"That's the last time I ever let your ass pick the movie we go see," Derrick complains, waiting patiently outside his girlfriend's front door.

Maya sucks her teeth, "That movie was good Derrick." 

"No, that movie was a waste of $25," he shoots back, earning a harsh look from Maya before she manages to unlock the door, letting them both in. 

"Fine," she sighs, immediately kicking off her heels. "Next time you can pick the movie." 

"Good," Derrick smiles broadly, walking in the kitchen and pulling out a bottle of water. "Where's Kay?"

Maya shrugs nonchalantly, "Beats me." She lies easily, pulling her hair into a high ponytail. "Probably out shopping." 

With Xavier, she thinks bitterly. 

"So," Derrick starts, sauntering over to his leggy girlfriend. "We have the place to ourselves?" 

Maya smirks up at the point guard, "I guess so."

"Hmmm," he looks up at the ceiling. "What on earth can we do to fill the time?" 

"I'm glad you asked," Maya teases, grabbing his hand and leading him toward her room. She stops in front of the door and turns around to look up at him, "You ready for this Mr. Rose?"

"I don't know," Derrick bites his lip, playing with the hem of Maya's shirt. "Open up this door and let's find out."

She grins, "You asked for it." Turning back around, she slowly opens the door and steps to the side for Derrick to enter."

He stops in the middle of the doorway, "What the fuck Maya?!" 

Her room is a mess. Clothes, fabrics, sketches, textbooks, folders, and much more are spread all over the place. It soon becomes clear to Derrick that she was in the middle of studying/working when he surprised her with tickets to a movie she had been dying to see.

"You said you were willing to help," she says, clearly not willing to let him back out.

"No," he shakes his head. "I said 'Let's find out'."

"Exactly," she nods in agreement. "Now let's find out how good you are with Human Anatomy & Physiology."

"I want your anatomy," Derrick practically whines earning an exasperated sigh from his girlfriend.

"Finals are coming up Derrick and aside from my study session tonight with Kay, I need all the help I can get." She explains, walking over to her closet, clearly looking around for something. 

"But-"

"Less talking. More working." She 'sings.' "Can you look on my desk for my notebook?"

Derrick looks over at the 25+ spiral notebooks located on her desk, "You wanna narrow that down a bit?"

She glances at the desk and rolls her eyes, "It's the one with colorful polk-a-dots babe."

Derrick shakes his head, mentally cursing, as he drags his legs over by the messy desk. Moving around objects, he locates the notebook and grabs it when an item on her adjacent dresser catches his eye. 

"I'm actually glad you're here Derrick," he hears Maya exclaim from the closet.

"Oh really?" He questions, dropping the notebook and picking up the object.

"Yeah, there's something I wanted to ask, and tell you, I guess." She chuckles nervously, finally finding the textbook she was looking for. "Got it!" Walking out, she flips through the pages. "I'm actually-" She stops when she sees the item in her boyfriend's hands. "What are you doing with that?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," he says coldly referring to the framed picture of Colton and Maya. 

Shaking her head, she tosses the book on her head, "I asked you to get one thing and you take that opportunity to go through my stuff?" 

"Can't go through what already got wide out and in the open," he shoots back coldly. "Why do you have this?"

 Maya looks at the picture, instantly feeling the sadness coming back. It was the picture of her and Colton at this fair and they looked so happy. They were happy. She didn't even realize that she put it in her room, let alone had it out on her dresser. Although upset with Derrick, she was just thrilled he didn't see the other picture on her dresser. 

"Because..." she stops, not knowing what to say.

Derrick dangles the picture up in the air, "Because nothing Maya! What you need it for anyway?!" The volume in his voice increases, slightly scaring Maya, not that she would ever show her fear.

Truth be told, Derrick didn't really care about who it was with her in the picture. He was just offended and pissed off she had it out, as if she was proud.

