Situated in the middle of King's Preparatory Academy's expansive campus, this courtyard links all of the academic buildings on the premises. Students
often congregate here between classes. Keep our campus beautiful. No littering.
And life was like a symphony again. The intermission was over, the lights had gone down and the music played just for him. For Koi again. And
honestly, he didn't give a fuck if an overture was playing for anyone else. He heard his own music in every hit, every pull he took from the sweet
melody, wrapped in white composition paper. He was falling in the music, letting all the shit that had just played out leave his mind...almost like it
didn't even happen. Matter of fact, everything just ran together as he leaned against the ivy covered, stone framed windows in the Plaza, letting his
mind slip away with every inhale. It really was all a blur now. The argument, the subsequent fight and the entire hour he'd spent in the
Headmistress's office "talking through the disconnect" and about how he and the girl that had kicked his nuts into his throat could've worked their
problems out without violence. Bullshit. There was nothing to talk about. He hated the psychology bullshit speak. The disconnect? The disconnect was
that he fucking hated every moment of sober existence that he was forced to spend at that goddamned rich kid prison. The disconnect was that his
fucking nuts throbbed and he hadn't heard a thing Headmistress Lahainaluna had discussed during her entire "Heal the fucking World" speech. The
disconnect was that he hated...he hated killing his fucking high. And he was doing that right now.
Bringing the J to his lips, he took another slow drag off of it, letting the thick, white smoke fill his mouth, his throat, his lungs...and he held it
there. Letting it fill him more than any round of psycho babble could. This was his fix. This was the answer to any problem, the fix to any error. And
it worked. Better than any of the shit doctors his parents believed would provide a quick fix to "the problem with their son". No, shit was deeper
than that. The only quick fixes that were guaranteed to work were in sitting in a medicine cabinet. Or in a liquor cabinet...or a wine cellar.
Or...the pocket of some dealer, just looking for fucked up rich kids like Koi. With enough mommy/daddy problems and a wallet full of ends to keep him
in business.
The exhale was almost as good as the inhale. A stream of white coiled in front of Koi's lips, which curled in the corner. There was pleasure on his
lips. And every problem that plagued his life seemed to leave in that thick stream of white, clouded smoke. Nothing was left but the music. And Koi's
nerves forgot they were on edge and danced along to that shit.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. That’s what this whole fucking day was complete and total shit and it seemed never ending. She was skipping
math, having claimed a bathroom break so she could try to make her way to the gates of this God awful place and escape. Fuck. After spending
an hour in the Headmistress’ office with that fucktard who felt like it was o-fucking-kay to put his hands on her, she was pretty much given a slap
on the wrist and told to return to class. Guess that was the life you lived if you had money; where she was from school would have been a distant
memory for the next two weeks and she would spend them getting faded with whoever was willing to miss classes to chill with her. Jesus, she was
homesick.
Sighing she rounded the corner into the plaza hoping that no one patrolled the grounds during class hours. She was pretty sure these pampered princes
and princesses didn’t step out of line too often. Wait...what was that smell? Devyn knew exactly what it was and she was about to make a
new friend. Weed was known to bring people together and on a day like today she definitely had a story she could tell while she smo--FUCK. Her steps
stopped as she came directly upon the source, leaning against one of the windows in the plaza, his lips clearing his lungs of the smoke she so
desperately wished to fill hers. FUCK. This guy. Fuck it. She wasn’t about to say shit to this motherfucker. Friendship was off the table for him
and she knew it, not that she wanted his, she simply wanted a hit...unlike the ones they’d exchanged in the cafeteria.
This day kept getting worse.
I'm taking my time.
I'm doing it right.
Self-Love. Self-Care. Selfish.
He was being watched. And he could feel it. Beyond the daze, Koi knew that there was somebody...there, just watching him get high and probably just
waiting to run off and tell the Headmistress yet another story that would fucking get him in her office for another speech that he gave two shits
about. Blah, blah, blah. That was literally the only thing that he'd heard on their many meetings. Twenty-seven of them since he'd started going to
KPA in the ninth grade. And majority of them, he'd had no fucking clue what they'd even discussed. In the beginning, he'd bullshit her, tell her what
she wanted to hear. How sorry he was. How he'd change. How he'd never do "it" again. Now, he just stared at her and she chose to still waste her
goddamned breath? That was her decision. But he wouldn't. Because he knew the truth. There was no stopping him. The drugs, the pissy "withdrawal"
behavior. The drugs again. It was who he was. And when she gave up the long ass rant about "self-responsibility" and "self worth", maybe she'd see
that too.
But for now, Koi guessed that he was going to have to prepare himself for another sitting full of the "how to's" when it came to being a good KPA
student. Fucking governors. Didn't they have shit to do besides make guest appearances and catch kids doing something other than learning bullshit?
Apparently, they didn't. With a heavy sigh, he took another pull, looking to the side where the footsteps that he'd expected had come from...and then
they'd come to a sudden halt. Oh. Well, what the fuck, irony? The last fucking person that Koi expected to see when he looked up was the girl
from the cafeteria. Honestly, everything was a bit blurry as fuck about that whole ordeal...meaning he couldn't even remember what their argument had
been about. But he did remember the argument...and the punch...and the bullshit admonishment that they'd gotten afterwards. Everything else had been
pushed from his mind and pretty soon...so would the scant details that still lingered in his mind. All that shit had to go...his high needed fifty
fucking feet.
For a moment, a blank stare was all he had for her. Just watching her, waiting for her to make her first fucking move. And while she hesitated to
move, he took the time to look and see what he'd missed before, especially since she wasn't wearing her uniform blazer anymore. She had a cute lil'
shape on her, that was true...if only her eyes weren't stabbing the shit out of him. What the fuck, man. With a J between his fingers and smoke in the
air, it was all love. And maybe that's why she was lingering. Waiting to be invited?
