Love on Chesapeake Bay (BWWM)

6. Back to School

5 months later...

Nisa sat in a robe at her vanity in her and Kayla's new apartment, doing her makeup. Kayla laid on her stomach on Nisa's bed watching her get ready.

As soon as Kayla had returned to New York back in April, she and Nisa made plans to room together come fall. Kayla spent a good deal of the last few months of her semester going through virtual apartment tours with Nisa on Skype. They ended up settling on a cozy place 3 blocks from the medical campus. The two had grown extremely close in the past 5 months; Nisa came to Kayla's graduation in May and stayed after to help her move out. They talked on the phone almost every night until Kayla went to Peru for her medical brigade trip, at which point they went back to Skyping whenever Kayla had wifi.

The newfound besties had moved into their apartment earlier in the week. Nisa drove her car up from D.C., where she'd been staying over the summer, doing research at NIH, which made buying furniture and decor for the apartment extremely convenient.

"What are you going to wear tonight?" Nisa asked, curling her eyelashes. Their cohort was having a bar crawl tonight. It was the Sunday evening before the first day of classes.

"I dunno," Kayla shrugged, "probably what I have on." She was wearing silver hoop earrings, a cropped black tube top, and her favorite pair of dark-wash jeans. Her curly hair was pulled back in a high ponytail and she had on some foundation, mascara, and lip gloss. She had a small frame and her cup size was a B, so she hardly ever wore a bra, today or any other day. Her butt was round and perky and her jeans fit snugly around her hips.

"But I wanna dress up," Nisa whined.

"It's just a bar crawl," Kayla laughed. Nisa was always looking for an excuse to dress up. She and Kayla were opposites in that way - most days Kayla preferred natural makeup looks, earth tones and black, while Nisa preferred a dramatic winged liner and bold colors. Nisa wore dresses almost every day, whereas Kayla usually wore jeans, leggings, or sweats. Kayla suspected that scrub life was going to be hard for Nisa.

There was a knock on the door, "You ladies decent?" Matt called.

Matthew Wright was a guy in their cohort who lived in the studio across the hall from the girls. Ever since he helped them move in he was always popping in, unannounced and uninvited. He opened the door to Nisa's bedroom, not waiting for an answer.

"Matt!!" Nisa hissed.

"What?" Matt said, "I knocked." He held up his hands, showing them that he came bearing gifts. He had a pack of wine coolers in one hand and a pack of beers in the other. "I thought we could get the party started early."

Kayla sat up as he popped the top off and handed her a Mike's Hard. He sat next down next to her, taking a sip of his beer.

"Kayla, Kayla, Kayla," he said, clicking his tongue as he looked her up and down. "You look good," he smirked.

"Nisa doesn't think so," Kayla said, leaning back on her elbow and taking a swig.

"Of course she looks good. She looks beautiful as always" Nisa said, now straightening her long black naturally wavy hair. "I was just hoping she'd dress up with me."

"What are you going to wear then?" Kayla asked.

"Well seeing as Matt is also wearing jeans," she paused to glare at him in the mirror, "I guess I'll wear jeans too."

Kayla looked over at Matt; he was wearing a light blue button down shirt, rolled at the sleeves, and blue jeans. Matt was a pretty attractive guy; he had tan skin, hazel eyes and wavy brown hair, approximately shoulder length, that he usually wore pulled back in a bun.

He caught her looking at him and winked.

"Like what you see?" He grinned.

Kayla scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Alright you two, I'm going to get dressed; no funny business on my bed while I'm gone," Nisa said teasingly as she stood up from her vanity and headed for the bathroom.

From the few days she'd know him, she'd learned that Matt was extremely confident and overly flirtatious. He was the kind of guy who got any girl he wanted, whenever he wanted, and it seemed as though as soon as they met he had set his sights on Kayla. And maybe under any other circumstances she'd want him too - he was nice enough and funny and cute, what girl wouldn't? But she still couldn't get Jack out of her head. She'd thought of him all summer long. They'd had an amazing connection on their date. I'm being stupid, she thought to herself, typically when a guy doesn't text or call it means he isn't interested.

In the first few weeks when she didn't hear from him, she would go through their date in her head incessantly, wondering what she'd said or done wrong, racking her brain for a reason, any reason, as to why a man who had seemed genuinely interested in her would disappear off the face of the earth. I should have kissed him, she scolded herself every time she thought back to that night.

"You better drink up," Matt said. Kayla snapped back to reality. He was holding up his beer.

She clinked her bottle against his. Matt locked eyes with her and she held his stare, downing her drink. She raised her eyebrows.

"Nisa get out here, you've got some catching up to do," Matt called, still looking at Kayla as he finished his drink.

Nisa came out of the bathroom then, breaking the tension.

"You like?" She said, giving them a twirl.

Matt broke the stare to give Nisa a once over. "I thought you said you were going to wear jeans," he said, seeing what she was wearing.

Nisa had on a denim skirt with buttons down the center, a long-sleeved pink top and platform sandals. Her black, silky now bone-straight hair was parted in the middle and she wore dark pink lipstick.

"Close enough," she shrugged, climbing on the bed to grab a wine cooler.