LOST BOY

LOST BOY: old friends, new

[parleigh, 21]

•••

Remy left the room and head down the stairs where he accidentally runs into Damien. He apologizes before turning to head out the door.

"Hold up." Remy turns around at the request of Sage's brother. The older man held his hands together not really looking at Remy. "Can I ask you a question?" Remy nodded, fully facing Damien.

"How is Sageon handling everything? You two are close, right? He talks to you?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean he tells me everything. Plus, I'm not who you should be asking. Maybe you should talk him... or miss Kisha." Damien looks over to the room where she's sitting, watching television. Noting the hesitation in his face, Remy looks towards her too. She's rocking back and forth with a cigarette in her hand. "I talk to her all the time. She's not completely gone." Remy said looking up at Damien before continuing. "And neither is Sage." He reassured, taking his hand in for dap and leaving out of the house. "Good to meet you, Remy."

"Likewise."

Damien leaned up against the wall in the room, where his mother sat, watching her. He tried for several minutes to remember times before the accident. What was her favorite song? What did her cooking taste like? Did she smile a lot? Did she smile at all? It was as if there was nothing before the accident , no memories, no sounds — it must've been a different lifetime, some other reality where his mother held him and they laughed together; this could be the only explanation, right? That must be the only reason that all he could vividly remember was the frantic calls from Sage the night the accident occurred — or the nightmares he had every night that he was stuck on base after countless attempts at getting discharged to come home. One foot came up, hopeful, maybe I should talk to her he thought to himself before doubt and guilt burned his chest making him turn away from his mother.

"Who is that? I saw you there!" He heard from the room as he quickly exited the house. He roughly rubbed the side of his face trying to regain composure as he stood on the porch.

"Damien?" He heard, not noticing the woman on the porch next door until she called his name. "I know that's not Damien." She said, smiling so big as she stood from her seat to lean over the wooden banister. "What you doing here, G.I.Joe?"

"Par, how you been?" He asked, walking down the stairs to meet her at hers.

"I'm good, and you?" She asked, smiling.

Damien rubbed the back of his neck. "I been cool. Wish I could've been back under better circumstances." He said, taking her in for a tight hug. She looked up at him as they separated. "So good to see you again though, girl."

"What's wrong?"

"Just some family shit."

"I'm not family, now?" She raised her brows, putting her hands on her hips.

He lowered his tone looking down, "Sage is flunking out of school. If I had come home when the accident happened, he'd be graduating in June, my momma would've been taken care of better and none of this shit would be going down the way it is."

"Good to see you haven't changed." She said, putting her hand on his shoulder with faux sympathy. "I can't believe you think you could've done any better than what Sage has been doing. Give him some damn credit Damien, shit."

"Here you go. I'm not tryna make it about me, Parleigh. It's just how it is. I'm the oldest, I'm supposed to take care of everything."

"But you haven't been so take a step down." She instructed, looking him in the eyes. "You cannot do it all on your own. Sage cannot do it all on his own. Y'all need eachother." She smiled again, "Now I gotta go to the store." She said, turning the other way. "Want me to walk with you?" He asked.

"What the hell? You supposed to ask if I need a ride, nigga." She laughed, turning back around heading to his car. He laughed, rolling his eyes at her.

"Fine, but you're driving. I heard you finally got your L's." He said, jingling the keys in her direction. She took the keys and he watched her walk around the car.

"This nice, the military be putting you up like this?"

"Hell nah. This is a rental."

"A rental?"

"Yeah, I wasn't driving all the way down here. I flew."

"Bougie ass."

"Damn right! This heat is booty." He said, turning the air conditioning on as high as it could go. "That's good." He moaned, leaning back in his seat as the cool air caressed his heated body.

With his eyes closed, he couldn't see the way Parleigh looked at him, he just knew that the car was still in park when they've been sitting in the car fir two minutes already. "You scared or something?" He laughed, wondering why they were still in front of the house.

"Hold your mule, Dookie head. I'm just checking my messages before I pull off."

"We only going two blocks over, how much you gone miss?" He asked, watching her thumbs run across the screen. That's when he noticed something that wasn't there when he left.

"You engaged?" He asked, staring at the glittering band on her ring finger. She looked at her hand holding it out so she could admire her ring as she had been doing for the past two months. She smiled.

"To who?" He asked, taken aback.

"Why you ask it like that?"

"I ain't mean it like that... I'm just surprised. I didn't know you were seeing someone." He said, mumbling the last part.

The car grew quiet as Parleigh started the car. "Which one is the break?" She asked, looking down at her feet where the pedals were located.   Looking over, she saw Damien's expression that read 'are you fucking serious?'  She laughed hysterically.

"I'm just fucking with you." She laughed, putting her foot on the break before putting the car into drive. "Anyway." She started, pulling off into traffic. "Me and Amir been dating for a couple years... you remember him, right?"

"No... nah i'on remember no Amir. What he look like."

"Tall-ish, dark skinned." She thought for a couple seconds, "I think he was in ROTC with you in high school."

"You just described a regular degular ass nigga who could be anybody."

"Whatever, you'll probably meet him again soon. He work up at the school."

"Sageon school? Doing what?"

"He's the- nah, you tryna assess." She shook her hand in his direction in objection.

"I'm assessing? The fuck I gotta do that for to know he don't deserve you?"

"Bye." She smiled, knowing damn well I just boosted her confidence.

🐉
hula
06.24.2021