"You gonna stand there all day and stare at a nigga?" Letting more smoke pass over his lips between his question, he watched her, holding out the
joint to her. Hey, if he couldn't remember the shit that went down, that meant that it wasn't that damn serious. Nothing couldn't be fixed over weed.
And that was a proven fucking fact. World peace could've been achieved with some good ass hash.
"Yo, squash the bullshit. I'm offerin' you a peace pipe. Come chief this shit..."
She wasn’t staring or anything. She had just kind of...stalled. Okay, yes. She needed a break and here it was blowing smoke in her face, but it was
with him. Mr. Kidd as they’d continued to call him for an hour, while they informed him about how wrong it was to hit women, yadda, yadda,
yadda. Ugh. The one person. The one person at KPA that she had legit beef with and he was the only person holding? Fuckkkkkk her life. The longer she
stayed though, the less significant the fact that they had just fought became. She was interested in smoking with him, not having his kids...they
could overlook a small misunderstanding to split a J couldn’t they? Sure they could. Peace treaties were signed in the midst of weed smoke. Surely
the two of them could come to a cease-fire over what had essentially been a little squabble over a lunch seat...
She would see, it seemed, his eyes finally finding her. She nodded, silently acknowledging his presence. She knew how he loved that. Was he
still salty about the fight? He’d kinda rushed out of the Headmistress’ office after her speech, and honestly, even if he would have lingered, she
probably wouldn’t have checked to see if he was ready to squash shit. She didn’t care either way. The only reason she cared now was because she
wanted something...needed something. The question was, what was she willing to do for it? Pretending she didn’t have a problem with the kid
if he was willing to pretend the same thing? Hell yes. All she cared about was getting something in her system. Anything to get far away from this
shit storm of a day.
He spoke finally, pulling Devyn from her thoughts, asking if she was just going to stare at him all day. Wouldn’t be the worse punishment she’d
been on the other end of. Sure, they had their differences, but she would be lying to herself if she tried to pretend he wasn’t cute...to say the
absolute least. She bit at her bottom lip, bullshitting like she hadn’t already taken the blunt from him in her mind. Desperate wasn’t a
good look on anybody and she didn’t want him to think that he was doing her any favors...even though she knew she’d owe him. She waited for the
official invite before calmly closing the distance between them. Her eyes watched his as she took the blunt from his fingers and put it to her lips.
The first pull was always magic but, this was different. She hadn’t been high since getting to this prison for the over-privileged and her nerves
had been on end for a week. As she felt the warm caress of the oh so familiar from the inside, she let her eyes fall closed. Fuck, this was good
shit. She moaned a little as she exhaled. Completely appropaite.
This was better than sex.
I'm taking my time.
I'm doing it right.
Self-Love. Self-Care. Selfish.
If he had been any less cloud-bound, maybe Koi would've thought shit through before he extended a hearty ass welcome to join in on the extracurricular
activity he was in the middle of. Not everyone had the same pension for drugging and boozing that he did. Some people actually thought that playing it
straight made for a good time...whatever the fuck that meant. And maybe Ms. Devereaux was one of those types, although something about how she'd honed
in on his nuts kept him from truly believing that assumption. Yeah, he remembered her name. Out of all the things that fuzzed over and blured, he
remembered. At least her last name, as Headmistress kept repeating it over, and over, and over and...she'd talked for so damn long that he'd lost
count of the amount of times. Never a first name though as Lahainaluna had a thing about last names and appropriateness. Koi just thought it was a
fucking crock to be called his father's name on a daily basis. He had a name. And it wasn't half as douchey.
But "uptight" didn't seem to be where this girl was from, her eyes watching him with a look that he knew quite well. Hunger. Koi wasn't too
sure, but he kind of felt like her eyes were catching every tendril of smoke that curled from his lips. She was craving it. Just like he'd been
craving it from the moment he woke up, his brain screaming for another E-fix. Time wasn't allotting for him to even answer it as his dad was in his
face from the moment he brushed his fucking teeth to the moment he escaped out the door, school bound. He couldn't get away from that dude long enough
to INHALE. So intent on protecting his "investment" that he didn't know how to detach himself from Koi's back. And Koi thought sometimes, if he didn't
hate his Pops so much, it would'n't have been a bad thing...
That shit...was about to ruin his goddamn buzz. Thoughts of his father, that was the way to snap him out of any high. Stuffing all of those thoughts
away, he smiled as the girl stepped closer to him, his eyes still watching her as she reached for his J, brought it to her lips and inhaled...moaning
sweetly as she exhaled. And...that...shit...was fucking erotic. Koi's eyes narrowed quickly as he watched her bask in the moment.
"Good right?" With a quick lip bite, he smiled again and watched her take another drag. "Can I get a name? I mean, we're smoking together. Seems
fitting, don't you think?"
She wouldn’t say she had the same pension for drugging. If his use went beyond weed he was doing more than she did. She’d seen what drug did to a
person. It was the reason her mom was in rehab; it was the reason her father was able to pay bills. Devyn would admit to being a smoker and she’d
been drunk on more occasions than she could remember, literally but, drugs, hard shit...that wasn’t her game. She knew hard shit beyond the
initial euphoria that was the high. She even knew what lied beyond the crash and there wasn’t any good in that...Her steady climb up was beginning
to slow as she thought of her home situation. Hilton had a way of fucking ruining everything...especially a high. She remembered him catching
her the first time she’d been high. Considering his profession, you would think he’d be a little more understanding of her getting home at 4 in
the morning with eyes as red as the devil’s dick. He was not. He pretended to be a father and yelled at her for a fucking hour and a half about how
she would not be out at all hours of the night slutting it up for whoever said some sweet shit to her. She wasn’t. She was slutting it up
for the nigga who gave her the sweet shit. Obviously. But that relationship ended when his supply got like his sex game. Weak.