"First you need to watch the bass in ya' voice," Maya starts, reaching out to take the picture from Derrick. Of course, he has no plans on giving it to her, raising it higher and out of her reach. "Just give me the damn picture!"

He rubs his chin, "Why? You still talk to this white boy?"

Maya doesn't know what it is, especially given her last interaction with Colton, but she immediately feels her anger boil by his insensitive words. "He's not a boy. He's a man."

"Oh, excuse me," Derrick feigns contrition. "Why the fuck you got this man in your room?"

"Listen, it doesn't even matter though cause me and him are the past." Maya offers, although she has a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach as the words exit her mouth.

"Well good," Derrick looks her dead in her face and throws the frame in the trash. 

Maya's eyes widen, "What the hell Derrick?!"

He shrugs nonchalantly, "You said you and him in the past."

Without even thinking about it, Maya exclaims an emotion filled, "God, I hate you!"

Obviously, she doesn't mean that, but her emotions are all over the place. She didn't know who the hell he thought he was to tell her what she could and couldn't have in her room, but that shit was not okay in her book. She didn't give a fuck if it was a picture of she and her ex. It was her picture and he needed to respect that. 

Maya glances over at her boyfriend and notices the hurt expression on his handsome face. She immediately felt bad. 

Walking over to him, she places a hand on his arm, "You know I don't hate you Derrick." He meets her gaze, "But it was just rude of you to take my stuff and throw it away like that."

Derrick looks at Maya like she crazy, "So now I'm the bad guy because I threw away something that supposedly died a long time ago?!" He demands, "Seems to me like you just can't let him go?" Silence. "Or maybe you just don't want to."

Her eyes narrow,  "You don't even know-"

"I didn't ask you if I needed to know about him, and I personally don't give two shits about the man." He cuts her off, "But I think what's really rude is you having a picture of you and some other nigga sitting in your room, when you supposed to be my girl."

Maya opens her mouth to speak, but then realizes that he is right. 

"That still doesn't give you the right to do what you just did."

"Oh, but it does."

Maya crosses her arms, "and how is that?"

"Because you're with me! Not him!" Derrick shouts, growing frustrated with the conversation.

"You don't understand! Colton and I," Maya stops herself, feeling all those old emotions come back. "We-"

Maya is cut off by Derrick's phone vibrating. Pulling it out his pocket, he unlocks it and looks at something before his eyes go wide. 

"Shit!" he says, running his hand over his head. "I have to go."

"What?" Maya questions with a complete change in the tone of her voice. "What do you mean you have to go? Derrick we're in the middle of-"

"I know," he cuts her off, apologetic, but also still annoyed. "But hey, maybe you can call up this Colton man and see if he's available." He finishes with a shrug, before walking out without another word.

Maya chuckles bitterly, turning to go sit on her bed. "By the way Derrick," she says softly, allowing a single tear to roll down her cheek. "I'm graduating next week."

OoOoOoOoOo

Arianna POV

I release a frustrated groan. It's not necessarily studying that I hate, it's the studying for finals that makes me want to rip my hair out by the roots. It's always so stressful. To make it worse, I usually study with Kaydence and Maya, but obviously, living with Colin put a damper on that. 

"You sure I can't help you?" Colin questions, sticking his head in the door. 

"Depends," I smile, leaning back into the pillows. "You want to summarize the Civil War for me in 10 pages or more?"

He laughs, walking in and sitting on the edge of the bed. "Okay, you sure I can't help you with anything other than that?"

I shake my head, closing up my mac and placing it to the side. "Naw, I'm good. Exhausted, but I'm good." Moving my books and stuff around, I stretch my legs out. "You can come be my pillow, my freakishly large, but comfy pillow."

He laughs, but makes his way over to the bed. Colin is barely situated on the bed before I latch my body onto his, resting my head on his chest. Grabbing my phone, I turn my head to the side with the other arm out, so I can browse my Tumblr dashboard. 

