𝑻 𝑯 𝑬 𝑵 𝑨 𝑵 𝑵 𝒀 (18+)

forty-five

        AMARA

"Sorry, I've been M.I.A for the past few weeks. I just got a bunch of new clients and the office is under new management so everything has been hell." Zaria kissed her teeth while she finished off my last braid. My head was pounding and my ass was numb but the pain was worth it. I couldn't go another day trying to figure out what to do with my hair.

"But at least I had time to do your hair before your birthday, what are you doing for it anyways? Or are you planning to sulk the whole day again this year?"

I looked in the mirror at her and smiled. There was bound to be some birthday blues this year. Another year without my mom, another day away from home but I had a good feeling about twenty-four. A feeling I thought died a long time ago. "I'm going away for the weekend and when I come back I'll have hours of footage to watch of the Architectural Digest conference happening here in San Diego. Courtesy of Professor Kosta."

Zaria completely ignored the last bit of my sentence and rested her hands on my shoulder, "Who are you going away with? I know you mentioned some guy you met at the park with the kids. What was his name, Harry? Seems pretty serious if you're already going on trips together."

I hummed to myself and picked at my nails, "We're not serious, Harry is just my friend."

"So that brings us back to where we started, who are you going away with for the weekend?" She continued to interrogate me. "I'm not judging by the way. I think it's good you've started dating again. No use putting your life on hold just because you think it's the safest option."

"The same way you refuse to let your boyfriend move in with you because you love your space?" I rolled my eyes. Her stance changed and she wiped the smile from her face, "Actually, we've spoken about it and we both agreed that it's time. I mean we've been together for this long and the only thing stopping us was me. I love him, and I'd like us to have a future so if we're going to move forward. This is the next step."

I stared at the girl I thought I'd known my entire life in amazement. Here I was thinking I was the only one stepping out of my comfort zone when she'd made the biggest change of them all. It was unexpected of her but it looked good and I was so happy for her and Jose.

"That's really good Zar, I'm happy for you." I grabbed her hand and shook it gently.

"Yeah but don't think I've forgotten about you ignoring my question. Where is Harry taking you for your birthday?"

Before I could answer a tiny hand half-heartedly knocked on my door before barging inside. "Are you almost done? Jamie's boring." Josh complained already making his way onto my bed.

"Well, you wouldn't find him so boring if you went down for a nap like you were supposed to. Why don't you play a game or something?"

He rolled his eyes, "You've been doing your hair for hours and you said we'd watch a movie before we go to mom's."

"I know what I said and we can still watch the movie, why don't you wake your brother up so the both of you can go downstairs and pick one out? I'll be down there soon," I waved a hand to shoo him out of my room and he rolled his eyes before throwing himself off of my bed.

"Fine, bye Zaria." She laughed and nodded at him, "See you later Josh."

"You know you sound more and more like an overworked mother every day," She finished off the final touches to my hair and took a step back. "You remind me a lot of your mom when we were kids."

I fought back a smile, "you think so?" I hadn't ever given it much thought. I had such an inflated view of her, nothing I did ever seemed to measure up.