B0161IZ63U (A) by Trevion Burns

two pennies to rub together, and she worked three jobs to help pay for his food and housing once he came to Harvard. She always made it a point to thank Chase by stuffing him with her delicious cooking every time she was in town to visit.  Her eggs and chorizo had always been his favorite, and Ronnie made a mean duplicate.
    “Morning,” Chase grumbled, scratching his bare stomach.  He squinted against the bright sunlight blaring through their windows as he stepped into the kitchen, grateful when he opened the stainless steel fridge and successfully blocked it out.  “Smells good.”
    “Have at it, son. Plenty to go around.” Ronnie smiled proudly, his giant Afro moving with him as he took the cast iron skillet from the stove to the island, spooning the eggs onto two plates. He left the third plate empty. “I was planning on making a plate for your company too, but she just got done storming the fuck outta here, so… More for us.”
    Chase took a swig of orange juice straight from the carton, burping.
    “What set her off?” Ronnie asked.
    Returning the juice to the fridge, Chase closed the door, turning to his friend with crossed arms.  “I said Lila’s name.”
    “During?”
    “Yeah.”
    Ronnie chuckled.  “Shit...”
    “I can’t get her out of my fucking head.”
    “You think I don’t know that?”
    “I would fuck the shit out of her, Ron.”
    Ronnie chortled.
    “She knows it too.  That’s why she fights me so hard.”  Chase looked deeply pained as he sat down at the kitchen island next to Ronnie, and they began to dig into their eggs.
    “You really need to figure out a way to move on from that, my dude.  Cause she’s definitely not thinking about you.”
    “She’s always thinking about me,” Chase said, between bites.  “She just can’t admit it.”
    “You’ve been spouting that same bullshit all year.  Move on, dude.  She is not. Thinkin’. About you.”
    “You don’t know that.  You don’t know her.”
    “I know she just got done fucking some dude who showed up in the middle of class the other day. I know that.”
    That got Chase’s attention.  His head flew up, eggs forgotten.
    Ronnie nodded. “Swear to god, man.  Dude shows up in the middle of class, takes Professor James out the room, and she comes back ten minutes later hair fucked up, lipstick fucked up, wearing his shirt.  Wearing his shit. That shirt was at least five sizes too big for her, my dude.  It was hilarious.”
    Chase dropped his fork audibly, unable to stand anything about this conversation, but also unable to reel in the curiosity raging around in his stomach. He knew that Lila dated. In fact, she’d dated many guys in the year she’d been in Cambridge. They came and went at various intervals.  None ever stuck for too long. That didn’t make it any easier to hear about. “Who was the guy?  Does he work on campus?”
    Ronnie wasn’t a cruel person, and he wasn’t setting out to hurt his friend, but Chase had been running after Professor James for way too long. Ronnie was only telling Chase about her nailing some guy because he felt obligated to help him move on with his life.  Now he was wondering if it had been the right thing to do.
    “Nah man,” Ronnie answered, more gently. “I never seen him before.”
    “What did he look like?”
    He shrugged with a frown.  “Some white dude. Tall?  Dark hair?”
    Chase let his eyes flutter shut as reality washed over him.  He reached up and covered his face with his hands.
    “What?”  Ronnie pressed, suddenly feeling bad.  Perhaps he’d gone a little too hard on his friend’s fragile feelings.  With all of the pretty young things Chase brought giggling into their apartment every night, Ronnie thought Chase might’ve finally made it to a place where he could move on.  Clearly that wasn’t the case, and Ronnie never wanted to hurt his feelings.  “You know him, or something?”
    “Yeah.” Chase picked up his fork and tried to go back