Chapter 9

Wednesday 3:14

"Ma, can I go out tonight?"

"With who and where are you going?"

"Kyla Nori wants me to meet some of her friends" i lie. I don't want her to know about Ty because I'm sure it's not going anywhere. She'll be gone soon.

"Just text me where you're going and text me when you get there. You want to use the car?"

"No. Kyla Nori getting me"

"You spending the night? You should. Let me get the house to myself"

"No, I'll definitely be back home tonight. Sounds too suspicious"

As i make my way back into my room, i think about ma. How she's been glowing lately. Her big brown eyes aren't saggy and red as i made them that day at the hospital. And she's been giggly and happier lately.

Yes, i care about her happiness but i also care about who it is that's making her happy.

I make a mental note to get home earlier than usual tonight and go to get ready.

I should've asked her where we were going because i don't know what to wear. I put out two outfits; one that's for an indoor kind of thing and one for an outside event and go shower.

After showering, i moisturize myself with EOS's Vanilla Cashmere lotion and rub on an Ushers exclusive cologne body oil and put on a bra and underwear.

After my post bath process, i start on my hair doing two dutch braids, doing my edges and wrapped them then moved to my lashes. I brushed them out and added mascara and then filled in my eyebrows.

Whats next? Or last?

Getting knocked out of my thoughts by the bell ringing, i rush downstairs.

"I'll get it" i yell grabbing the door. I didn't need ty and my mom meeting so I'll make it easier on us both.

"Well hello to you too" Ty says looking everywhere but my eyes.

I quickly snatch a couch throw off the couch and cover my body. How could you forget to put clothes on doofus?

I nod to her to follow me to my room.

"Your room is.. nice"

I look around at my bland room. It has a simple white dresser with my tv on it. My bed and a shoe holder.

"Please. It's ok to say it's bad"

"It's bad"

"Well thank you"

"This what you wearing?" She asks looking at me with the cover wrapped around my almost naked body.

"I think. I didn't know where we was going so i didn't know which one to wear"

"You look good in anything. Even that cover"

I drop the cover when she turns and throws on my robe.

"The robe too"

"Uh whatever. That's not the point. Are we gonna be inside or inside?"

She ignores my question and moves to the bed which lays the outfit choices. She chooses the shirt from the inside outfits and the pants from the outside outfit and hands it to me. I examine it before putting it down and grabbing the opposite of what she left on the bed. I can pick out my own clothes.

She puts her hands up and i walk in the bathroom.

Not liking the outfit, i go out of the bathroom and to my dresser.

"You enjoying my room?" I asked seeing her looking at my picture as child on my dresser.

"You was so bald" she says plopping on my bed.

"But i was cute. You act like you had a head full of hair on your head straight out of the coochie"

"Uh whatever. What you looking for?"

"This shirt not right"

"It looks fine"

"You just saying that cause you want me to hurry up"

"Take your time" she says getting comfortable at the end of my bed pulling out her phone.

I pull out a white cropped tank top and put that on in the mirror in the bathroom.

"Yeah?" I ask Ty.

She nods and i go back in the mirror.

No bra. I say to myself and unstrap my bra.

"Better?"

"What'd you change?"

"Took my bra off" i say waving my bra then throwing it in my drawer.

I catch her staring before she tells me to put it back on.

"No"

I take my edge scarf off and check everything last minute, grab my necessities then we head for the door.

I tell her I'll meet her downstairs and i go to tell my mom.

"Ma, we heading out now"

"Ok nana. Be safe. I love you"

"I love you too. I'll be back soon"

"Stay the night"

"I'll be back" I reassure her and head out.

I open the front door for Ty and she opens the car door.

"Hi Charlie" I speak to the bodyguard and he speaks back.

"So where we going?"

"Girl just ride"

I enjoy the scene as Charlie drives through downtown Charlotte.

"You like it?"

"We ain't have nothing like this in Arizona"

She nods and we continue our drive. I make a mental note to come out here one night.

After about 5 minutes, we pull into a parking lot and the big building infront of us reads Frankie's.

"It's a lot of cars here. You think it's ok for you to go in here?"

"Nothings gonna happen. Plus, Charlie's here"

"Yeah but I just don't want to be seen with you. Not like that, it's not bad. I promise. I just hate atten- "

"I get what you saying. Don't worry though, come on".

She grabs my hand and I follow her into the big building.

Once we got inside, it wasn't a lot of people.  Just a few workers. Ty led me right past the desk and to a booth in the cafe where we met a group of people.

"I hope you don't mind. It's just a small get together"

"Wait you rented this building out?"

She shrugged and kept walking towards the group.

I slowed down trying to be unnoticed but Ty turned around, grabbed my hand and led me toward the group.

As we got close, the group screamed happy birthday.

Took by surprise, I released myself from her hand and stood with my hands behind my back as I waited for her to stop hugging people.

"Hey yall wassup. Glad yall could make it"

Everyone said they're "glad I could be here" and "thank you for inviting me".

"You good?" She asked.

"Ty why didn't you tell me it was your birthday? I didn't even get you anything"

"Arayah and you didn't have to get me anything. I got you"

"Huh?"

" I said you didn't-"

"No the first part"

"My name is Arayah. Call me that"

I softened hearing that she wanted me to call her her government.

"Autumn" I said holding my hand out.

"Autumn" she repeated.

I nodded and she grabbed my hand and kissing it.

"It fits you"

I blushed at her kiss as she brought me into a hug.

"I thought your name would've been Indigo"

"indigo?  I could see that.

"You already have my first"

"To be fair, i been had your first name. I just wanted to respect your privacy and wait on you to tell me"

"Thank you."

