Black Beauty

Kissing on the Jungle Gym

 His mother hadn't say a word to him for the rest of the weekend. Whenever she looked his way she scowled and rolled her eyes.  To pile guilt on top of trouble, the worrisome-twins, after overhearing what he'd said to Benita, had asked if he thought they looked like cockroaches. His automatic response was to say yes and brush them off, but he bit lip.

 "Don't y'all already know you're pretty?" They were always showing off their new hairs styles and clothes and prancing around looking for compliments from anybody who believed they were twins. 

"Yeah, but do you think we look like cockroaches?" One of them asked.

"We're black girls. And you said black girls look like cockroaches," the other said. They looked at him with a steady, hard gaze as if they already knew they wouldn't like his answer.

He bent to one knee and for the first time since they were babies he looked at them, taking in their dark brown skin. Koko had a tooth missing in the front. Kali had both of her front teeth missing and two on the bottom. Both had their mother's famous wide ass nose and large eyes. Even with missing teeth and fat noses they were beautiful. And when they smiled or laughed they were more than beautiful.

"Koko and Kali," he said. "You're the most beautiful girls I've ever seen. Y'all hair is always on point.  And your clothes be styling more than anyone else in these apartments, even mine. Nah ya'll don't look like no damn cockroaches."

They narrowed their eyes and pulled away from him.  Then Kali, slightly taller than Koko, rolled her neck and said, "Yeah, I know I'm fine."  

"Mmm Hmm... Me too," KoKo said, imitating Kali's head roll and snapping her fingers three times. Then they both sauntered away like the two super models on a catwalk.

Monday

Andre had never been so ready to be in school. His mother hadn't said a word to him for the rest of the weekend and his brother laughed and shook his head every time he saw him. His weekend hadn't been a total bust though. He'd hid in his room and talked to Julia until 1 am Saturday night, and they'd met up Sunday afternoon and walked around the  neighborhood together. It took a while and a lot of sweet talking, but she'd let him kiss her on the jungle gym in a different apartment complex and away from prying eyes. She'd been chewing  Big Chew bubble gum and if he concentrated he could taste strawberry on his tongue and lips.

He had to look extra fresh today, so he'd missed the bus trying to starch and crease his jeans. Because the busses were slow hell, he'd still arrived to school before their bus. So he stood near the entrance of the school by the trophy case, waiting for Julia to get off the bus.   She'd enrolled last week, but today would be her first day in school and he'd volunteered to show her around.

"Hey, Andre," Corey said.

"What's up?" Andre said, hoping he'd say what he wanted to say and then get the fuck away. He wasn't jealous or nothing, but girls always stared at Corey like he was L.L. Cool J or something.

"I heard you got into it with Crazy Jade," Corey said.

Andre perked up, steeling himself against the upcoming jokes. "You come to clown me to?"

"Nah. I just want to find out what she said to you," he said.

Andre studied Corey. "Why?"

"She's been doing some seriously crazy shit.  And I'm curious."

Suddenly Andre was curious too. Why did he care about Crazy Jade? He didn't ask though. He needed to Corey to go the fuck away. "She said something about if black girls are cockroaches then I'm a cockroach," Andre said. 

"Is that it?" Corey asked.

"She mumbled something I couldn't understand and then she left. Do you think she cursed me?" Andre asked, remembering the stories of her being a witch or a demon or something.

Corey looked nervous. "I don't know, man. How do you feel?"

Andre shrugged. "I feel fine."

"Then you're probably okay.  Just stay away from her and if anything changes or you start feeling weird let me know."

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah," Andre said, stepping away from Corey. He'd spotted Julia in a throng of other bus kids. Forget Corey and Crazy Jade and his mother and cockroaches. Julia made all of that melt away.

#

The next morning,  Andre stood in the mirror.

Hair. Check.

Clothes. Check.  He had to tighten the belt on a pair of his brother's old Calvin Klein jeans an extra loop, but they still looked good. He made a mental note to eat more. His mom had gone shopping yesterday and he planned to spend the next few days eating everything he could get away with. He was skinny enough.

Breath. He breathed into his hand. And cringed.  His breath smelled like rotting meat.  He brushed again and used mouth wash.

"Dre hurry up. You are way past your bathroom time," one of his sisters shouted on the other side of the door.

"Shut up and wait," he shouted back.

"Get the fuck out of the bathroom, Andre," his mother shouted.

Oh shit. "Yes, mem." He quickly left out the bathroom, picking up his clothes and dirty towels. And squeezing past his petite mother. She had the same tone as him. No matter what he'd said, she'd taken it personal, so he'd been walking on eggshells and trying his best do exactly what she wanted before she even asked.

With a few minutes to spare before the bus, he threw his backpack on the kitchen counter and  opened the icebox.  His stomach rumbled. There was a fridge full of food, but nothing looked good.  Everything appeared cold, wrapped, sterile and unappealing.

But something smelled good. He closed the fridge and followed the smell to the trash can. They'd have friend chicken, yams, and macaroni last night for dinner. The smell made his mouth water with hunger.  

"What are you doing?"

He jumped away from the trash and looked towards his mother. "Nothing, I was just throwing something away."

"Really? Because that's not what it looked like."

"What would I be getting out of the trash?" he asked, wondering the same thing. What the hell had he been doing?

If you enjoyed the story, don't forget to "like" it. I'm trying to eventually get to number one in horror and your votes count a lot.