𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑒 | 𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚗 𝚡 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚘𝚌 ✓

𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑒𝑛

1:54 pm

L O C A T I O N : Apple Bee's

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"yes, i'll call you later. i'm at lunch right now." i told armin for the 5th time. "okay, be reasonable." i groaned, the girls looking at me in concern. "no promises." i replied , causing armin to yell my name into the phone. "bye boy." i hung up with a smile on my face. "who got you smiling like that?" jasmine raised an eyebrow. "nun of ya business." i was still pissed from sunday, (it's wednesday) and this entire table was tense.

"i'm just glad you're okay." kiana smiled softly, we made up on monday. kiana didn't like arguments or fights to last long because of family issues causing her to come up to me crying about it. i assured her that everything between us was fine, i had no problem with her and she didn't have one with me.

the waiter came up to us, asking what we wanted and i ordered. then they went around the table to get food before the table became silent again. "dakota, we needa talk." deja announced to the table more than to me. "uh duh, i'm sure that's what this whole lunch is about." i snickered and deja rolled her eyes. "has this...breakdown gone away?" she asked and i look at her like she's stupid.

because she is.

"it wasn't a breakdown, well it kinda was but those things just don't go away. i can't be happy all the time, deja. you haven't been friends with me long enough to know that." my issues stem back all the way back to when i was in middle school. i wasn't friends with deja in middle school or freshman year, or sophomore year. i became friends with kiana sophomore year and then deja came junior. only onyankopon knew me like that.

onyankopon was a family friend that i grew to love as a person. he was the only person in the black community that understood me. we only connected on a friend level after he caught me having a panic attack in my bathroom during christmas. i was overwhelmed from so many people asking me questions about this and that and stupid shit that didn't even matter to me. no one noticed us talking in the bathroom for hours and jasmine was the one who caught us. she told my mother after everyone left for the night and i got ripped.

my mother and i got into an intense argument about how i should spend my time and that being alone with a boy was unacceptable. i should stop being so anti-social, learn how to take the critics of people, stop disrespecting family. stop being me. i was pissed at jasmine for a week before she came to me apologizing about it. she got me gifts, things that would normally make me happy on a good day but it took a while. jasmine told my business when in reality she should have been able to keep a secret.

i ignored my mother, something she was not fond of at all. however this is where my dad came into play. my step-dad, erwin, understood me to a point which was better to not be understood at all. when she was pissed, he would intervene and calm her down before coming to me and letting me talk to him. still some of my problems i would keep to myself because i didn't fully trust him. my actual dad cheated on my mother, married off and had a whole entire other family. so erwin was the only father figure that i knew of.

moral of the fucking story, deja didn't know shit about me and my problems so she had no room to judge.

"okay, dakota, that was uncalled for. you know deja became friends with us later in your life." jasmine dismissed me but i shrugged. "whateva, she still doesn't know what i go through and i'mma keep it that way. but calling it an act shows how sheltered you are." i glared at her. "let's stop talking about it. jasmine, dakota, you both have a trip to go on. has plans been settled?" kiana broke our almost argument and i shook my head.

"no we haven't and i already know that i don't want to stay with mama. It's a done deal."

"i agree, being in the same house with them again isn't really how i want to spend my vacation. also, everyone else is supposed to be joining us later in the trip so having a house to ourselves would benefit." finally, something me and this girl can agree with. i pulled out my phone, the plane tickets sitting there from when i purchased them a couple of day ago. "i'm going on airbnb to find something." i let everyone know.