Whispers Among The Magnolias

Two

"I hope you aren't including me in that," I said as I watched him hold up two different old band t-shirts.

"You don't have to if you don't want to, I just thought I would extend the invite," He said as he examined the shirt for a while.

I watched as he groaned and started to dig through the drawer again.

"Someone you want to impress?" I asked and he looked at me.

"Don't get uninvited," He said sternly as he finally picked a black shirt and grabbed a new pair of jeans, "I'm going to shower let me know if you want a ride." He got up and walked past me a bit aggravated.

I guess that was a sore subject, I understand why he would be a bit on edge with anything I had to say anyway, I'm a strange girl he's never met living in his house. But it's not like I chose to be here.

It's not like I was given a choice at all.

I walked back to my room and closed the door realizing the second door in my room led straight to the bathroom as I could hear the shower cut on. I locked the connecting door before I sat on the bed and called Aisha.

It rang for several moments before she picked up.

"Mags! How is it going so far, I miss you a ton!" She said over the phone and I rolled on the bed aimlessly playing with the pillow next to me.

"Ms. Banks is really nice, her son is okay I guess, he invited me to a party tonight," I said and she made a low noise on the other line.

"I say go of course, for science. But if they start ironing those white sheets, run!" She laughed at her joke and I mocked her laugh on my end.

"Very funny, Ms. Banks said there are other black people in town so hopefully it's not that bad down here," I tossed the pillow up and caught it.

"Then definitely go, this is probably your best chance to meet them, make sure you run up to the first one you see and turn your flash on!" She cackled on the other end.

"Okay shut up," I half laughed this time but still groaned.

"Okay okay I'm serious now, you should go and meet people before school starts unless you want to spend the school year attached to kind of nice Hunter," She sounded genuine and I thought about it for a moment.

"You're right, no one can compare to you though, but I'll try to make friends," I said thinking about home and how much Aisha had done for me.

Growing up we moved from place to place following my dad on whatever business trip we had for months at a time. It was fun at first a new school each year, new people to meet, new places to see. But going into middle school it started to feel isolating. I never felt like I had any true friends, the ones I'd make always promised to stay in touch and they would try but eventually, they'd move on, and I'd move out.

It wasn't until high school when my mom said I needed some stability that we went to DC and stayed there as my Dad traveled. I got to spend my first three years there and met Aisha, she helped me form a real bond and always pushed me to be my best self. She was overwhelming at first but I grew to love that about her. We were going to finish off our senior year strong and go to Howard University together. Now I feel like I'm back at square one, desperately holding onto a friend hundreds of miles away.

"Aw Mags, no one compares to you either, I promise to visit over the break," She said and I tried to zone back into the conversation ignoring the slowly growing pit of anxiety in my stomach.

"Counting down the days," I said as cheerfully as I could.

"I gotta go Mags, go to the party and make some friends!" She said as she blew me a kiss through the phone and hung up.