When school ended I was one of the first people out. I didn't exactly wait until the bell went but I left. I could be a bit of a rebel sometimes but people don't expect it because I'm quiet and all, but who cares.
I walked down the concrete path leading to the road where the school buses were parked on the curb. I do take the school bus. It is the worst but best part of my day. Worse, because the kids are immature, annoying and loud. Best, because I'm going home.
I can't wait to get my permit and start driving. It might take me a while to start driving though since I can't, not even a little bit. Then I doubt I'll get a car until I'm at least nineteen cause yeah, I'm broke.
Then there's the fact that I'm lazy as all hell. I could've gotten my permit already but I haven't and I haven't been studying. So yeah, it's my fault and my mom's been on my back about it.
I did my usual routine, getting on the bus and sitting close to the back then plugged in my earbuds as numerous exits on the school started opening and kids started piling out of everywhere.
As kids started piling onto the bus, I blasted my music. I'm sure I'm gonna be deaf by twenty. My eyes scanned the kids that were making their way to the parking lot.
Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?
That's the chant that I've used everyday, since last year, whenever I'm looking for him. I was looking for Chris, like I always do, which is why I choose this certain seat on the bus. I'm a stalker, I know.
I finally spotted him and my lips twitched when I saw that his friend, Nate as he called him, was walking next to him, like always. He was talking animatedly about something while using hand motions and as usual, Chris had his hands stuffed in his front pockets, listening with a small smile on his face.
I bit down on my lip, hiding my smile. I just never get tired of seeing them.
Unfortunately, no breeze was blowing today so no outline for me. I was more than happy to check him out either way as he made his way to the parking lot, admiring everything about him.
He just had that look about him. He had that edgy 'I'm dangerous' look, but at the same time, he had that laid back, humble look. He was a T-shirt and jeans kinda guy, along with his boots, but occasionally, he'd wear a button down and converse which made him look different from how he usually does.
He was...
I don't even know how to describe what he is, but I really liked everything about him. Especially now that I've spoken to him and gotten a glimpse of his true character. I never thought he was an asshole because he never gave off that vibe. And I like what I saw of his personality so far.
I sighed as he got out of sight and slumped back in my seat.
Chris.
â¤â â¤
I slammed the cupboard shut, "Who the hell ate my chips!" I screeched, "Oh shit, wait," I stopped, then I remembered, "Oh yeah, it was me," I shook my head, turning to the fridge, "Dumbass."
I groaned when I realized I'm gonna have to cook my dinner. Again.
I always get home before my mom, since she gets home like, to six, and when she gets home, she doesn't cook. She don't like doing it. Cause she on a diet, it's like, 'Oh, you want food? Cook it ya damn self'.
Of course she doesn't exactly say that but I wasn't the best chef out there. Not that I be burning shit, but I don't want to cook man. Cooking isn't my thing but I gotta do it or I starve.
And my momma be talking shit when she come home and ask me if I've eaten and I say no.
So with a frown and little to no motivation, I took some chicken from the freezer and set it in the sink. I turn the pipe on before getting a knife and slicing the plastic open before leaving it to thaw and get me some rice.
"Ricy Rozay!" I said for no reason at all, "What we got do wichu?" I said, pouring some of it in a pot, "Sprinkle you wid some Goya and mix you up wit some sausa- nah," I shook my head, making a face, "We gon mix you up with some green beans!" I said loudly.
This the shit I do everyday and because we live in an apartment building, I'm pretty sure everybody can hear me.
After putting on some music on my phone, I got down to business with seasoning my chicken. I had a disgusted look on my face the entire time.
"Gross man, this just gross," I said in distaste. Ain't nothing I hate more than seasoning chicken and any damn thing that's raw.
It get all under my fingernails and it stinks. Pun intended.
So to take my mind off of the task at hand and try to enjoy myself, I started dancing to the song playing on my phone. It made for a productive cooking session.
After cooking and eating my dinner, there wasn't anything else left to do. This was practically all I do all day long; sit around, eat, read, sleep, repeat. Sometimes I'd find something else to shove in there somewhere, just to make my life seem like it has some type of variety, when in reality it really doesn't.
