Page 17 of Finesse
His most recent photo is a shot taken of him in front of his BMW. He’s wearing a simple outfit of a V-neck shirt and jeans, with a pair of sunglasses dangling from his fingers. He looks incredibly hot and his outfit is hugging his body like it was meant for it.
Aside from the picture, it’s the caption that really gets my attention:
Let me touch you with my love.
I repeat the line against my breath and struggle to think of where I’ve heard it before. It’s not new or something he came up with his own. But I have no idea where it could’ve come from. I silently wonder if it was a shout-out to me.
“TAY!”
Hayley’s voice shakes me out of my daydream and I look to see she’d changed into another fit. “Yeah.” I nod.
Hayley shakes her head. “I didn’t even ask a question, dumb-dumb.” She turns back to the mirror and admires a red dress number. “Now how do I look?”
“Yeah.” I reply again and she rolls her eyes. “It’s cute.”
“Are you talking to boo-thang?” Hayley smirks as she admires herself.
“No,” I shake my head as I keep scrolling through his feed. He has the typical pics of sunsets, various dishes I’m assuming his chef made, and the typical white boy things like posing with his friends and watching whatever game on TV. Cameron lives a rather plain and boring life, which is vastly different to who he is in real life. “I’m stalking his IG.”
“Might as well as add him since you’re dating him now.” Hayley shrugs as she looks at herself in the mirror. “Might as well make it official.”
“One date and several phone calls is nothing official.” I counter. “It just means we’re digging each other.”
Hayley stares at me for a long minute and I feel like I’m under Claire Huxtable’s gaze. “Yeah, okay.” She doesn’t believe me and honestly, I don’t believe me, neither.
But I’m not Cameron’s girlfriend and adding him is going to do what? His comments are filled with either girls lusting after him, haters going after his father, or the fellow bros talking about how clean he looks.
Where would I fit? The lusty girl who’s so hot and bothered, she has to dunk her phone in ice? I’m not a fan of Cameron’s father and his politics tells me everything I need to know about how he really feels about black folks.
It makes me wonder why Cameron is so interested in me if he knows how his father really feels? Am I some sort of gotcha back at dear old Dad? Or is Cameron really feeling me?
“If you follow him and it doesn’t work out, just unfollow and unblock.” Hayley shrugs. “I don’t know why you’re making it more than what it really is, Tay.”
Because I’m neurotic and emotional is what I really want to say. I don’t say it because I know Hayley will just agree. Bitch. “I guess you’re right.” I shrug.
“Nah, I know I’m right.” Hayley sits next to me and gawks at my phone. She swipes up and clicks on a few photos. She reads the comments and bristles at some of them. “Are we certain this is the same Cameron we met at the club?”
“We are.” I deadpan. What I’m seeing online and what I know in person seem like two different people. Or is it? I can honestly say I don’t know that much about Cameron. “He’s pretty quiet online, though. He never posts political beliefs. He only talks about his favorite music and engages in playful discussions about his favorite rappers.” I scroll down to another controversial posting he made. “He did say Black Lives Matter when it wasn’t popular to say.”
“With all of those black folks he hangs around, he better be about that life.” Hayley giggles and I follow. “Just follow him, Tay. If he claims you, cool. If not, you know where you stand. Not rocket science, babe.” She leaves to go change.
I stare down at Cameron’s profile for good measure. Why am I so antsy about a simple action? I guess it wouldn’t hurt to follow him. He has so many followers, I doubt he’ll even care.
Swallowing my pride, I press the follow button. Now it’s official. Cameron’s not-quite girlfriend but more than a friend is following him. Am I going to be disappointed when he doesn’t follow me back? How much will I really care now that I’m in my senior year?
A moment later as Hayley was checking out, I received my answer: Cameron followed me back.
~~~~~~
It feels like I’m in a brothel.
I’m in the living room as both bedroom doors are closed. Meadow has someone from her harem in her room, while Hayley is using our shared bedroom to entertain Que. She was showing off the outfits she bought with his money but I’m not a fool. It doesn’t take two hours to go through just six outfits.
I’m in the living room with my headphones on, hoping I quieted out every moan, bed creak, and wall pounding. I don’t even dare to remove them unless I know for certain no one is doing any freak shit.
While my girls are getting their backs blown out to smithereens, I’m in the living room studying for my psychology exam. I doubt I’ll even remember half of this crap once I leave college but it’s good to have. I’ve already diagnosed a few people from a distance but I can’t honestly say if they’re serial-killer crazy or if they just need to lay off the ooh-wee and get some fresh air.
I’m at the point in the book where they’re talking about the difference between a narcissist, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial. It’s weird how all three are semi-connected but they’re all vastly different from each other.
