Tiana Hughes is a 18 year old senior at Greenwood High School. It's August, a month before her senior year begins and she has officially peaked in the looks department. From her voluminous natural fro, that might I add, stretches out down her back...
After Aaliyah left I went back to taking out my hair and tried to pretend the other half of that conversation didn't happen. Aaliyah and I made a pact that we'd never steal each other's boyfriends after we saw Jayla Francis and Yana Johnson fistfight over a boy in the 5th grade.
Jayla and Yana had been best friends just as long as me and Aaliyah, but that all came crashing down when Yana kissed Michael, Jayla's first boyfriend, at the park we all played at. We're seniors now and I haven't seen the two of them talk since that fight.
The day after Jackson kissed me I told Aaliyah and besides her forgetting who Jackson was, she was just as excited as me. Looking back now, I realize there are a lot of things we swore we'd never do to each other that I see she's doing now. I shrugged off the uneasy feeling I had when I saw her contact name show up on my phone.
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I knew I couldn't stop her from losing her virginity to just anybody, considering we were 18 years old and can make decisions for ourselves. I quickly sent one more text telling her to make sure to use protection.
Later that night
While my mother cooked dinner I sat in the living room watching old home videos. I was halfway through a video of Kira and me using our new crayons we got at daycare that day to write all over the walls. My phone buzzed right when my dad walked into the frame and started laughing, it was Aaliyah.
"Check my story." is all she said. As soon as I saw what was waiting for me I sighed.
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I didn't know the boy in the picture, but what I did know was that he sure isn't Jackson.
Jackson had unruly blonde hair, light brown eyes that could look grey in certain lighting, and well..was white. The boy Aaliyah posted, I can see he has velvet-like brown skin and at least has clean nails.
Personally, I always said Jackson looks more like his father than his mother. I haven't said that to him since the day we kissed. When he smiled, his deep dimples came out so I gagged as a joke and said I felt like I just kissed his dad because of how similar they looked in that moment. He puffed his cheeks and vowed to never smile again. It's kinda sad considering every time I see him post now, he never smiles.
I shook my head and went back to thinking about Aaliyah and the mystery man. Now I was nosey and wanted to know who he was. I shifted in my seat on the couch and went to text her back.
Girl who tf is thattttt? cause it sure ain't Jackson. I hit send.
"You'll meet him on Friday girl!" She sent an audio message and sounded like someone was near her with the way she whisper and yelled.
"Tiana come eat!" My mother called out for me and motioned for me to come to the dining room. I set my phone down on the coffee table and made my way to meet my mother. We sat at the table and talked about how each other's day went like we always did.
"So how're you and Aaliyah?" She said calmly before putting a fork full of food in her mouth. I swallowed hard because I hadn't told her that I and Aaliyah stopped talking, to begin with so why is she suddenly asking now?
"We're fine?" I raised an eyebrow at her.
She looked at me the way a mother who knows everything would look at her child, "You haven't spoken to each other or gone to each other's houses in over a month." She said firmly. Well damn, she got me. Before I could come up with a dumb excuse or lie she started again.
"I saw her car here earlier too. I'm guessing you two made up?" I simply nodded my head. It was the best way to end this conversation quickly without hearing my mom tell me about how much of a shitty person Aaliyah was cutting me off out of nowhere.
When I finished my dinner and cleaned the table my mother had already made herself comfortable in my dad's old reclining chair. Despite the arguments and the messy divorce they had, she still loved that chair. She was watching Family Feud and I for one was not mentally prepared to hear Steve Harvey talk about how sexy he is for an hour, so I grabbed my phone and retreated to my room.
I was scrolling down my timeline on Instagram when I got a notification from Jackson on Snapchat. I raised an eyebrow considering we haven't had a real conversation in a few months. He was a senior when I was a junior and even though we're not that far apart in age, we were on two different planets mentally. His senior year was hectic and my junior year was just as exhausting so we didn't talk often.
After shaking my head to clear my thoughts I clicked the notification.
Hey.
That is all he said. I felt my face twisting into a frown. Did he know what Aaliyah posted? Did he know what she did? I got so lost in thought I forgot to respond to him then my phone buzzed in my hand again.