Point was, weed didn’t mistreat her after she was finished with it...so she kept going back and this time was no different. Her lips taking the
blunt again as she took another pull and held it, passing the J back to the kid. Good right? Understatement. Second drag and she already knew
how high was high enough? This was perfection. He asked for her name as she exhaled slow, pulling the smoke back in before it could dissipate. She
held the smoke as she studied her new friend. He hadn’t heard her name enough in the last hour? He wanted to be more familiar than a last name with
the girl responsible for his possible sterility? Yeah. She could give him that. It wasn’t like she liked being identified with her father’s brand
anyway.
“Good is a disrespectful adjective for what this is, love-, ” she said on exhale. She smiled a little, leaning against the wall beside him. She
stared out as she answered his second question, “I’m Devyn. I’m sure you know my last name, Headmistress repeated it like we were having
sex-,” she joked a little, looking back at him.
“You?”
I'm taking my time.
I'm doing it right.
Self-Love. Self-Care. Selfish.
Good was disrespectful? Really? Apparently she hadn't seen good yet. Nothing was weak about the shit he'd copped from one of his boys as soon
as his foot hit campus. It got the job done...and it got it done well, but weed was, by far, not the only drug of choice for Koi. He gave the
respect to the almighty chronic that it was due. His first taste of it at eleven had been enough...for awhile. But the highs got weaker, lows came
quicker. He started to need more. Weed opened that gate for him. It was the key. And as soon as that gate was opened, there was no going back. Nothing
felt like it did when he first started his journey of chemical elevation. And he did the only thing he could do...keep moving forward. Every now and
then, he didn't mind reminiscing too much, letting that sweet, thick smoke remind him of the past. Remind him of the moment when he finally found the
one thing that made all of the bullshit, the confusion, the crying, the screaming stop. It all disappeared.
Waiting patiently for her answer, Koi watched her handle the hazy smoke, inhaling it back in. Ha. Hurling the haze like a motherfuckin' pro.
As she studied him, he stared back at her, hazel eyes fastened to hers. What, did she have to think of a name? Or was she trying to figure out whether
she really wanted to give it to him. Hey, it wasn't that serious. Just a question. If she didn't want to give it to him, that was cool too. She was
getting what she wanted and he was too high to push the matter. Taking the J from her and taking another pull from it, he nodded as she finally gave
him a name. See? That wasn't so damn hard.
"You can't really blame her though..." Smiling, he chuckled at her joke about the Headmistress. Yeah, he had her last name down without much effort,
the repetition of it wearing it into his brain so fucking deep that his high couldn't even get rid of it. "Devereaux" was a fucking wrinkle on that
shit now. Though with a name like hers, it wasn't easy to forget. And it made her sound like some old Hollywood starlet or something. On the silver
screen. Only thing was...he couldn't imagine her without color. Her skin was too damn smooth chocolate for a black and white screen. Shit wouldn't
have done her justice...at all.
"Devyn Devereaux? Kind a rolls off the tongue." Fuck yeah. She...and her name could roll off his tongue...any day. "Koi." He said his name
simply, smoke trailing from his nostrils, his eyes floating downward, past her eyes, as she drew near him, leaning against the wall beside him.
Koi. That was interesting. Fitting kind of. It wasn’t mainstream. Ha. His hipster looking ass probably would have liked to hear that shit.
His name suited him, different from all of the kids she’d met in this place so far. From what she could tell Koi wasn’t any more content on being
held captive in this hell hole than she was. And he found his escape the same way she did, apparently. She wasn’t as blatant with
her...extra-curricular activities though. She had never smoked on campus before, and in her minor desperation to have something in her system
she hadn’t thought twice about it this time. If they were caught, she was pretty positive this infraction would end in more than a slap on the
wrist. But who would tell? Anyone with an interest in snitching was probably in class...and she couldn’t really bring herself to care either way.
She felt her entire body relax as she kind of melted into the wall. God, she felt good. And she had Koi to thank. Interesting how two people
could go from fist fights to friendships in a matter of minutes. And even faster when kush was involved. She couldn’t lie, she had still been a
little salty going into the math class that had now become a distant memory. He had really squabbled with her over a seat at lunch? She knew she would
have to hear that shit from her aunt when she got home. But that was fine too. Hell. Everything was fine with the way she was feeling right about now.
“Koi Kidd, huh...it fits-,” she said slowly. She wouldn’t bother to explain, things tended to get a little long winded when she got high.
Besides there were more interesting things they could talk about. It seemed he needed something else to get his attention, now that her chest had
become a bit of a fixation. “Never thought I’d find a kid here interested in cheifing. Only papers I’ve seen so far were for grades. Not
rolling.” Devyn wondered if he knew where this conversation was going. She was definitely trying to get set up with whoever gave him this shit and
she would say what needed to be said to make it happen.
“How long you been sparking?”
I'm taking my time.
I'm doing it right.
Self-Love. Self-Care. Selfish.
With weed in his system the way it was, the truth was undeniable. Devyn could get it. And Koi's brain was stuck, his eyes giving her body
what should've been a once over, a full fucking review. There was a definite appeal to her. She was fly, no doubt about that shit. Even under that
"regulation length" knee skirt and that over-starched uniform blouse, he could still tell. Girls that looked like her didn't frequent KPA too
often...scratch that, they didn't frequent KPA at all. King's Prep girls were on that "I'll just eat a grape for lunch and throw up my feelings" type
shit. And, no mistaking that shit, Koi still fucked. Hell yeah, he smashed. No doubt. But there was something about a girl that curved like a fucking
coca-cola bottle that did it for him. Tiny waist, hips for days, breasts looking full of silicon, although he knew there was nothing fake about them?