Opening up my music app, I select "Kissing on My Tattoos" and connect it to the speakers in the house. This is my damn song. August is too perfect, easy on the eyes, and his music speaks to me. 

"Swear you're obsessed with this song," Colin mutters, his hand gently running up and down my body. 

"It's relatable," I respond, my free hand resting on his lower abdomen. "And reminds me of you."

He chuckles softly, "Me or August?"

"August may be bae," I laugh, moving to sit on of him. "But you?" He moves his hands to my hips. "You are my man." 

He grins proudly, "You remember when I told you I wanted you to get a tattoo of my name?"

Oh Lord. Here we go with this again. He knows how I feel about body ink. I like his, but that's as far as it goes. 

"Yes, and I told you hell no."

He rolls his eyes, "Yeah, I know. But I wasn't being complete honest."

I frown slightly, "What do you mean?"

His grip on my hips tightens, "I wanna get you tattooed on me..."

I bite my lip, sitting in silence for a good two minutes. 

"You know I love you, right papi?" He nods, "And even though I can't stand tattoos, I actually love yours." He smirks. "But I don't know if you've noticed....but you don't have any room for anymore tattoos!" I throw my hands up in exaggeration, "Literally, I see more ink than I do skin!"

He just looks at me for a few seconds before falling out in a fit of laughter. The fuck? I'm deadass serious and he's just laughing like a maniac. Of course, ya'll know I'm getting pissed off now. 

"I'm serious Colin!" I cross my arms, noticing this nigga is literally turning pink from his laughter. "My head is too damn big for a tattoo anyway!"

"Baby," he manages to get out. "I'm not talking about tattooing your face." He moves his arm and turns it inward. "I'm talking about your name on my inner forearm." 

"Oh," I say plainly. Okay, I'm not pissed anymore. 

"I'm not stupid Aria," he shakes his head. "I would need my whole damn back to get your big ass head tattooed on me."

 "Fuck you nigga," I laugh and flip him off. "But, I mean, you don't have to." I tuck a string of hair behind my ear, looking at him bashfully. "Unless you want to of course." It's actually really fucking adorable that he wants to get something so permanent in my honor. "Don't think it's gonna guilt trip me into getting you tattooed on me though!" I warn, poking him in the chest with my index finger. "But, I won't stop you, just as long as you don't get it too big."

He chuckles, "I won't. Promise. Gotta save room for the other name." I look at him strangely, "Or names."

Raising my eyebrow, I feel my anger starting to grow again. "Who else you tryna get inked on your body?" I suck my teeth and cross my arms again, "It better be Mama Kaep or your sister, cause I'm not about to have my man walking around with some other bitch tattooed on him."

He closes his eyes and groans, "You be doing the most Arianna. I swear." He pauses and is quiet for a minute or two. "I'm talking about our baby.....or babies." 

I literally drop my phone down on the mattress. He did not just say that. Dios this is bad. Very, very, very, bad.

"Baby?" I feel like my heart is about to start beating out of my chest. "You....you want me to have...have..."

Colin sits up and gently cups my cheek, "I want US to have a baby." I whimper, shutting my eyes. "I'm not getting any younger and you know how much I love kids." It's true. He thinks the world of his nieces and nephews. "And I know your stubborn ass probably thinks you won't be a good mom but I know damn well you'll make an amazing mother."

Why? 

Fucking why? 

Why can't things ever be simple for us? Black and white? I'm so damn sick of all these technicalities. I feel like I can never just give him what he wants. There's always some complications with my ass.

"Colin," I look down, trying my damn hardest not to cry. "There's something-"

"Shh," he cuts me off, looking over at the bedroom door. "You hear that?" 

I frown, focusing my hearing. It sounds like the front door. Someone's coming in.

I feel Colin tense up under me. He moves his arms to push me off him, but I'm unmoving. 

"Who-"

"YO!" Derrick's loud ass shouting from downstairs cuts me off. "MY NIGGA WHERE YOU AT?!"

I groan, throwing my head back. "Why the fuck have we not taken his key from him?"

