"can ya'll believe we actually graduated, bro?" tatiana said and smiled at her friends who all radiated success and happiness.
"hell yeah, not all birds flock together but we do. all my bitches destined for greatness!" sekaya boasted and swiped her hand under her chin.
ka'rina smiled in response and soaked up the feeling of breaking her family's generational curse. it was a rough journey of her tackling being a first generation graduate; but it was worth every tear, every late night, and every inch of stress and nerves.
"yo mama ever called you back, rina?" sekaya asked her friend who was in a daze.
shaking her head, ka'rina responded, "no, but it's alright."
"that's fucked up for real, i'm so ready for you leave and show they ass whatchu really bout." sekaya grumbled and tatiana agreed, "honestly."
"can we not talk about it? i just wanna think happy thoughts." ka'rina said with a small smile.
tatiana held up her hands in surrender, "you got it, i'm tryna pregame anyways."
while she went to raid her alcohol stash, ka'rina sat again in her thoughts. graduation night was supposed to be the best night of her life, but her mind constantly ran back to why her mother hadn't shown up.
renae, ka'rina's mother was.. different. or that's what ka'rina had grown up hearing. while in reality renae was just facing issues of her own to which she didn't know how comprehend like everyone else did.
she turned to other things to take her mind off of her own problems and left her two children to raise each other.
zakani, ka'rina's older brother dropped out in the ninth grade so he could make simple ends meet for the small family of three. he made sure his sister had before he did and he gave her what her mother couldn't- someone to see as a father figure and the world.
"rina," she snapped from her thoughts and looked at sekaya who was waving a shot glass in her face.
"cassafreakhoe amigo!" her friend cheered and they downed the shots together.
ka'rina wasn't a drinker, but she took a shot here and there just for the hell of it and she enjoyed the burn.
"what are ya'll wearing?" she asked the two as she rummaged through her bag she'd brought full of clothes and other necessities she'd need for the night.