You didn't luck up on bodies like Devyn's. Maybe in Detroit, that shit was commonplace. But definitely not in Hawaii.
"Yeah..." Another short reply as his mind was caught up in her shirt, the groove of her chest pulling him in more that he was sure his hazed mind
could fucking handle. Yeah, yeah his name was unique. He'd heard that all his life. He never really asked where it came from. He was half-Japanese,
his mother liked Koi fish. Boom. Story behind his name...done. Was he thinking about falling into some deep soliloquy about his name? No. Was he more
interested in daydreaming about a good, long t-fuck session with the miraculous set in Devyn's shirt? Yes. Did he think that she saw him staring at
her tits. Probably. Did he care? Fuck no. Biting his lip, he rubbed his blond, short cut hair with his free hand so he could get a better view into
her shirt. Yeeeah...hell ye-what? Oh, she was talking? Hesitantly, he looked away from her chest and found her eyes. With a slow laugh, he
took a drag again, smiling at Devyn's assumption.
"Yeah, you're at a stuffy ass private school." With a short exhale, he leaned back against the wall again. "We've gotta smoke, snort or shoot
something to survive this bullshit." The truth was that on KPA's campus, drugs changed hands more than they did in the fucking ghetto. Every kid had
their own little habit, some more serious than others. Some kept it a dirty little secret. And some didn't give a fuck, doing it out in the open for
all to see. That was Koi. He didn't hide behind walls of smoke and lies. He did enough of that shit when he left the campus every day and headed
home.
"Five years last month..." With a smile, he looked at the J in between his fingers, took a deep pull from it. "Happy Anniversary..." He muttered
before he exhaled, licking his lips as he passed it back to Devyn.
Come on, seriously? Devyn was almost positive he wasn’t listening to a thing she was saying. She was watching him basically undress her with his
eyes..and he would have known he was being watched if his eyes were actually on her face. Typical. Honestly, she was used to it, the roaming eyes of
boys who had yet to get to know her. Hell back home, all it took was knowing her last name and guys were sure to keep their eyes above the fucking
forehead. Except of course the brave ones that dared to do anything that might be considered disrespectful to her father. Fuck him. His opinion
didn’t matter when it came to who she chilled with. Of course, she’d learned the hard way that no matter how much she wanted that to be true, it
wasn’t. She’d lost her virginity to the first boy to pretend he didn’t give a fuck what the almighty “Leonidas” said, only to find out he
just wanted an in to the game.She hated being played. More than that she hated being used...Her father knew that better than anyone, now.
But there was no chance of this kid being interested in working for her father. From the sound of things, after he finally found her face again,
he’d be more interested in buying from him. Was it really that bad at KPA? Why? What could these self-indulged over achievers have to complain
about? He’d used the word survive, but from the looks of things, these kids were doing better than just surviving. Sure, she didn’t have much room
to talk; she was from Lithonia. She hadn’t lived a ridiculously hard life either...not financially anyway, but she knew these cute little rich
kids’ problems weren’t anything like her’s. Their parents probably had legit gigs. Hell, they probably had two functioning parents...
Ugh. This shit was fucking killing her buzz. She sighed before her reply, “I don’t know about snorting and shooting, but smoking I can
understand-,” she said taking the blunt back from him. Five years huh? He was a vet. She nodded, toking before speaking, the smoke still filling her
lungs leaving her voice hoarse, “You’ve got two years on me-,” she admitted. It wasn’t as if it was something to be ashamed of, just fact. She
exhaled finally, a slow blink leaving her lids a little heavier than they had been. Mm. She was high. And that was perfectly alright. How many classes
did she have left today? One? Did it matter? She probably wasn’t going. Especially if Koi knew a way off this mountain and back into the city. This
place being surrounded by an iron fence with gates that didn’t open until the end of the school day made this place even more
prison-like...Shit. Why was this shit so good?...She took another hit off the quickly dwindling blunt before passing it back to him to
finish. That was fine too. She was high enough to make it through the rest of the day that she no longer considered to be shit.
“So class is definitely not an option for me anymore...-,” she began softly, a smile on her lips at the thought. “It wouldn’t be too far of a
stretch to assume you knew a way past the gates, now would it?”
I'm taking my time.
I'm doing it right.
Self-Love. Self-Care. Selfish.
Smoke, snort, shoot. The three were like the King's Prep version of "Rock, Paper, Scissors", just a whole hell of a lot more satisfying. The
drug game was no joke inside the gates of what was supposed to be some kind of sanctuary for the progeny of the rich and famous. A Bastille disguised
as a safe haven, on top of a mountain, meant to protect the well being of every kid born with a fucking silver gag in his mouth. It was complete
bullshit and Koi knew that better than anyone. Because no matter how much every wealthy parent tried to keep their little darling away from the
horrors and the cruelty of the world that they were just rich enough to avoid, it still crept in. It always found a way. KPA was irony in building
form. Nothing protected you from a world that you could find your damn self. And Koi had found it. He'd found it in the walls of his home, in the
halls of KPA, in the recess of his own fucking, warped ass mind. And the only possibility there was freeing himself from any of it was to either drown
underneath it or fly above it. It didn't take him from him to say "fuck you" to the low and choose the "high".
His high was was the only thing that muddled out the bullshit of his life and made it nonexistent. The high made his life what everyone on the outside
thought the shit should be. Easy. Sober, his life was anything but that. It wore the costume of some fantasy life with money solving every problem, a
father that loved his family more than his own fucking dick, and a mother that loved her kids...instead of resenting them. That was the reality of the
"good life". What life Kanye had been talking about, Koi didn't fucking know. All that fucking glitter looking like gold. One thing Koi could be
grateful for, the good life taught you how to tell pyrite from real gold.
