Instead of my dad driving in front of the elementary school to get me at 6:00 Vince walks over from practice at about 5:45. By that time all of the kids had left and Astrid made sure to give him her biggest smile. If I would've known this was his plan I could've just walked by myself to the school, but I know he's doing this because I was crying not too long ago. Really he's actually surprised and a little bit taken back that I'm not begging for him to hold me.
"So what did this girl and guy do?" Vince asks when we start walking down the street. He doesn't know Unna personally all he knows is when he was with Jessica she never liked the girl.
Really I don't want to talk about it anymore, but this is better than Vince asking about what happened when he left and Ziyah approached me.
"She made a list."
"Let me guess a list of the hottest girls and you got pissed because you weren't on it," He says with no emotion or surprise. Wow Vince I'm not that superficial, and that only happens in movies sometimes.
"No."
"You were on a list of ugliest girls."
"No and don't forget we look alike." Since I want Vince to stop making terrible assumptions I quickly tell Vince everything about the situation.
As I explain it I realize what a spoiled dumb girl I am crying over something so stupid. No offense to Harper, but this is something she would cry and rant to me about while Rosa serves us orange slices.
Vince realizes I overreacted too, and tries to hide his smirk when he attempts to give me a look of sympathy. He throws his arm over my shoulder and I budge because of the thought of the last person who embraced me.
"You know I got into an agreement with Jada and she did the same shit." He shakes his head with a smile.
I look up at him in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"She listed all of my flaws," he clears his throat and changes his voice to a high pitch tone. "Vince you ain't shit, you think you the shit, your hair nappy, you shrug too much, and take things too far." I burst into laughter at his very accurate interpretation of Jada when she's mad. I also find it funny that all of these things he said are pretty much the few things that aren't perfect about him.
"What were you guys fighting about?"
"If milk or cereal goes first," he shrugs and more laughter comes out of me.
Vince and I both look at each other with a nod and say, "Cereal but only if it's Apple Jacks," at the same time.
We get home and my dad and I are in the kitchen listening to his new favorite artist Frank Ocean. Frank won his Grammy and released his album in 2012, yet my dad has just fallen in love with Channel Orange. Still I bob my head as my dad sort of hits Frank's notes while seasoning a chicken he will mostly eat next week.
As a sound engineer he has a great ear for all things music and ever since I was a kid I've been listening to the best from The Foundations to The Isley Brothers. While most of my elementary classmates were listening to Taylor Swift I was listening to Motown and asking my mom if I could wear an Afro.
According to our divorced shared custody schedule we should be at my mom's, but she is still at work so we're all still in our shoes not comfortable and waiting for her to come. This is the reason we're listening to music. My dad was about to go on a rant about my mother to Vince and IÂ while Kayla started getting Sawyer ready for a bath.
Vince had to do his round of push ups so I came to the rescue and "accidentally" played the album. My dad immediately calmed down and stopped aggressively patting the chicken breast. Dani and Vince should thank me because last time he went on one of his little rants we got put into an Uber where I fell asleep on Vince's shoulder.
His anger I guess can be justified because he does have us the majority of the time. He has us on the weekdays while my mom has the weekends which she's actually fine with. Of course this schedule isn't exact and it changes from time to time. Like when my mom wants to do something on Saturday and we go with my dad then my mom has us the whole next week.
When Dani finally chooses to kick off her shoes and lay on her bed my mom's car parks outside. We gather our things which includes our backpacks and extra stuff we don't really need. Transitioning from house to house is like a less intense version of evacuating the way we all grab every single one of our belongings only to leave them at the opposite house.
We get into our mom's car and my phone starts to buzz which I've been getting used to. Like all the other times Ziyah and I text I first expect it to be someone else. This time I think it's my dad telling me to text him when we're at mom's, but no it's Ziyah or Mr.hands on my waist.
Ziyah: hey sorry about today I'm not good with feelings and cheering people up
Me: it's ok to be honest I was just overreacting
Ziyah: I should've said it at the park but you're beautiful. And I hope you're feeling better
A smile forms on my face, but apart of me sort of suspects that this could be Sofia. I believe I finally have butterflies in my stomach, oh wait those are just period cramps. They decided to come at the same time as Ziyah's text so I'll count the feeling in my lower stomach as a mixture of both.
Me: Thank you and you made my day
Vince stops looking at his phone and lets his eyes wander over to my screen. I give him a nudge and don't look at my phone until I get home and get situated on my bed away from Vince's nosey ass.
Ziyah: No problem I care about you Daya
Me: this isn't Sofia right? I just had to make sure. In a matter of seconds my phone rings and Ziyah's contact name appears.
I press the button and his chill tone kills all of my suspicions. "Don't worry it's me she's not allowed to use my phone anymore," Ziyah says almost instantly.
"Well I care about you too." I don't bother lowering my voice because it's just me in my room with the door closed, and my downstairs neighbor is doing me a favor and playing their music too loudly.
"Daya I can trust you right?" Hmm I didn't expect that hard hitting question.
"Yes you can trust me." My only friend is Harper and she does babble, but as long as she's occupied with Navia I don't have time to tell her secrets.
"I wait at the park and then wait for my friends to come so we can smoke."
"What?" If only he could see my scrunched up disappointed face. That wasn't exactly the turning point secret one expects after the question "can I trust you?" I thought he was going to reveal he has relationship baggage or some other deep secret like he's a werewolf In hiding which would be kind of cool.
"You wanted to know what I do when I go to the park on Wednesdays."
On my list of priorities of what I want to know about Ziyah that has to be at the bottom above the number of times he has checked out Unna's ass.
"Oh right yeah cool." There's a bit of silence and then I decide to speak again. "Can we make a promise?" I know I sound like some child, but this promise is going to be better than that confession of his.
"Uhh sure," He says with obvious hesitation. Why wouldn't he be hesitant he probably thinks I am going to want us to make some dumb love promise with a cheap ring.
"I know I'm shy and awkward, but can we promise that we actually talk to each other more and not just about French class."
"Cool I promise." I can just feel his devious little smirk through the phone and a smile creeps onto my face. So you're not going to deny that I'm shy and awkward?
"Cool, because I do want to know more about you."
I should really be telling him how it's not his responsibility to make me happy and it's my own, but I can't find it in me to vocalize those words.
"Hmm I didn't know I was that interesting, but I want to get to know you better too." A guy who has been in my class for a year and suddenly makes me smile more than I ever have at school has to be interesting.
"You are and Ziyah," I take a deep breathe. "You really made me feel better today thank you so much ."
I'm talking about the watching Seinfeld although the touching and tongue kissing did give me a little pep in my step. I also feel like I should say sorry for making him skip class, but in the end he sort of made that call.
"My pleasure don't go shaving your arms True." As if he's right in front of me I turn away from looking at the ceiling and fiddle with one of my braids.
"I won't."
We exchange goodbyes and my argument about who's responsibility it is to make me happy stays in my head, and sort of changes. If I'm the one finally trying to make a friend and Ziyah is just contributing to that then aren't I the one trying to make myself happier. In the end Ziyah doesn't just make me smile, he makes me want to keep smiling even if he isn't there. He keeps me focused on his almond shaped hazel eyes and his smirk is all I need rather than Chase or Dylan's abs. The best part about is he likes me and he talks to me, and that's way better than some hot football player who I stare at.