So I was sitting in my recliner in the living room, reading my book for the next couple of hours, waiting for my mom to get home.
Before I came out of the kitchen, I made sure to wash all the utensils and kitchen appliances that I used while I was in there, along with the stuff I didn't used. I really wasn't in the mood to hear her complaining as soon as she stepped in.
So for the next couple of hours, it was just me, the quiet room and my book. I was practically nose deep in it because of how good it was.
It was some time around six when I heard the clicking of heels on the steps, then the key turning in the door, unlocking it.
My mom came in a second later with a, "Good evening," Then she turned to close and lock the door.
"Good morning," I chirped and she shook her head with a short laugh, "I cooked dinner," I told her, even though I'm sure she's not gonna eat any of it.
She sets her pocketbook down on the couch, "You probably burned it," She said teasingly.
I made a face at that.
Bitch...
"No, I didn't!" I exclaimed and she laughed, "You're not gonna eat any of it anyway," I said.
"Says who?" She sat on the couch and leaned down to take her heels off.
My mom was a beautiful woman. Of course everyones mom was beautiful to them, but I wasn't just saying it just because she's my mom. She was a curvy woman with dark skin and stood around 5'6 or something.
I definitely didn't get my height from her, but it's okay. She lives for fashion and is always wearing either heels, boots or flats. I almost never see her wearing sneakers unless she's working out.
She lives to keep her figure tight at the age of 38, which isn't a bad thing until she starts to bother me about me working out too. Talking bout some, "You need to keep in shape and stay healthy," Then presumes to shove cucumbers, lettuce and spinach in my face.
I love her up until those times where she shows me how much she really only cares about her appearance. And I really don't mean just about health reasons. I mean full on looking good, more for people than for herself.
She hates that I legit don't care what people think about me. I wear whatever the hell I want wherever the hell I want as long as I don't got nothing hanging out. She hates the fact that I don't like wearing overly girly stuff or that I'm not interested in make up and lace underwear and tight clothes.
She hates that I'm a bit "Tom boy". I just like sweatpants and huge hoodies and it's not like I wear them all the time. I wear sweatpants with cotton t-shirts or long sleeves, or huge tops with skinny jeans or leggings. That's as feminine as it gets, but she doesn't seem satisfied.
In all honesty, I think it's also the fact that I don't wear all my clothes that bothers her. I still have a bunch of shit in my closet with the tags still on them, but the thing is, why should waste perfectly good clothes when I have nowhere to go? And I'm definitely not dressing up to go to school. That place doesn't deserve to see me looking model worthy.
"Me," I respond, watching as she made her way to the bathroom, "Aren't you on a diet?"
"That don't mean nothin," She said as she walked away.
"Yeah right," I laughed.
I heard the bathroom door close a second later.
"Momma!" I shouted.
"What!"
"I met my future husband today!" I shouted again, then made a face. I was grinning but cringing at the same time. I really just wanted to know what her response was gonna be.
"You what!" She shouts back. The way she said it made me know she wasn't asking me to repeat myself.
I could just see the look on her face and if she wasn't in the bathroom, she probably would've wrung my neck.
But at least I said husband... Right?
When she came out of the bathroom, she was staring at me crazy when she rounded the corner and came back into view.
I laughed, "I'm kidding."
Her eyes narrowed, "Girl, don't play with me," She said lowly.
"Mommy, I'm kidding!" I said, holding back my laugh.
"You better," She said, giving me one last look before turning and making her way into the open kitchen.
"I am," I laughed, leaning on the side of the recliner and peering into the kitchen, "But I did meet a new friend today," I told her. I wanted to make her a aware now so it doesn't come as a shock later on if she happens to meet him or something, "His name's Chris."
"Really?"
"Yeah," I replied before lower my voice to say to myself, "A sexy ass white boy."
"You better make sure you're just friends with him," She said and I could hear the clear warning in her voice.
I laughed in astonishment, "Well we're not exactly friends but we just met," I leaned over even more to catch a glimpse of her, "Like... today, Mom," I made a face.