"I can tell..." Koi answered her, remembering how easily she'd taken the smoke from her first hit. She wasn't a beginner, that was a fact he was sure
of. And she'd been smoking two years short of him? Three years...he could feel that. Koi liked hanging with people that lived life like he did. He
learned what he could from every single one of them, about elevation...always trying to reach that new level as his appetite was never really
fulfilled. He was never full. And looking at Devyn, he wondered what else she could give him, what he could learn from her. He definitely had a few
things that he wanted to teach her...
Class? Yeah, fuck class. Koi hadn't even thought about returning to anyone's classroom that evening as he'd had enough of KPA for the day and there
was honestly nothing inside of him that wanted to hear yet another authoritative voice, fucking up his high. Smiling at her assumption, he turned and
looked at her, a pregnant pause as his body followed his face, leaving the wall as he leaned against the brick on his side. "It really isn't that
hard. Those iron bars-I mean...gates are for fucking show." Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out the rest of the stash he'd gotten
from his boy earlier in the day, the tiny plastic bag nearly empty. With his free hand, he took Devyn's, placing the bag in her palm.
"That's the only "way" you need. That'll get you past the flashlight cops that watch the gate. Im'ma stick around until school's out, though. Got a
kick back at my place this weekend and I still need to get the word out..." Yeah, he dropped a bit of bait. Maybe Devyn would take a bite?
Yeah, she wasn’t for spending too much more time on campus...for a couple different reasons. The most obvious being that she fucking hated this
place, the second being what this shit was doing to her system. The high always made her happy, hungry, and horny and there was one of them in
particular that she was willing to have Koi help her with. Seeing as how letting him scratch that itch would make her a little bit of a whore, she
needed to get away from him. She wasn’t inviting, she was just asking for a way out. He had already been so generous with one, surely he could help
her out with another? She wondered exactly how long his...generosity went...Mm.
A smirk took her lips as he turned to face her fully, an answer to her question at the ready. Her eyes followed his hand as it reached into his back
pocket, and produced the remnants of the heaven they’d just smoked. Bribery? It was that simple? Hm. She licked her lips on instinct as he took her
hand, placing the small bag into her palm. God she wanted him to touch her in so many different places. Places much more entertaining than her hand.
Places they could--what? A kickback?
“Oh so a party type thing-,” she smiled a little. He wasn’t slick. At all. This was an invite but he wanted her to ask for it. Games...she was
an expert at all of them. Leaning away from the wall as he had she stepped closer to him, her chest mere centimeters from his as she spoke quietly.
“At your place...” she bit her lip as her fingers wrapped around his tie, gently pulling his face closer to hers.
“That could be a lot more fun than you think...”
I'm taking my time.
I'm doing it right.
Self-Love. Self-Care. Selfish.
A kickback? Okay, maybe that was an understatement as kickbacks were usually a couple of people, close friends, coming over to hang out. An order of
Thai food, couple of drinks, some weed...straight chillin'. The shit that Koi put on every weekend his parents were away (which was more often than
not) was no where near a kickback. That shit was one word. Crazy. Drinks everywhere, people in his house that he'd never set eyes on before
in his damn life, more coke than even Tony Montana's desk saw, pussy galore and mother fucking fun. And more times than not, they got way
insane. But they were the break from his life that he needed, no doubt. And as soon as his Mom cleared out on some random ass charity event and he
dropped his sister off at her nanny's house, it was on. Usually the kids at KPA that still gave a fuck what people thought steered clear of Koi's
parties as they carried a bit of a reputation and if you were spotted, your reputation (if it was a good one to start with) was pretty much shot. But
Koi gave less than a fuck. Anyone that cared about pretenses probably didn't need to be there anyway...
"A party type thing..." Koi repeated, nodding at her comment. But in reality, it was so much more than a "party type thing". It was a fucking
experience. One that Koi was so sure that she wouldn't want to miss. And he didn't want her to miss it either. Something told him that Devyn
enjoyed the finer things in life..."finer" meaning a good party, a good toke and a good fuck. And he could give her three out of three...which were
pretty good statistics, if he could say so himself. "I think you'll like it tho-..." Slowly, his words came to a halt as he watched her take a few
steps closer to him, her body nearly touching his.
"At my place..." His voice had lowered too as he watched her bite her lip, her fingers wrapped around his tie, pulling his face closer to hers.
"Yeah." He couldn't help but narrow his eyes at their sudden closeness. Shit. And he wanted to put his damn hands on her, right there. He
looked down at her, his teeth catching his lip as she told him that he might have more fun than he expected. No, he expected fun...and lots of it if
she came through. Devyn looked like she wrote the instruction manual on "fun" and really, Koi was more than interested in seeing just how much she
knew...
"Does that mean that you're coming through?" He asked slowly, his eyes still on her face as he pulled his body a little closer to her. Putting the
last of the J they'd shared to his lips and drawing that last of that sweetness into his mouth, he smiled and threw the leftover to the ground, only
taking his eyes off of her long enough to snuff it out with his shoe. His eyes came to her again as he blew the smoke out, his face turning away from
her, directing the smoke to the side. But his eyes...never left her.
Somehow she couldn’t picture anything about this kid relating to the word “kickback”. She’d thrown kickbacks; a few friends, drinks, weed,
food and a personal after-party with the guy of her choice? That was a kickback. Somehow, she got the idea that Koi’s party would be just
that. A blowout. He didn’t seem like he did anything small...and that was something that she was willing to confess that she was a little pressed to
see. She would definitely be at his little “kickback” and she would be the baddest bitch in the spot...If they got along like they were now, maybe
she would let him scratch the itch that was getting stronger and stronger the closer they got. Fuck. He was fine...
