white-passing- jamal turner

thirteen

A month had passed. It'd been a month since Olivia was killed, and Ruby got severely injured, and Monse and Cesar witnessed the whole thing. It was a freak accident. Latrelle snuck into Olivia's quince with a gun, aiming for Cesar, but he missed.

So, we were trying to get through this as well as we could. Which wasn't easy. The memorial was devastating, and I still couldn't believe Olivia was gone.

 Monse's dad was away at work, so Cesar was staying with her. He couldn't go back to his place after what happened. Ruby's parents didn't want to speak with Cesar, which was reasonable, and my parents weren't going to let him stay at ours either given everything.

It was New Year's Eve, and we were all going to Ruby's. It was the first time he'd be back home from the hospital. I had to get ready, but I wasn't sure what to wear until I finally decided on a cream-colored dress. 

Someone knocked on my door as I started applying mascara.

"Come in!"

Jamal opened the door.

"Wow, you look beautiful," he said.

"Thank you," I said, getting up and quickly kissing him.

That's another thing. Jamal and I were dating now. It wasn't like a big thing, though. Everyone just sorta put the pieces together.

"So," I said, fixing his tie, "When are we gonna tell everyone about Rollerworld?"

"It's too soon," he said, "Everyone's still mourning."

"I know," I said, "But we should tell them soon. You know, it's a big thing. And just in case Cesar does need to leave town, we have that money to send him away. Where is it by the way?"

"Put it in a safe place," he said, "And."

Jamal pulled out his phone and showed me a bunch of cameras, "I got a bunch of eyes on it."

I chuckled and put my hands on his shoulders, "You're cute, you know that?"

He moved my hair out of my face, "I'm glad you switched back to your natural hair. The highlights weren't my favorite."

"Noted," I said, kissing him again. Jamal slowly put his hand on my waist as we started making out. 

We were taking things pretty slowly. We'd just made out so far and took our shirts off once, but nothing below the waist. Plus, given everything that was going on, I was in no place to rush things.

"Ari!" my mom said, "Nós devemos ir! Agora!"

I pulled away, "Um minuto!" 

I grabbed my lip gloss and put on shoes and we walked out. It was me, Jamal, my parents, my sister, and her new boyfriend, Omar. His family was from Senegal, so he was fluent in French and was teaching her some as well. He seemed like a nice guy, and my dad really liked him. 

When we got to Ruby's house, there was a surprise. Mario came home, but not just for a little family visit. He brought home a pregnant white girl named Amber. It was so weird to see a white girl at the table, and like actually white. I could tell Geny was losing her shit.

"Damn, finally someone whiter than you," Jamal whispered to me, making me step on his foot under the table.

"Not funny," I gritted my teeth. 

"I'm so sorry for your recent loss," Amber said,  "My heart goes out to all of you. And as a beneficiary of white privilege, these kinds of tragedies are like- foreign to me. So on behalf of my people, I am sorry for keeping your people down."

Jamal and I looked at each other, and I looked at Izabel from across the table, who was trying not to laugh as she whispered something in Mario's ear.