"Mhmm," Was her response.
â¤â â¤
The next day, Spanish started off with the usualâvocabulary.
This was what we were probably going to be doing for the next couple of days, before we actually got into the learning process.
Along with that was the teacher assigning us lap tops that we could go on for research purposes.
I immediately started on my vocab packet to get it over with. I had an earbud in and was focused on the Spanish words in front of me. All of them were familiar words, since I had two Spanish classes before this one, but I still looked them up to be sure.
It was about ten to fifteen minutes into class when the chair next to me was pulled out and the person, who I'm pretty sure is Chris, drops down into the seat. The movement caused his scent to waft around me and I took a subtle deep breath to prolong the feeling that his smell gives me. My eyes even rolled back a bit.
Sweet Lord...
My eyes closed for a moment as I sent a brief thank you to God for creating this man.
"What are we doing?"
My eyes opened and I saw him leaning on the table and toward me, peering at the paper that my nose was almost buried in.
My lips twitched, "Spanish 1 vocab," I told him, "We're reviewing the words from Spanish one and two before we go on to three," I explained furthur, then twirled my mechanical pencil as I said teasingly, "Maybe if you were here earlier I wouldn't have to be telling you."
He lets out a low laugh but didn't say anything as he got up again.
I tilted my head a little, staring at him as he made his way to the front of the class to the teachers table. I turn my attention back to the computer screen, scrolling down to see the next set of words.
Because our teacher was so kind and didn't want us spending more time on this than we needed to, she uploaded all the vocab words to quizzlet and all we have to do is copy them down.
My eyes automatically went up again as I caught movement of Chris walking back down the isle between the desk and chairs. He had a packet in his hand and was looking at it as he walked and damn he looked good.
He looked good doing anything and it bugged me cause he didn't even try to look good and he just does. He was wearing a loose black T-shirt, jeans and combat boots. Nothing much was done to his hairâyou can't really do anything to a low cut but brush itâbut mah dude looked good.
He slid back into his seat next to me, and again, I was hit with that incredible scent. I wanted to just melt away and turn into a brown puddle on the floor. He's gonna be the death of me.
I held back a laugh and turn to look at him, "You need a lap top," I told him in amusement.
He lets out a small groan, that took me way off guard by the way. That groan had me imagining stuff that I shouldn't and had me thinking:
Aaaayyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaa....
He drops the packet on the table and reaches up to rub his eyes with his fingers, "It's too early for this," He mumbles, "Knew I should've gotten coffee."
I snickered, pushing my lap top over so it was sitting on the line where both tables met, "Wanna use mine?"
He nodded, "Yeah," He reaches for his bag that was on the floor next to his desk. When he came back up he had a pencil in his grasp, "I can just pick up where you are and when we're done I'll go back and get the first ones," He said and I nodded.
"Okay," I angled myself toward him a little so I can see the screen and he did the same.
We wrote in silence for a while. The class was also quiet for the most part, except for the occasional whispers of the other students. It was rare, but no doubt it was because it was the second day of school and kids always start off good, especially when they don't know anyone in the class.
"Did you oversleep?" I asked as I folded over to the next page.
He did the same a second later, "Ye-" He reached up to cover his mouth as he started to yawn mid speech.
I giggled, "Guess that's my answer."
He laughed, "Sorry," He said and I shook my head, "My alarm didn't go off and I couldn't get my coffee since I was lateâor breakfast," He shook his head.
"You should've gotten it, you're still late anyway, might as well made it worth it," I said.
"You're right. I normally do, but it's the second day of school," He said and the way he said it made me laugh, "Did you at least have breakfast? Make me feel better."
I shook my head, "Most of the time I don't eat in the mornings," I told him.
He stopped writing and turned to look at me. That made me stop writing and look up at him in return.
"Why not?" He asked with a frown.
I shrugged, looking back down at my packet, "Cause..." I shrugged again, "I'm not hungry in the morning and I get this feeling in my stomach and it's just like..." I cringed, "Ew food," I let out a small laugh.
