Texas

Chapter 10

Koffi
^^^^

I pulled on my jacket as I went outside and I saw Texas' car waiting for me. I carried the picnic basket to the car and out it in the backseat before getting in the passenger seat.

"I said 3." She cut her eye at me, making me check the time.

"It's 3:03." I laughed.

"Right, so I've been waiting out her for 180 seconds." She smiled and I shook my head at her.

"Also..." She trailed off. "You brought food?" She looked back at the picnic basket.

"Yeah. We're gonna paint and have a picnic." I stated.

"I don't like the way you're messing up the plans for this date." She drove.

"Oh, so this is a date?" I looked over to her with a smirk. She purposely kept her eyes focused on the road.

"A friendly date." She corrected. "What kind of food did you bring?"

"Fruits, salad, chips, cookies, and Goldfish crackers."

"Yay." She did a little shimmy as she drove. I admired her outfit as she turned into a parking lot. She was wearing a purple off-the-shoulder dress. 

"Purple is your favorite color, huh?" I asked and she gasped.

"How did you know?" 

"All your shit is damn near purple and violet." I shrugged.

"Yeah." She laughed a little. She parked the car and popped the trunk. I took the basket of food from the backseat and she pulled a bunch of stuff out of her trunk. I help peeps her hold the blankets as she held the big bag of supplies.

"What you got planned, ms. lady?" I asked her and she smiled when she looked over to me.

"You'll see." She smirked.

We were walking for a while until she sat us down on a hill. The view was a lake and a bunch of trees.

"I love the nature." I admired the scenery.

"Me too. I usually come here to think, or when I just don't want to be around anybody." She admitted.

"So, you take all your hoes here?" I teased and we  both laughed.

"No, you're actually the first person I've ever shared this place with."

"I'm humbled." I held my hand to my chest.

"Whatever. We're gonna paint today, and you're not just painting anything. You're gonna paint your future, how you see yourself in the future. Be creative, thanks." She announced before opening the bottles of paints. 

She poured a little bit of each paint in the circular container so that we could share the colors. Once she got comfortable, she started painting, effortlessly. She painted so gracefully that I almost forgot about my painting. I could watch her do that all day.

First, I drew a silhouette of an Afro, then I drew a ring off to the side and a yellow sun at the top. I added a swing and colored the background in different shades of brown. This all had a great meaning to me.

Texas and I ended up finished around the same time.

"What does your painting mean?" Texas looked over at my painting, seeing that it was beautiful.

"The Afro is for Kaffeine Hair. I want to expand it, and the ring is for marriage. The swing for children, the sun is for the light he light I want to bring to the world and people around me. The brown shades are black love, black family, and black wealth." I explained myself and she tried to hold in her smile that she was showing all day.

"That's really awesome, Koffi. Here's mine, I have a big PURPLE ribbon that has writings all over it. Some for money, love, care, and happiness. And I added a house because I want my own home soon. I don't know, mine is kinda boring." 

I could tell she got insecure about how much she was talking.

"What about the little boy and girl?" I pointed.

"Black boy joy. Black girl power." She answered shortly.

"Yours isn't boring. It's meaningful to you." 

"I guess." She shrugged. She opened the basket that was full of food and pulled out the strawberries. "These are my favorite fruits." She ate them in bliss. I just stared at her. Everything she did was so graceful and it drove me crazy. It gave me a feeling that I never had and I don't know what to do with it.

"What?" She caught me staring at her.

"Nun'." I shrugged it off.

"Tell me about you. I'm always the one talking and sharing stuff with you." She changed the subject.

"What do you want to know?"

"Tell me about your childhood."

"Uh, well my parents got divorced when I was young and we used to live with my mom until she kicked Ash and me out because she loved her abusive boyfriend way more. She sent us to live with our dad, who was an alcoholic. He wasn't a bad father but he was never really present, so that was my childhood. That's also why I never got to see my cousins. I lived so far and my dad hated everyone." 

I wasn't trying to be negative but that was the most positive way I could tell this story about my childhood. It was awful.

"Wow, I'm sorry. I didn't think it was that bad. My mom used to scream at us. She'd tell that we were a mistake and we'd never be anything. That's part of why I have my own business now, to prove her wrong. I met my dad a couple times but he never liked my mom so he never came around." She shared. We both had a pretty fucked up childhood.

"That's fucked up." Was all I could say. 

"Yeah, but it is what it is."

We fell into a silence as we ate the food I brought. 

"Next time, I'm planning our outing." I stated.

"Okay, it better top this one." She taunted.

"Aight. Be prepared."