And as his voice got low to match the mood she was setting, she wanted nothing more than to show him just how fine. Damn...Yeah. She’d be there. Of
course she wouldn’t tell him that. Devyn would settle for making him sweat the only way available to her right now, the chase. She licked her lips a
little as Koi finished the J in her face before tossing the roach. Does that mean you’re coming through? “Maybe-,” she said slowly, her
eyes staying on his. She wondered if he could see the lust written all over her face; because she could definitely see it all over his. It was looking
more and more like the after party to his “kickback” would be more fun than the kickback itself. Of course that all depended on how the party
went. From the way he made it sound though, she wouldn’t regret it.
“Guess we’ll see then won’t we?” She released his tie, taking a step back and putting space between them again. “Text me the address?”
I'm taking my time.
I'm doing it right.
Self-Love. Self-Care. Selfish.
Maybe. Oh, okay. Maybe she'd be there? Yeah, Koi wasn't happy with maybe. But considering how they'd started, him getting his shit kicked
in..."maybe" was better than a "fuck off" any day. He'd take that "maybe" and hope that it would turn into something else...more definite. Especially
with her getting "familiar" the way she was. It was a nice change from the death stare he'd gotten from her when she found out it was him behind the
smell of kush in the air. And the actual death threat that he was starting to remember again. One that, oddly...he believed. And even more odd, now
that he thought about it...that shit turned him the fuck on. All it had taken was sharing and she'd loosened up quite nicely. Friendship was
on the horizon and maybe...a little more than that? Yeah, Koi could've kissed that bitch, Mary Jane. She was always a peacemaker and she could cut
through any beef.
"I guess we will." Hands finding his pockets to keep from grabbing her around the waist and closing the distance she was making between them, Koi
smirked at her and pulled out his phone when she asked for his address, firing off his number and taking hers in return.
“I’m just telling you man, one of the best parties ever thrown-,” was he bragging a little? Yeah, but why shouldn’t he? He had pulled off one
bad ass “Thirsty Thursday” house party and it was news to be shared. “I’m talking wall to wall ass and bud not ever you would’ve been ready
for.” Derrick laughed a bit as he finally refocused on Koi, who was still watching his phone for a text. Typical. Even when she wasn’t here all
his boy could think about was the girl that refused to give him any play. Koi had been up Devyn’s ass for almost two years now and they were still
on homie status. Friendzone didn’t even begin to describe it and it was almost sad how caught up the Kidd was.
“Damn, bruh, relax. You know she’ll hit you when when she’s free. She can’t be without her side kick for too long.” Derrick laughed a little
at his own joke as he took a swig of his Naked and shook his head. Ole girl had him whipped and there wasn’t even a reason yet...of course he
couldn’t be sure of that. From jump Koi and Dev had had a thing. Hell, they half fucked the first night Derrick met her. How Koi had fucked that up
was beyond him, but he couldn’t say he was disappointed about it. In all honesty, Koi didn’t deserve Devyn.
Don’t get it wrong, the Kidd could be a good guy or whatever. He was cool to party with for damn sure, but Koi was a fuck up. And he could be
selfish. And he sure as hell wouldn’t ever have love for the chicks he ran through. Devyn was a different type of girl than Koi usually pulled. She
was quality. And quality deserved an equally quality type dude beside her. She knew that. Derrick knew that. Question was, how long until she figured
out that the quality type dude she needed to try was him.
Where. The fuck. WAS she? That was the question that Koi had been asking himself about Devyn for an entire week. An entire week. Not
that Devyn was really missing. She'd been around, he guessed. The friends that the shared had seen her around campus. And when Koi asked around, her
teammates said she'd been at practice. And he actually didn't have to hear it from other people's mouths because he saw her...in passing. Which was
pretty fucked up to say considering she was his Chem lab partner. So, she'd been around. She'd just been...distant. And avoiding him.
It hadn't started that way. Everything was good after his mother's gala. After their moment in the hotel bathroom...and the elevator...and all over
the presidential penthouse. Damn After all of that? If they were connected at the hip before, he didn't know what to call it now. They were
inseparable. Tighter than thieves. And then, out of the fucking blue...everything just stopped. Got madd silent. Dodged text messages.
Forwarded to voicemail calls. It was almost like when she saw him, she took off running in the opposite direction...until she couldn't avoid him and
they were on that small talk trip like...shit. Like...hell, he didn't know. He knew one thing, though. He didn't like it. The switch up.
Without an explanation. Without...
Damn, bruh, relax.... Looking up from the screen of his cellphone, he focused on Derrick's smirking face, his eyebrows furrowing with the
frown that his boy's comments brought. He was relaxed! He was fucking fine. Just because he'd checked his phone for ONE returned text message to the
twenty he'd sent that day alone.
"I am relaxed...bruh." Koi answered, dropping his phone on the bench where he and Derrick sat, shooting the shit...Derrick doing more shit
shooting that Koi. Although Koi couldn't really say he'd been listening too hard as he had Devyn on the brain. But between thoughts, he'd heard the
"fine bitches" and "best party ever" that Derrick been dropping during the entire conversation and Koi had gotten the gist of the convo. Same shit,
different day. Derrick was his boy, he couldn't lie...the conversation barely changed. But Koi guessed his friends had their things. Dhonny had his
"uplifting, pure living" shit. Miyu was the queen of sarcastic ass, opinionated truth. And Derrick talked about himself like the shit was going out of
style. The only thing he talked about more than his shit was Koi's shit. Koi had to admit, flattery was that real shit, though.