"But you need to eat though," He said, "This is the last place you wanna pass out."
I snickered, "I know. But it's not an everyday thing," I explained, "Just... Most days."
A moment of silence passed where it was just the sound of our pencils scribbling against paper.
"You eat Dunkin' Donuts?" He asked randomly.
I made a face but let out a small laugh, "I mean, I don't really know what's on the menu there, but I'm guessing there's donuts, so yeah, I eat donuts, why?"
I could see him shrug in my peripheral, "Nothing, just asking," He said and I nodded.
After that we just talked about a bunch of food stuff as we worked on our packet. It was taking us longer than it should to get it done since we were talking, but it wasn't much of a big deal.
We talked about all the fast food that we like and stuff like that. There wasn't much that I had to input since I don't eat out a lot or at different places. The only place I eat at is Burger King and that's rarely. That's just about it. Chris seemed shocked at that.
"So what if," He pauses, thinking, "Your boyfriend wants to take you to like... McDonalds or something?" He asked.
We'd completely stopped writing now and the teacher already voice that we had ten minutes to finish up since she wants to start going over stuff, but Chris here didn't seem to care.
"I don't date," I told him with a smile.
"Why not?" He was smiling back as if what I was saying was the most interesting thing ever. I honestly don't know why we're talking about this.
I shook my head, "Because I'm not allowed maybe?" I shrug, "I don't have time for that anyway," I started writing again.
"Well that's something you don't hear everyday," He teases and I shook my head, suppressing a smile.
It was quiet for a moment until...
"You still didn't aswer my question though," He whispers loudly.
I slammed my pencil down dramatically, turning to him with a somewhat straight face, "Well if he was a good boyfriend, he'd remember that I don't eat McDonald's and take me to Burger King."
He nodded, "Well played," He said and I grinned obnoxiously wide causing him to laugh.
After agreeing to stop talking for five minutes to get our packets done, I finished in a minute or two but he had to go back to the front of the packet since he skipped it. I figured I'd help him out and let him copy off of mine, but I had to translate a couple words and letters for him since my writing was "too pretty".
When he finished, he set his pencil down and turns to me, "So," He starts and the way he was staring at me had me questioning what's coming next, "A couple of my friends and I were hanging out sometime during this week-"
I was shaking my head before he even got to finish, "If you're gonna asked me to join you, I can't."
He gave me a look, "But you said we were friends," He almost whined.
I choked on a laugh, "When did I say that?"
"Yesterday," He replies.
"No, I said a friend won't be so bad," I hold a finger up at him, "I didn't declare us friends. It's gonna take longer than a day, Chrissy," I teased.
He blinked rapidly, "Did you just call me 'Chrissy'?"
I grinned, "You don't like it?"
"In all honesty, if you're coming up with nicknames for me, I'd say we're even bestfriends," He smirked.
I rolled my eyes with a smile, "I'm still not going," I shook my head.
"Oh come on," He said, turning fully toward me now, resting an arm on the back of my chair in the process, that made me stop breathing for a moment, "We're not even gonna be out long especially if it's on a weekday. I have to be at work by four-thirthy, so if you hate them, you won't have to be around them that long either," Then he stared at me.
It was making me squirm. People staring at me did not sit well with my stomach.
I let out a breath, "Chris..." I tried my hardest not to let it sound like a whine, but it did.
We've known each other for all of a day and this is me, already caving into his demands. This was bad.
But the thing is, I felt like I've known him forever. He's really open and easy to talk to and it's just natural to be myself around himâmaybe not my crazy self like when I'm at home, but to some extent. I am comfortable with him more than I've ever been with people who I've known for longer.
I sighed, "Are you gonna take me home?" I asked blankly and watched a slow smile spread across his face. The sight caused my heart to start pounding against my ribcage and I can only hope I wasn't gaping at him like an a idiot.
He nodded, "Of course."
I pursed my lips while staring at his forehead, "I'll ask my mom," I mumbled, "But don't think this is gonna be a regular thing," I warned him.
All he did was shrug.