," he said after she kissed him.

She shouldn't be so nervous. What would her aunt do or say that would be so bad? She was grown, twenty-two years old, and nothing her aunt said about who she was dating would matter.

They made it to Jossie's house and her uncle greeted her with a hug.

"There's my girl!"

"Hey, unc." Her uncle was the only male that was ever a father figure in her life, so she had total respect for him. And he never treated her like a kid, even when she was a kid.

"I'm grilling some steaks, I hope your guy eats steaks." Uncle Yusef was a big man, who played football when he was at ISU, now he taught high school history and was head coach at Bloomington High School. He was an excellent cook and barbecuing and grilling was his specialty, no matter if it was still the middle of winter.

"Oh, Kenyon eats anything I'm sure. Kenny, this is my Uncle Yusef. He's a great cook."

"What's up my man," her uncle said, dapping him up. "I mean, am I still cool enough to get some dap."

"It's all good," Kenyon replied to him. "I love steak, medium-rare."

"See, my man knows what's up. Jo and Z over here like it like a brick, well done."

Jossie walked into the kitchen, a glass of red wine in her hand, curly hair pulled up in a ponytail, flips flops, jeans, and an off-the-shoulder oversized cream sweater on. She did not look her age of forty-two, she looked her age. She prayed she had those good genes in twenty years.

"Finally Mr. Barnes, I get to spend some time with you."

"Hey Auntie," Kenyon said, hugging her.

She groaned and shook her head. "I told you to stop calling her that!"

"No, it's fine," Jossie said. "Want some wine? You know I like to get started a bit early."

She was not much of a wine drinker, so she barely filled her glass, while Kenyon let Jossie pour him a nice amount.

"I pulled out the good stuff for Kenyon Barnes, the man of mystery," Jossie said. "Zav, stay and help your uncle in the kitchen, I need to chat with Mr. Barnes."

Her aunt alone with Kenyon? Of course, he would charm her, but what was Jossie after? She had access to students' files including grades, applications, any disciplinary actions, and more things than she had access to. Would she get on him about his grades? Would she question the rumors about him sleeping around? Would she ask about his intentions with her?

She breathed and gulped down her little bit of wine.

"Now you know Jo is not going to embarrass you," her uncle said to her, pulling out baked potatoes from the oven. "She actually told me good things about the boy."

"He has a bit of a reputation."

"Didn't we all back in college? I sure did...Jossie still wanted me."

That was nice to hear. After about ten minutes, they came back and Kenyon was smiling. Jossie was on another glass of wine. The food was ready to be served.

"What did she say to you?" she whispered to Kenyon before they sat down.

"Everything is cool babe," he said, kissing her cheek.

"Kenyon, tell me more about yourself, " Jossie asked once they all had their food.

"I'm graduating this year, thanks to Zav."

"Not me! I didn't do a thing."

"Being with you made me want to do better."

That made her heart beat faster and her stomach do a somersault. It was good she was a better influence on him. Good grades came naturally to her, without much studying, and she knew it was harder for others to keep up with her. Kenyon's G.P.A. did not even hit 3.0, but that was just a number his intelligence should not be measured by. His extra year in college helped him to get focused.

"Well, that's good. What about your family? Will they be coming down for graduation and I get to meet them?"

"I'm an only child, my mom passed away and my father is not invited."

Damn. The way he said it had her in her feelings. She wanted to grab him in a hug.

Jossie was not letting him off the hook with that comment. "I don't know you like that boy, but that's your father, he deserves to see his only child graduate."

"Not if he's the reason my mother is gone."

She reached over and grabbed his hand. "Kenny, you don't have to talk about it."

"It's cool. My mom committed suicide because he was having an affair. She loved him that much and when he was going to leave her, she couldn't take it."

No one said anything. What could they say? She opened her mouth to say something but her aunt beat her to it.

"I see why you would blame your father but you know it's not all him. And I know you love your mom, so don't blame her either. But right now your father is all you have."

After that, they talked about current events and news with no one getting too upset about differences in opinions. It was a smooth night and she breathed a sigh of relief as dinner was over and they were ready to leave.

"Now Kenyon, don't keep my girl away from me. You two come visit anytime," Jossie said.

"I got that Auntie, long as you and Unc cook a good meal like this, I'll be over any time."

Kenyon, always the charmer. She was happy everything went well. Now if he could open up more about his family, she would feel even closer to him. His mother committing suicide was a big deal. Kenyon blaming his father, when that's all he had left, probably made him bitter.

And it all happened to him while he was still young.

"Your place or mine?"

"Yours," she smiled as he drove off. "I want to get really loud."

A/N: There's a lot more to Kenyon. I'm slowly putting it all out there.