He looks at my sympathetically, before sitting up and projecting his voice toward the door. "Shut the fuck up Derrick! I'll be down in a minute." His gaze moves toward me, "I'm s-"

"Don't," I put on a fake smile and wave him off. "I need to get back to studying anyway."

"But-"

"The sooner you get him to leave," I place my arms around his neck. "The sooner we can have alone time."

He kisses my forehead, "I love you."

"I love you too," I smile warmly, finally moving off him. I watch him intently as he gets off the bed, glances back at me in the doorway, before finally walking out. As soon as I'm confident he's a good distance away, I pull out my phone and shoot Kay and Maya a text.

You guys busy? I need to talk. We have a problem.

Colin's POV

She's hiding something. I can tell. Wouldn't be the first time, but I can tell this is serious. I have a feeling it has something to do with kids. It would be nearly impossible to not notice the look on her face when I mentioned that. Maybe it wasn't the right time? 

I mentally kick myself. 

When is there ever a right time for she and I? Exactly.

"You know you have the worse timing ever, right?" That's the first thing I say to Derrick who has already welcomed himself to a soda. Why not? He's already welcomed himself into my house. Arianna is right. Why haven't we taken this fool's key from him?

"I need to talk to you bro," he responds almost stoically. My demeanor changes. I'm not used to seeing Derrick so serious. 

"What's up?" I ask genuinely, pulling a Bud Light out the fridge. Rinsing the top off, I pull out a stool and take a seat. 

Derrick does the same, "It's Diamond."

I grimace, remembering that whole situation. "Of course." Swear it's always something. "What she do now?"

"Well she won't be doing much for the next eight months or so," he responds bleakly. 

I feel my stomach drop. "So she really is pregnant?"

He nods solemnly, "I went with her to the doctor today to confirm it."

I put my head in my hands, "Who's to say it's even yours man? I mean, we're professional athletes for fuck's sake. Girls lie about this shit all the time-"

"You don't know Diamond like I do," he shakes his head. "She and I went to high school together." 

"Wait," I cut him off. "I thought she was some random bitch you picked up from the club?"

"So did I, but I guess I was too drunk to remember her." He pauses, releasing a heavy sigh. "We didn't exactly run in the same social circles back then, and she damn sure didn't look as good as she does now."

"Was she ugly or something?" 

"Or something," he cracks a sad smile. "She was quiet, hella smart, always kept to herself and stayed out of trouble."

"I see why you two weren't the best of friends then," I comment sarcastically. Lord knows Derrick was a force to be reckoned with back then. "Sorry, continue."

"If you looked up perfect, you'd see a big ass picture of her," he remarks bitterly. "She may be some famous, supermodel now, but deep down I know she's still that same good girl Diamond Thomas I knew back in high school." He takes a large gulp of his drink. "She wouldn't lie about me being the father. It's not in her nature. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if she was a virgin before me."

I nod solemnly. I've known Derrick for almost five years now. He went pro a year before I did and we met at some athlete function. He was still relatively new to the game, and I damn sure wasn't accompanied to the change in scenery. He was chill and had a carefree attitude. Been close ever since. He's my best friend and it sucks seeing him in such a sticky situation.  He's always been so careful to avoid stuff like this from happening. I really feel for him.

"How are you gonna break the news to Maya?"

He rubs his temples, "Your guess is as good as mine." 

"The longer you wait-"

"The harder it's gonna be. I know." He finishes for me. "Doesn't help that we're already fighting."

"Over what?" I question, partially already knowing it's probably his fault. Maya has attitude for days, but Derrick never knows when to shut up. 

"She-" Derrick stops as his eyes land on something behind me. "Sup Ari," he says almost too casually. Fuck. She's gonna know we were discussing something she's not supposed to know about. 

Turning around to look at her, I notice she's got her backpack hanging off her shoulder and car keys in hand.

