The Price ࿊f Peace

☮️: 013

Somewhere in Oakland
Thursday April 25th, 2024

Syara was packing up to leave work around 3 since it was an earlier day for her when her coworker, Linette, began speaking to her.

Syara wasn't exactly antisocial, she just didn't enjoy taking the time to get to know temporary people.

And for them to get to know her.

She hated that little awkward period where you constantly needed to be having conversations with people to remain entertained by them.

She had already gotten over that part with her friends. Kisses, Hooty, Camarro, Leek, they all knew that she didn't speak unless spoken too, and they could all be comfortable just chilling in each others' presence.

They didn't need to always be talking or even doing anything to have fun.

Linette, however, wasn't her friend. She didn't even know if she'd consider her an acquaintance.

She was of a shorter stature compared to Syara's 5'5, maybe 5'4 or so. She was a more bubbly kind of person, and she had a weird inclination towards talking to Syara.

Syara understood it. She was a relatively quiet person and some people didn't know how to handle that, so they overcompensated. It was normal at this point.

It kind of felt weird how Linette kept trying so hard to be her friend, though, so Syara was going with her instincts about not trusting her.

It wasn't normal that everyday, Linette would invite her to her house or to a party or to go eat. And everything she invited her to was in a neighborhood Syara wasn't supposed to be in.

It could've been a coincidence...to anyone else, but to Syara? This was a set up waiting to happen.

Of course, Syara kept these suspicions to herself and went about her day. She wouldn't bother shorty until she did something solid.

"...party at my homie Jugg house, you wanna come hang?" Linette asked again. "My sister flaked, so you could be my plus one?"

As always, Syara already had shit to do.

She had to go the trap to count up, then, she was driving home, watching Baddies, and going the fuck to sleep.

Even if she did trust ole girl, she wasn't finna party wit' her.

"Sorry," she spoke unapologetically, "homework."

That was a lie. Syara had completed all of her homework last night. The most she had to do was read a passage and annotate it for her psych class, but she had already read three pages of it today. She was set to finish tomorrow, on time.

She had time to fuck off, but she wasn't wasting it on partying with folks she didn't know. She wouldn't lie and say she had gotten out of the house much anyway, but she wasn't planning on getting out now.

Parties could wait for a little. The last one she had been to was one when she was fresh out of jail.

She ended up having to help the homegirl, Lucky, when she ended up getting jumped by some girls that they didn't know over a spilt drink.

That was enough for her.

"Oh," Linette spoke, deflatedly, "maybe next time."

Syara could tell she didn't believe her, but it wasn't her problem to be honest. She shrugged and continued walking around the barrier between the door and the back office, to walk out of the building.