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Nkechi // Tuesday
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"What the fuckity fuck?"
Nkechi smiles confidently, the printed photos of the caped crusader better quality than she thought they would be. "Which one is better for the cover? I Heard if they don't like the cover of your portfolio they won't even look at the rest of it."
She spreads two different candids in front of Josè. One of Robin with his cape gliding down the side of a building. The other of him was in a very super-esque pose from when he dropped in front of the robber.
"How did you-? What did-? Neither!" Josè exclaims, grabbing both of them and staring incredulously. "Jesus Nkechi, what if you had fallen off the building? How did you get on the building? You've got the worst balance I mean you totally could've fallen! Remember when my dad put us in gymnastics and you fell off the mat? Not the beam. The mat."
She swats his shoulder.
Josè's family were the third to foster Nkechi when she was thirteen. They were the last family before she was adopted by her mothers. Josè and Nkechi didn't get along at first. He was an only child and acted like the sun and stars revolved around him.
Nkechi would knock him down a peg when his ego got too high and he hated it at first. But Nkechi also built him up. Nkechi was the one who caught him kissing a boy in his room. Nkechi was the one who held him when he cried about the girl he loved and the boy who left him. Nkechi was the rock to his sea and instead of eroding it he was a splash of fresh water.
So when she got adopted he wept with his parents about her leaving. ("I'm gonna miss you so much!"/"God ya big baby I'm only moving a few streets down stop whining!")
Nkechi makes a point to visit her old foster parents whenever she can. They were kind to her and gave her the confidence she needed when getting adopted into a new house. They still call her mija and she still gets teary-eyed when they say it.
"Yeah yeah I've got bad balance, what about it?" She points to the different robin photos, "Which one?"
Josè stares at her so wide she's scared he might catch flies. She offers a smile and pat on his curly-head and it breaks him of his trance. "Neither. Use one of Batman. He's the main character, Robin is the sidekick."
"Yeah, but that's why I think showcasing Robin will put me over the edge. He's almost never photographed."
"I think you'll get the internship with any of these photos." He traces his line across the scalloped edges of Batman's cape. "I didn't even know Batman's cape had these."
Nkechi moves her hands so she's on the floor and not propped up by the elbow. "God Josè, it was amazing. I swear they don't even look real."
Josè follows her and rests his head on her stomach, his heart thumps at the contact. She runs her fingers through his hair and he replies, "I got a bad feeling about how you got these photos."
Every part of her wants to tell Josè. Tell him about everything that's happened in the last week and see his face when she tells him the rich assholes he hates so much are superheroes. But Damian's threat hangs across her head like an old cobweb. And while she knows it means nothing, Damian's minimal trust makes her bones weak and her blood fire hot.
"Just trust me, I'll be fine." She thinks back to Robin's face and her heart thumps. "At least I think I will."
