Unbelievable

16

I shouldn't be this nervous. My dad wasn't mad anymore. The question dealt with a guy though. Antonio to be exact. He still wanted to pick me up from my home. Now, here I was holding my shaking knuckles up against the door. I did three light taps. 

"Come in Miesha." 

I opened my dad's door with his permission. As usual, papers were scattered everywhere on his bed and dresser.

"Looks like you need a home office daddy," I joked.

He gathered the paperwork in one stack and attached a paper clip to it. "Guess I do with all this work I bring home. So what is it? I know you didn't come here to talk about work."

I hesistated. "Well."

"Is this about your mother?"

"No, not at all. It's about tomorrow."

"You're still going to the arcade with your friends right?"

"Yeah. Well my friend Malesha can't drive her car right now, so I wanted to ask you if my friend Antonio can pick me up."

His head shot up from those papers. "Your asking me if a boy could come here to pick you up?" 

"Daddy, I know this sounds horrible, but Antonio is just a nice friend. He is picking up Malesha, so she is going to be in the car with us."

"You asking me to allow a boy to come here," he repeated.

"Daddy," I whined.

He placed the clipped papers on his dresser. "Are you out of your mind?"

"It's not like that."

"Who is this boy? Have you been sneaking around and dating him? Is this your way of telling me?"

"I'm not into boys like that." That wasn't a complete lie. 

"So why are you bringing up this boy to me?"

"He is just a friend. He is a great guy. He is responsible." As I tried to convince him what kind of person Antonio was, he seemed to be more unimpressed. The fact that he was a guy triggered him.

"I'm not bold enough to be asking about a boy in that way. He offered to drive Malesha and I to the arcade. That's it."

"You are bold Miesha. You think I want you getting in the car with some boy I don't know."

"I know him." That was an absolute lie. I have never really taken the time to get to know Antonio. I was too afraid. All I knew was the surface level information.

"Daddy," I decided to try a different approach, "can you trust me please? I would never purposely make you mad especially over a situation like this. I know the rules about boys. He was just kind enough to offer me a ride."

His shoulder relaxed at my words.

"I didn't mean to get so worked up. I want to protect you from these guys. Most of them aren't up to any good."

"Trust me daddy I know." My mind went to Devin and Tony.

"So you think this- what's his name?"