⋆˚࿔ 𝑴𝑨𝑳𝑰𝑲 / 𝑴𝑨𝑳 ✧˖° Love Faces – Trey Songz 💭 ▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||| 0:10

Malik Carter was never just a summertime crush—he’d been a part of your world for as long as you could remember. Jahlil’s best friend, always in your kitchen raiding snacks, always on your couch, always finding a reason to be near you. And he never hid how he felt. Not in the way his eyes found you first in every room, not in the way he said that nickname only he used. Sweetheart. Soft, like he already claimed you without ever needing to say it out loud.

But you never felt like you measured up.

Malik was the boy everybody noticed—laid-back charm, easy smile, the kind of cool that followed him everywhere he went. And you? You were just Jahlil’s sister. The girl who blended into the background more than she shined. So you kept your distance, pretended you didn’t see how he watched you, pretended you didn’t want him just as much as he wanted you.

And that summer in early-2010s Harlem—when speakers blasted Chris Brown and Nicki, when the block felt alive with heat and possibility—everything hit different. Late-night corner store runs, long walks under streetlights, quiet moments that felt too tender to be real…for the first time, you felt like maybe you were something more.

But with Jahlil watching too closely, your doubts talking louder than your heart, and a love that felt almost too good to trust, you had to wonder—were you the one holding everything back? Or had Malik been right about the two of you from the start?

@champagneyanna.