NUMB

Chapter 3

After we both agreed to head to Jahseh's house to watch "Black Panther", we decided to go get some snacks from the store.

"What yo big headed ass want from the store."-Jahseh

"You can't say nun about big headed, over there looking like Mr. Electric from "Sharkboy and Lavagirl".-Me

"Just for that, when I come out of this store, I'm taking you home."- Jahseh said looking like a sad puppy.

"Boy stop playing and get me some hot fries, trollies, reese's, and a lemonade"-me

"Hungry ass"- Jahseh mumbled

"What was that nigga?"- Me

"You heard me lil girl"-Me

Overtime I realized how much Jahseh has changed. I wouldn't say its a bad change but it isn't necessarily good either. Not only has his physical appearance changed but the way he carries himself has as well. He isn't as happy and clingy to everyone as he used to be. He acts more 'hard' and independent now. He doesn't really open up about his feelings anymore and he is a bit distant. I hate that he changed himself just because of other people but when you get hurt as much as he has, you can't blame him. Jahseh is actually adopted so he didn't have a relationship with his parents until he was 14. When he did start talking to his parents, after about a year, they got into a bad car accident and I think you know where I'm going with this. His girlfriend of 3 years cheated on him with his now ex- boy best friend and on top of that he got laid off by his job. Which is kind of weird now that I think about it considering he never lets me pay for anything. Ain't it weird he doesn't have a job but spends money like there's no tomorrow.

I was brought out of my thoughts by Jahseh banging on the car window.

"Mia! Unlock the door"- Jahseh

"Dang, my bad. How long you been standing there?"-Me

"Long enough"-Jahseh

Jahseh gets in the car an starts to drive towards his house.

"So what you was thinking about that had you so distracted that you didn't realize I was locked outside the car?"

"I was just wondering how you got laid off from your job but still have all this money to pay for stuff..."

He was silent.

"Jahseh"

He turned on the radio and continued to ignore me.

"Boy don't sit here and act like you don't hear me talking to you..."

Still. Nothing.

I turned off the radio and stared a hole into the side of his face waiting for him to answer me.

"Why does it matter Mia?"

I saw him put up to a red light and decided to get out the car and walk to my house.

"Mia, MIA, what are you doing?"

"Going home since you act like you can't even answer a simple question"

"It's not as simple as you think."

"Oh really, try me-

I got cut off by a car honking at us that the light was green. I realized that we were standing in the middle of traffic.

"Listen, get back in the car and I'll tell you"

I hesitated but then walked back to the car but not before flipping off the person in the car behind us that just honked at me.

"I'm in the car, so I'm waiting for you to tell me."

"Remember last month when they caught someone smoking weed in the bathroom and the whole school went on lockdown until they found who had the stash?"

"Yea, but what does that have to do with this?"

"I had the stash..."

"Wait, huh? But you didn't get in trouble tho..."

"I know, I flushed my stash in the toilet so they didn't know I sold it to him. It wasn't that much left but the dogs were around sniffing people so I slid it into my homeboy's pocket so he could flush it down the toilet."

"So how come he didn't get caught?"

"They had already checked him before I gave it to him."

"So how long have you been, selling?"

"About two years."

"TWO YEARS!?!? nigga you just got laid off last month."

"About that..."

I damn near just smacked this lil boy.

" So you lied to me. Why?"

"About a month ago when I asked you for some cash for lunch, business was going a lil slow. And I already felt bad for asking you for money so I lied and said I got laid off. I never had a job. THIS is my job. The only reason why I told you I had a job in the first place was because you saw all the money I was spending and no source of income."

It all started to make sense. That's why he never told me where he worked. That's why he always had an excuse when I tried visiting him.

"I'm actually mad at you now. You could've just told me. Take me home"

"What? This is why I didn't wanna tell you. I knew you were gonna get mad."

"That's not why I'm mad. I'm mad because my so called 'bestfriend' lied to me. I don't even care about the weed. Take me home."

"You really wanna go home?"

I Ignored him.

Eventually I dosed off until I got home and went in the house without even saying good bye.

When I got to my room, I took a shower and went straight to sleep.