"You gonna tell me yours?"

"Not now. I'm still mad you didn't tell me it was your birthday"

"You'll be fine. Come on. Let me introduce you" she said hugging me and taking me up to the group of people.

"Y'all finished love birds?" A girl said out loud as we approached.

"This tiny talk a lot" Ty/ Arayah started pointing to her. She playfully rolled her eyes and waved.

"This is Keno, Keno's girl Vaeh. Kell and Ke-taye. Eli, Mikey, Lana, Vee, Yana and Geni. Oh and Glo and Coi" she said throwing the last two names in.

I slowly but surely started to fangirl inside but I didn't show it. No way Glorilla and Coi Leray is in the same building as me right now.

"This is Autumn" Ty announced.

Everyone said their gets and waved and I waved back.

"Don't be being shy, we about to turn up" Glo said.

We all laughed and I stepped closer to Ty. If I get closer to glorilla, I'll fangirl and I don't wanna embarrass myself.

"Let's party then"

Everyone agreed and started going different ways.

"Race at 9:30. Be outside on time. Not CPT" Keno shouted.

Ty grabbed my hand and led me away towards games.

"You ok?"

"Yeah"

"What you wanna do first?"

"It's your night, it's up to you!"

She shrugged and led me to a game.

Before 9:30 hit, we all had to meet at a room towards the front. Laser tag. Ive never been laser tagging before. Now, i hate that I spent most of my teenage years addicted to alcohol. I never experienced a lot of this type of stuff and i was happy that Ty was helping me finally experience it.

Once e we got into the rooms, we put on jackets with the guns attached to them and zipped us up.

Once we were all ready, we moved to a different room where we went over rules and how to play and soon found out what teams we were on by the color or jackets lit up.

Ty and I were on different teams. She was red and I was blue. She tried to get someone on my team to switch with her but I told her it was fine.

When the doors opened, all of us ran different ways and hid.

Once the timer started, we all hunted each other. The idea of hunting people was outrageous but this was fun.

Ty's team ended up winning.

"Luck got y'all and you only got the most points because it's your birthday"

"No i got three more points because I do this. You better learn about me" she says hype getting close to my face.

I smiled walking away and she put her arm around me.

"What game you tryna play?"

"It don't matter. Ima win anyway" I say boldly.

"You so confident" Ty says swiping the game card and grabbing a hammer and handing one.

"Very".

"If I win, I get to take you out tomorrow"

"Aren't you tired of taking me out? You should let me treat you. Especially cause it's your birthday"

"Deal is a deal yeah?"

"What if I win?"

"You won't" she says winking.

The game starts and as you could guess, im losing.

"What time tomorrow?" She says putting the hammer back.

"Never o'clock" I say kidding and she rolls her eyes.

"Now who's rolling their eyes?"

"Come on. Were gonna be late to the race"

"9:32. Everybody look at them on cpt"

Ty laughed and everyone filed into the track and got in their go karts.

"You wanna drive or me?"

Taken back by the question, I zoned back to the night of the house fire.

"Autumn. You drive or me?" She says knocking me out of my thoughts.

Noticing that something slightly upset me, she said she'll drive and told me to buckle up.

"I say something?" She asked genuinely

"No you're fine. I just got a flashback.

"About driving?"

I bit my lip and looked the other way.

She grabbed my hand and I shook it off. Tonight's the night for fun.

"You gonna win?"

"What kinda question is that? Of course WE gonna win"

I smiled at her.

"You finally get to be on a winning team" she nudged me.

"Oh don't start. You know id whoop you in bowling".

"Bet. We can see about that"

"OK. Look though cause the lights on" I said referring to the yellow light flashing telling us to come up to the starting line.

"Hold on" she says and I tighten my seatbelt.

Once the light hit green, we took off down the track.

I held onto Ty's body as she whipped us around.

Surely, like everything else she's done tonight she won. WE won as she said.

"I know not to let you drive. I'm glad Charlie does"

"Girl we'd get to point a to point b quick"

"Will it be safe though is the real question"

"You always safe with me shawty"

I blushed and looked away.

"Why you let me come outside like this? I just know my nipples poking. I'm cold af"

"Everybody out here got nipples. Nobody staring at your nipples" she assured me

I nodded agreeing and followed her.

"You want something to eat?"

"No. You wanna eat?"

"Yeah"

"Ok" I followed her to the cafe line and waited behind her.

Her face and my thoughts matched exactly when we saw the food menu.

"Just let me take you to dinner tonight"

"It's good"

"It's not. Your face saying something different"

"I'm good though. I can't see"

"Now you just lying. Come on. Lemme treat you tonight"

"Where you wanna take me?"

"Wherever you wanna go"

She shrugged and we walked away from the cafe line.

"Lemme make a toast y'all" Ty said grabbing a glass and fork, tapping the two.

Everyone came in and paid full attention to her. I moved away and sat near everyone else.

"I wanna thank yall for coming out to celebrate me. I had a real fun time tonight and it couldn't have been without yall. Thank yall"

Everybody clapped and said what they had to say and grabbed their glasses.

Ty grabbed a glass and handed it to me and picked up a bottle.

Is she serious?

"Ty?"

"It's sparkling cider Autumn" she said showing me the bottle.

I allowed her to pour me a glass and I watch her pour herself some.

"To 23" she said

"To 23" everyone repeated and drank.

I took a sip and put it down feeling guilty. I know it's not alcohol but it's too close to it.

Seeing Ty felt the same way, I felt better and relaxed.

"Alright, I fuck with y'all but we dipping. Let yallselves out" she said grabbing my hand.

I waved bye to everyone and left out with Ty and Charlie.