in which billie gets admitted into a reform school to atone for her crimes, but is unexpectedly arriving right in the middle of a roaring gang rivalry - one that paints the entire school in blood.
"repeat after me, baby. jahseh, 'god said.' from t...
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—𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄
𝐭𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐣𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟐𝟑𝐫𝐝, 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟖
"xyla! don't drop the fucking cake," i scolded.
xyla made a face at me, gripping the plastic container tighter.
she and i were in charge of picking up jahseh's cake from the nearest publix, and boy was it a fucking walk. it was miles away from civilization. then when we did reach civilization, it was still an even longer walk to the publix. jahseh had better been grateful.
i heaved in heavy breaths, my hair sticking to my forehead with sweat. my skin was crawling and begging for me to wash the grime off of it. thankfully, i had worn a light t-shirt and shorts, so i wasn't having a heat stroke, but my breasts and stomach were moist with sweat. damn this florida humidity.
it was four in the morning, so it was still somewhat dark outside. we left late last night and bought all the presents, then went to the publix. so it was safe to assume that we had been gone for five hours. we were tired, sweaty and worn out.
once we made it through the school's front desk area, we waltzed through the commons. well, i waltzed through the commons. xyla was ducking and dodging, making sure that nobody bumped into her and fucked up the cake. it was nearing 6 am, right before lights on, meaning that some early birds were trying to get their showers first or little things like that.
the cake was banana, jahseh's favorite flavor, but the icing was white. the borders were frilly and black, jahseh's favorite color. it read, "happy 17th birthday, jahseh" in the black icing. the cherry on top was the piped picture of stitch from lilo & stitch, as i had heard jahseh say one time that stitch was his favorite disney character. it was a cute cake and a pretty pricy one, and i hoped that jahseh would come to appreciate it even though he wasn't a big fan of birthdays.
the past three days had been unremarkable, and hailey hadn't tried anything. for the most part, her and her people had been staying out of our way. to be the pessimist, it could have been safe to assume that this was the calm before the storm, but even if it was, i would cross that bridge when i got to it. i wanted to enjoy the present and not focus on what could potentially happen. were we completely ready in case anything happened? who is ever prepared for shit like this? i just hoped that when the time came, we would make it out unscathed.
