Who Knew

18

Lauren cooked an entire buffet worth of breakfast the next morning. She managed to fit all the food on the isle in the middle of the kitchen. We maneuvered around it placing whatever we wanted on our plates. One by one we sat at the table. The grown ups talked amongst themselves. I was sure they noticed the tension between us children, but they paid no attention to it. It was like they didn't want any involvement. It bothered me that no one cared. At my house, if something was noticeably wrong, my dad spoke about it. He would ask me questions and give his insight on it. We had our moments when we didn't talk, if he was mad at me, but it only last for a short period of time.

I glanced around the room. As Ranae, Nick, and Lauren sat together engaging in conversation, the rest of us allowed the tension to continue between us. Naiya shot daggers at each one of us including Ranea, which meant they must not be getting along either. Richard and Chase ignored her and focused on eating their food. Ranea slouched in her chair with hardly any food on her plate.

"So how was the movies?" Ranae asked.

"It was good. We saw a romantic comedy," I answered.

"So Aunt Ranae when will you, Ranea, and Miesha be leaving. Cause I'll be sure to help them with their things." Naiya smiled but it didn't reach her eyes.

"We will be leaving a little later."

"Such a shame. I'm ready for them to leave," she mumbled.

"What was that Naiya?" Richard cuffed his ear toward her.

"I said such a same. I'm ready for them to leave," she repeated.

"Why Naiya? Because we all feel the same way about what you did," I said.

"What happened last night between y'all?" Ranae asked.

"Why don't you tell them Naiya since this was your doing," Richard prompted her.

I anticipated this growing tension to get worse. Expecting Lauren or Nick to intervene, I finished my plate, cleaned it, drained two glasses of orange juice in the kitchen. By the time I came back, Richard and Naiya argued in each other's faces again. Ranea straightened in her seat alert of the situation. Nick and Lauren sat there and let it happen as if they were doing this for entertainment purposes. Ranae looked mortified.

Then, it happened again. Naiya smacked Richard again. This time Richard pushed Naiya with enough force that she stumbled over the chair.

"Hey. You don't put your hands on your sister," Nick intervened.

"She just slapped me. And this is the second time," Richard expressed shouting as his dad.

"Boy you better watch who you talking to," Nick said.

"No man. You allow Naiya to just talk and treat me any kind of way. But when I react, you only say something to me."

"You just put your hands on a girl. I didn't raise you like that."

Richard raised his hands. "Dude didn't you see her slap me?"

"Lower your voice. I won't tell you again."

"This is stupid." Richard stalked to the door.

"Don't you walk away from me when we talking. If you leave out this house, don't bother coming back," Nick warned him with a stern voice.

Richard paused with his hand on the doorknob. He stood there for a few seconds before he opened the door and left.

At that moment, I respected Richard for his boldness. They failed to discipline Naiya when she started it. All they did was make sure Naiya wasn't hurt and helped her off the floor. She expressed multiple times that Richard shouldn't be allowed back for being disobedient. Nick and Lauren agreed as if she had the right to make that decision. I can tell that Chase wanted to defend his brother, but he didn't want to be in the same predicament. It was all over his face. Instead, after breakfast, he closed himself in the room.

"I guess we better get going," Ranae said.

"Oh yeah definitely." Naiya shot Ranea and I a mean mug.

I didn't care since I was never coming back here again. This visit was a disaster. There was no looking back to this.

A sigh of relief escaped my mouth when Ranae drove off their property. I was ready to get back home.

I almost ran into Tony the next day at school. I tried to duck past him being too embarrassed about what happened.

"Miesha. Hey." He caught my arm.

"Hey Tony."

"How are you?" He asked.

"I'm cool."

"Your friend is kind of interesting isn't she?" I knew that he was talking about Naiya.

"She's not my friend," I stated.

"Really?"

"I don't want to be friends with someone like that."

"Would you be friends with someone like me?" His eyes scanned over me. It made feel self conscious about myself.

"I- I don't know you," I stammered when he continued gazing at me.

"You can though." He touched a strand of my hair.

This felt wrong. He was Devin's friend. I didn't know if he knew about our supposed friendship. But I sure didn't want involve myself with Tony.

He saw my hesitation. "Oh come on. You seem like a nice girl. You don't want to be my friend."

"I got to go," I said.

I waved goodbye and left him standing there in the middle of the hall. I was more concerned with finding Devin himself rather than befriending one of his close friends. Maybe if Devin and I became cool again, we could all be friends. However, I didn't want to risk making Devin even more mad.

I wound up seeing Devin after school. He was conversing with some girl. But not just any girl. It was Malesha's friend Melina. From the looks of it, they were comfortable talking in each other's presence.

Jealousy kicked in again seeing those two together. With her pink button up blouse and mini skirt with sandals, I can tell she valued her appearance. As Devin stood there talking to her, she was looking in a hand mirror applying on lipstick. It was a different vibe from how it was with Antonio. Unlike Antonio, Devin admired her. He soaked in everything from her attire to the makeup on her face. I could see it in his eyes.

After some more chatting, Melina snapped her mirror closed facing Devin. She gave a smile at him and patted his chest before walking away.

Devin's eyes met mine. The sight of me wiped the smile off his face. His face hardened. I fought the urge to storm over to him and ask him why was he associating with Melina. I didn't know I let him down that much that he had to go talk to someone else. It was like our time together meant nothing.

I whipped my body around not wanting him to see the tears that threatened to fall. I stopped right in my tracks when I almost ran into a chest. Luckily my feet stopped in time. I glanced up at the figure and jumped back in fear.

It was Antonio staring down at me. Fear filled me as I thought about what would have happened if I ran into him. I was grateful at my abrupt stop. He stared down at me with a frown. At least the look of anger he usually had was gone. But he still appeared scary. Antonio looked over at something but his gaze shot back down to me. I stood froze in my spot. I thought he would scream at me. It never came though. We were just staring at each other. I finally built up the courage to say something.

"I-I'm sorry." I broke our intense contact and quickly got away from him. I couldn't take his heated gazed any longer.