"Devyn?" Koi asked at Derrick's question, knowing who the hell his boy was obviously talking about.
"I don't know, nigga! She look like she's in my front pocket?" With a chuckle, he picked up his phone again, flipping it playfully in his hand while
he snuck a look at the screen again.
“You lying like shit-,” Derrick laughed. Koi was tense as shit and the both of them knew why. Devyn hadn’t talked to him in the last 20 minutes
and he was fiending. Shit was weird. Derrick had been hanging with Koi for a few years now and he’d never seen him like he was with Devyn. If he
didn’t know him any better, he might of thought the kid caught feelings...but he did know him better and he knew that shit was false. He guessed
this was just the kid trying to get good that wasn’t as easy as the rest of it he got. Which was something else that turned Derrick on about Dev.
She wasn’t for sale and she wasn’t opening her legs for a nigga with a silver tongue. She was...a good girl. Don’t get it twisted, Derrick knew
the girl wasn’t no saint. He’d seen her get wild at a party or too, but he’d also seen her pop off when she felt disrespected. She wasn’t
public property. Shit was sexy and Derrick often found himself wondering if she’d still be that good girl when he got her behind a locked door.
Derrick gave the Kidd a skeptical stare, his eyebrow raising as Koi asked who he was asking about; knowing damn well who he meant. His response came
soon after, an answer Derrick hadn’t been expected. He didn’t know? Ha. They must’ve been fighting again. Not the the shit was out of the
ordinary.
“You don’t know?” Derrick laughed a bit again. “Aw, man, what you fuck up this time?”
How'd he fuck up this time? That was the thousand dollar question, right? Usually, Koi knew what was up. A dumb comment. A stupid move. A disagreement
about whether they're watching basketball or "Basketball Wives". The usual. But this? Not knowing what the hell he did and why he was getting punished
for it? This was new. New and uncomfortable. Too fucking tight pants uncomfortable. And Koi was quickly getting over it faster than dick chafe.
Especially now that Derrick was getting a kick out of it. Not a good look on Koi's part. It pissed him off when Dhonny had the upper hand in a
situation. But when Derrick had it? It made Koi's whole life feel like a fail. Not that he felt any particular way about his boy...but Derrick lived
on coattails. He rode those shits like they were a fuckin' Lambo. Koi was use to being the excitement in Derrick's life...not the punchline in his
jokes.
"Nothing. There's your answer." Koi laughed, smirking at the assumption (which most times was correct) that whenever he and Devyn weren't together, he
was the culprit. Okay, maybe it wasn't too much of an assumption. But he wasn't admitting that to Derrick.
"Can't I just be 'here' and she be 'there'? Why's it got to be all that?" Koi could answer his own question. Because it was. Lately it was,
anyway. They hung heavy. And Koi usually wasn't apologetic about it...until his friends started in with the questions like they belonged to each other
or some shit. And they didn't...belong to each other.
"Just drink your fucking drink. Askin' all these damn questions..." With another laugh, Koi put his phone in his back pocket and slouched lower on the
bench.
And he was still lying. Koi knew he’d fucked up something. Devyn didn’t play his stupid shit like other girls did and when she got tired of him,
she cut him off. Like water. Sadly Dev got thirsty every now and again and let him back in. Not that she had to. Derrick had tried to explain that to
her more than once. When she and Koi had fallen out for that year. Derrick was there for her. Dhonny was forever blocking, but Dev knew she
had options. Why she wasn’t saving herself the heartache and trying something different was beyond him. But, hey...females.
“You can be here and she can be there.” Derrick smiled a little, “Although we both know where I’d like to have her.” He laughed, taking
another swig of his Naked just as Koi told him to sip and shut up. Aww, was somebody a little sensitive today? This bitch shit was was too different a
look for Koi. He didn’t like it. The kid should have fucked and moved on by now. But for some reason he hadn’t and he was still hanging around.
Derrick knew what had happened between them that first night at Koi’s party. He was so close to getting in it, but he fucked p and chose some random
Becky over the baddest bitch Derrick had seen in a minute. Mind you Koi was a good friend and shared the Becky, but he would have rathered Dev slowed
down when he tried to catch her on the way out. He would have preferred Dev just giving him a minute to let her know what Koi was offering wasn’t
shit compared to what he was ready to do for her that night...But she wasn’t trying to hear it. Not after the Kidd’s colossal fuck up. And here
they found themselves again apparently. Koi chasing ass he kept chasing away.
“Kid if I didn’t know any better, I’d say Dev was making you soft, bruh.”
Although we both know where I'd like to have her. Where Derrick would like to have Devyn? He meant out of his fucking dreams, right? Because
that was the only... Koi forced a chuckle, changing the dark glare that had settled in his eyes before Derrick saw it. Though he could barely laugh at
Derrick's comment, his boy didn't have a chance at Devyn. She proved that the first night, dismissing Derrick for the better option. And even though
that night hadn't turned out in his favor, everything else had. Devyn still kicked it with him, was his ride or die, and gave a nigga the good without
titles. Koi was fucking winning. And the best part? Everyone didn't need to know. Not Derrick. Not Dhonny. No one. Koi liked it that way. Quiet. Just
he and his bae in their business. Which was why he couldn't hate on Derrick for reckless ass comments like the one he'd just made. He didn't know any
fucking better. Because if he did, he'd watch his fucking mouth when it came to Devyn...
"Me and you both, bruh." He half-heartedly agreed, silently hoping that the conversation strayed from Devyn, especially when Koi was obviously being
ignored and avoided. But once again, the conversation found its way back to her, Derrick calling her name and saying Koi was...what the fuck?
