thirty five

;) Ty'Elle Arayah

"Yoo" I waved over the 6 feet figure.

After fighting the busy crowd, Je'Mari made his way to me.

"Wassup" Mari and I took turns greeting each other, giving each other daps before engulfing each other in slight-half hugs.

"Please sit" I motion my hands to the booth in front of me. He slides in as I sit down.

"Hi, I'm Denzel. I'll be your guys waitress for today. What would you like for drinks?" I acknowledge their "they/them" pin attached to their work shirt.

"I'll have an Arnold Palmer, light ice" I nod towards Mari to answer next.

"Lemme get an orange juice, straight up".

Denzel writes in their notepad before letting us know they'll be right back and returning to the kitchen.

For a while, we sit in a very uncomfortable silence. The air is sliced when Denzel comes back, setting our drinks in front of us.

"Are yall ready to order now?" Denzel clicks their pen, notebook in hand ready to write. I nod towards Mari to go first this time.

"I'll have..." he taps his chin to think on what he wants.

"Lemme get the Salmon and Grits. Side of bacon?" He glints his eyes towards me.

I nod towards both him and Denzel. I asked him out today, I'll happily pick up the bill.

"And for you?"

"I'll have the chicken and waffles. Peanut butter and strawberry jam on the side" I chime making me think of Autumn.

"Alrighty. I'll be back with your food soon" Denzel returns back to the kitchen.

"You must be where Autumn got that weird ass combo from" Mari chuckles stirring his drink, breaking the oncoming awkward silence.

"Actually, she put me onto that. I thought it was nasty at first. She had to hold me down and force me to eat it" I smile reminiscing on that day and Autumn's victory smile and dance when she saw that I liked it.

"I don't know why I thought otherwise. She a real weirdo" he smirks. I laugh too. It's true.

"Speaking, yall good? I can only think good things coming from that big ass smile plastered on your face" he grins slightly and sitting back in the seat.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about" I sit up intertwining my fingers together on the table. His eyes perk up attentively.

*

"Hey, and I know we had sort of a rough start but I just want to let you know that I don't have any ill motives towards you. You my girl brother and I don't want you to feel like I'm taking her away from you type shit"

"Ah, likewise. As long as I get to walk her down the aisle"

I shrug at his comments. That ain't up to me.

"Thank you though, for coming to me. I appreciate this" he appreciates nodding his head.

"Anytime. We family now and it's a shame it took us this long to grow somewhat of a relationship" I shrug taking my card from the bill book.

"Type shit. Thank you for brunch too" i nod towards him.

We slide out the booths and out of the building.

"Get home safe. And remember, our secret" we lock pinkies and head our separate ways of each other.

•

Short, short. How yall feeling?