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off!”
    “Yeah!” the crowd serenaded him.
    “All silkie-silkie nah! I got some grilled chicken livers with pepper sauce and mustard greens straight outta my mama’s care package. And fo’ er’body from up north, my Jersey and New York crew, I got some Chinese chicken wings, some cat sticks, I mean crab sticks and whities! Oh yeah, baby. Ya smellin’ me now, ain’t you?” He turned the music up, the crowd was already amped, but now with the promise of food their excitement went through the roof.
    “Cornbread.” Big Country turned toward Shae, calling her by the nickname he’d given her when we were in high school. “Go fire up the deep fryer, baby! It’s about to be on and sizzlin'!”
    The deep fryer? All I could imagine was the fire department and the campus police shuttin’ this down—which meant one thing: this was my cue to leave.
    “Khya.” I tapped her on the shoulder, ‘cause there was no way I wanted to hear Shae’s mouth.
    “Wassup?” She smiled a little too hard and that’s when I noticed she had some dude checking for her.
    “I’m retiring for the night.”
    “You sure?” she asked, paying me little to no attention.
    “Yeah. I’m sure.”
    “All right, I’ll meet you back in the room.” She looked at the cutie she was kicking it to. “In the morning that is.”
    I shook my head. “Bye, girl.”
    “Bye,” she said, never turning around.
    I stepped into the hallway and felt like I was walking through hell. It was hot, sweaty, and filled with a million people.
    I walked toward the exit and suddenly stopped dead in my tracks.
    I could’ve sworn that I saw … nah, that’s not him … but wait, let me just stand here and get a good look. After all, nothing was worse than running up on somebody and they turned out to be the wrong mofo.
    I just knew my eyes had to be deceiving me. Students passed back and forth before me, so I was doing my best to see clearly.
    I stood still and waited for a few seconds—that felt like hours—until my view was clear. That’s when I knew without a doubt exactly who I was seeing: Josiah. Boldly leaning against somebody’s room door, showing every last one of his thirty-twos; while some chick—who had everyounce of her C cups spilling from the deep plunging neckline in her midriff—was all in his face.
    Now we had a problem.
    My first instinct was to straight trip, cuss, and go off. But then I thought about how that would only make me look stupid. I did all I could to fight off the tears I felt banging on the backs of my eyes.
    “Seven.” Shae ran up behind me. “Why are you”—her words started to drift—“leave … ing.” She was silent for a moment. Long enough for me to clear my throat and get myself together. “Hold da hell up, is that Josiah?” she spat. “Yes, it is. Oh, I’m ‘bout to tear him up!”
    “Who we ‘bout to give it to?” Khya said as she rummaged through her purse. “Where are my nunchucks? I could’ve sworn they were right here.”
    “You can chill,” I said. “We don’t need any weapons, and anyway where did you two come from?”
    “I came to find you,” Shae said.
    “And I came behind her,” Khya answered. “Now’s what’s going on?”
    “We just found Seven’s boyfriend.” Shae pointed to Josiah.
    “Awl right, now.” Khya gave a sexy growl and snapped her fingers. “Ouwl, hey, lil tender—”
    “Khya!” Shae spat.
    “What had happened was ummm … what I meant to say was …” Khya pointed to the girl Josiah was standing next to. “Let’s just get to the point—who is that chick? And is she the reason Josiah hasn’t called you in a year?”
    “It’s been a two days,” I corrected her. “And I don’t know who she is.”
    “So you know what this means, right?” Khya said, answering her own question. “It’s ‘bout to go down, round!” She looked Josiah over. “I mean, he is fine. Looking like a straight Trey Songz. And yeah, he’s all tall and big.” She smiled.