Arianna POV

"Where are you going?" Colin asks immediately, noticing my bag and keys. I frown. They were conversing about something before I walked in. Derrick's way too friendly greeting to me gave that shit away. 

"I'm gonna crash over at the condo tonight," I explain plainly, walking up to the island where he and Derrick are sitting. "Hey Derrick."

He simply nods.

Colin looks disappointed, "Why?"

I flash him a sympathetic look, "I didn't realize just how much studying I have to do." Frowning at the thought, I lean over on the granite surface. "Probably going to have to pull an all nighter, and if I do, it'll be a lot easier if I can do it with Maya and Kay."  I brush my hair off my shoulder, twisting it to the side. "We have some of the same classes together and I know Maya could use the extra help with her graduation-"

"Graduation?" Derrick cuts me off. "What graduation?"

"Maya's duh," I laugh condescendingly. He continues to look at me with a clueless expression. Colin too. "She," my smile slowly drops. "She didn't tell you?"

"No," Derrick replies with a straight face.

Fuck

"God Maya," I moan, rubbing my temples. I look toward the basketball player; "She was supposed to tell you today."

"Well she didn't," he remarks with a slight attitude. "Is she really graduating?"

"Top of her class," I reply, with a slow nod. "She's gonna kill me for this-"

"Why?" Colin questions. "You said she was going to tell him today."

"But she didn't," I stress the last word. "Which means something happened that caused her not to. Trust me, I know. It took Kay and I forever to convince her to tell him."

"Why wouldn't she want me to know, though?" Derrick presses, a hint of hurt in his voice. 

"Maya doesn't like a lot of attention brought to herself," I explain, carefully choosing my words. "She's acting like it's not a big deal when it really, really is." I drop my bag on the floor, and situate myself in the seat next to Colin. "The three of us started college a year late for.....reasons," I release a heavy sigh. "Maya didn't want to graduate a year late though. Taking on extra classes, working all throughout the summer and winter breaks - whatever she had to do to get caught up, she did. And it paid off."

"Wow," Derrick remarks with admiration in his voice. 

"Exactly," I look directly at Derrick. "So you wanna tell me what you did or wait for her to tell me?"

"What makes you think-"

"Because I know my best friend," I cut him off. "She was nervous and hesitant as hell to tell and invite you, but she was going to do it." I reiterate. "Something changed her mind or rather, someone."

He pauses, "We got into an argument over this picture."

"A picture?" Colin repeats. "Really Derrick?"

"It was a picture of her and some white boy," Derrick quickly shoots back. "On her dresser too."

I bite my lip, realizing it must have been a picture of she and Colton. Lord knows she would never part with anything that reminds her of him.

"I wouldn't worry about that D," I say dismissively. 

"Oh, but I am." He replies. "Just not now." Of course. "Now, all I'm concerned with is getting all the details for her graduation."

"It's too late Derrick," I throw my hands up. "You know how Maya is. One screw-up and you're out. She's not going to tell you about it now, let alone invite you."

"You don't understand Arianna," he shakes his head. "There's no way on God's green earth I'm missing my girl graduating." He looks me dead in the eye, "Now you can help me or you can not help me. Either don't make a difference cause best believe I will be at that graduation."

I look off into the corner. I have to admit. Derrick's dedication to Maya is beyond sweet. But, Maya will kill me if I open my mouth and talk. Then again, I highly doubt that Derrick freaking Rose will be unable to get tickets to some college graduation.

"Okay," I speak after a good two minutes of silence and proceed to tell him all the information he needs. As soon as I'm done, I bid bye to both men, and head outside and into my car.

I sit for a few minutes, trying not to be so hard on myself for lying. Yes, I need to study and yes, it'll be easier to do so with my girls, but that's not the real reason I'm getting the hell out of this house. No, I'm leaving so I can figure out with my two lifelines how the hell I'm going to break the news to Colin. He deserves to know.

We can't have any kids. He can, I'm sure. But, I can't.

I can never have any children.