"Soft...?" Koi's brows arched as he turned to face Derrick. The fuck was he talking about? Soft? How the hell had Devyn even come close to making him
"soft". Okay, so maybe they spent a shit load of time together, but that was because Devyn was his chick homie. She was the first and closest thing to
Koi having a best friend with a vagina. She knew almost everything about him, sometimes he talked to her about shit that he wouldn't think about
telling Dhonny. She smoked with him, rolled blunts with the best of them, she was down as fuck. Koi couldn't ask for more in a real friend. Shit, it
was more than Derrick had ever done for his ass. And that made him soft?
"...the fuck am I soft, yo?" He needed a damn answer because right now, his boys words were brimming on offensive. "Soft" was that shit that you
didn't use when it came to a dude. It meant "bitchmade" in Koi's book and that had never been synonymous with his damn name.
Yes, soft. Koi had somehow gotten himself pussy whipped without so much as touching it. Shit was sad. Especially for it to happen to “the great Koi
Kidd”. Koi used to get ass Derrick only dreamed about. KPA, AJW, and KRU’s finest. FINEST. Now? He was so far up Devyn’s ass, Derrick
wasn’t sure he was even fucking anybody. He was caught the fuck up. SOFT. It wasn’t a secret. All of KPA knew how sweet he was on Dev. They could
see it. Especially after he literally begged her to be his date to his mom’s gala? He was whipped and it was old news.
So hearing it from Derrick now shouldn’t have been a surprise. But it was it seemed, Koi’s brows arching as he looked at Derrick square in his
face. Was this nigga confused? He couldn’t be...Ha. Derrick might have laughed if Koi wasn’t eyeing him like his next words were life and death.
But really? Derrick had to spell it out? Okay.
“How are you soft? Well let’s start at the top of the list. The only time me and the guys ever see you now is at practice and class. Which you go
to way more than you used to, by the way.” Derrick gave a playful punch to Koi’s shoulder as he continued. “I don’t remember the last time we
shot the shit like this without Dev attached to your hip and we all remember you begging Dev to go with you to your mom’s
thing….Need I go on?”
Derrick laughed a bit more because honestly, he had more. So much more. The Kidd was whipped and he would know it before Derrick was done. “I’m
just saying-,” Derrick shrugged, his hands going up in mock surrender, “You not the same dude you were.”
Listening to Derrick spout off the "Why Koi Kidd's Ass is a Pussy" list was less than desirable, especially when most of the shit he was saying was
fact, not the bunch of biased "I think" opinions Koi had been expecting. That didn't make anything that he was saying any better. It kind of made it
worse. But shit wasn't all that fucking awful when Koi heard the basis for Derrick's argument. He understood what things "looked like" and he knew
people's mouths were running with everything that Derrick told him. But like Koi had told Devyn, "fuck 'em". What was going on between he and Devyn
could keep being an unsolved mystery. He didn't care. He liked what they had. He liked that he could keep something to himself instead of putting on a
fucking show for everyone to watch. He wasn't entertainment. He wasn't there for any motherfucker's enjoyment, either. But he didn't get how any of
that made him "soft".
"Okay?" He said, shrugging, his face showing the annoyance he felt at having his boy bring this bullshit to him. He knew Derrick felt like he had a
point, but that point was void as fuck. It didn't matter if shit changed with his social rotation. So he hadn't seen the team outside of practice and
school. Big damn deal. Most of the time, he was bumpin' heads with most of those niggas anyway. The point was Koi hadn't fucking changed just because
he was hanging with a different crowd. He found something in Devyn that his team and Derrick didn't give...and he wasn't talking about the bomb "top"
she'd mastered giving in under a week. Koi taught her. Either way, he was still mother fuckin' Koi Kidd. He killed on the court. Parties were
dead until he revived the mother fuckers. And when it came to pussy...if he was interested in "new"? It wasn't difficult to find. Same nigga...
"So you're saying...because I'm not up you and the team's asses...I'm soft?" He asked, leaning away from Derrick in fake disgust. "That's kinda...gay,
though." Laughing, he shook his head.
Was it “okay” though? Derrick was trying to be a friend here. He was trying to let his boy know exactly what was being said about him when he
wasn’t around, because he was sure, if the kid heard half of what his image had become, he wouldn’t have been shrugging it off. Derrick wasn’t
the only who under the impression that Koi was losing a lot of his edge by chasing behind Devyn like he was. And as much as the Kidd liked to pretend
he didn’t give a shit what anybody else thought of him, Derrick knew different. Why else did he throw those ridiculous ass parties? Why else was he
so bent on staying KPA’s star point guard? Other than making daddy proud of course...had to be hard living in Shemar Kidd’s shadow though, so
Derrick didn’t fault him for that. But to be honest, even the Kidd’s game was starting to suffer because of Devyn.
So you’re saying…Nah, he wasn’t saying that at all. Koi had never been all that attached to most of the dudes on the team anyway; hell,
half of them were glad the nigga was MIA, but that didn’t change fact. “Whatever, nigga. What I’m saying is, you not the same as you were now
that you got a girl and everything.”
Derrick paused, looking at Koi for a reaction to what he’d just put on the table. Was Dev his girl? It was the question on most of KPA’s mind. And
if he was being totally honest with himself, Derrick was more than curious too. In all the time Derrick had known him, Koi had never titled a female.
Hell, they weren’t usually around long enough for him to even remember a name. That made Devyn different. Derrick had had a few of Koi’s sloppy
seconds and vice versa and it had never been an issue before, but Dev being his…girlfriend made things a hell of a lot different. And
changed more shit than Derrick wanted to think about. Especially with varsity volleyball’s date auction coming up. Derrick wanted to know for a
fact there wouldn’t be shit Koi could say when he got this date with Dev.
![[*]](images/davis/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
