Chosen (LGBT/Queer)

Chapter One: Already

ZURIEL

My momma, sisters and I harmonized together as the beginning of one our favorite songs boomed through the speakers of my momma's gold Range Rover. It was a beautiful Friday in early November. The weather was in the mid-70's with a refreshing breeze and the sun kissed our melanin skin adoringly.

Laili was sitting behind Momma in the backseat as Momma drove, while I sat in the backseat with Laili behind Adriel—who always made us sit in the back since she was the oldest. The backseat was more entertaining anyway. Laili and I would shoot glances at each other every time Momma would say something that showed her age like, "What does cappin' mean again, y'all? You know how y'all say, "You're cappin'." What does that mean?"

Or when Adriel complained about something minor like, "I told the nail tech to give me fuchsia colored nails. Does this look like fuchsia to y'all? It's giving me hot pink."

Today was Girl's Day. It was one of my favorite times of the months. When I moved back from college, it became a recurrent event. No matter what we did whether it was hiking, going to the spa or shopping, we could do it freely, authentically and be as feminine as we wanted. Today, we were going out to eat at one of our favorite black-owned restaurants in Downtown Atlanta.

Long live the king, you a king, you know it

King already, already, you know it

Top everything, everything, you know it

King already, already, you know it

Mind, body, soul, got a king body

Body gon' shine, bling bling, body

Calling all the shots, ring ring, body

Crown on your head, got a king body

After we sung the chorus in unison, Laili exclaimed with a whine, "Momma, you doing too much. Momma always turned every song into a gospel song. When we rode together, she let us play anything we wanted and if she approved, she'd learn the lyrics to sing along with us, but Laili was right; she did too much, way  too much. She always held the note an extra second too long as if she was leading a choir.

Momma responded, "Y'all just jealous cause I sound just like Beyoncé," before jumping right back to singing.

Adriel laughed as Momma tried her best to sing with an accent. She sounded so stupid but she swore she sounded good even though she barely knew the lyrics.

It's time already, I say it's time already

The line already, I say, line already

Only you got the remedy, I say you got the remedy

Shine your body, shine your body

Laili and I did our best to do the dances that were done in the music video while sitting down. We laughed and smiled at each other while we danced as Adriel looked back at us with a grin. Momma, who should've been focused on the road, was really trying to overpower Beyoncé's vocals as if that was even possible.

When the song was over, Laili and I gave each other our signature handshake. The next song that came on was Family Affair by Mary J. Blige and as always Momma had to say, "Y'all youngbloods don't know nothin' 'bout this!" If the stereo wasn't already the loudest it could be, she would've turned it up some more.

It was always funny when Momma sang the song cause when we all sung the lyrics, "So grab somebody and get your ass on the dance floor," Momma sung it so hard and loud. Afterwards, she'd do a little smirk as if she had just gotten away with saying the most foulest curse word in the world.