we used to roll at the rink
OM
"Onika! You have two seconds before you get left, I swear!"
"Coming!" I quickly slipped on my pink Jordan 4's and moved my little legs as fast as they could down the stairs because I could still hear my cousin, Wayne, running his mouth from the front door.
As I got to the bottom of the stairs, he rolled his eyes and got down on one knee to tie my shoes that I didn't bother tying after all his yelling.
"I don't even know why my mom is forcing me to take you." He mumbled. "You're going to be the only middle schooler there, all the other kids are going to be at home watching Cocomelon."
He was one year into high school and thought middle schoolers were babies, it made no sense to me. Every summer I came to Houston to visit, his attitude only got worse.
"Wayne, I don't even know why you're complaining. Nobody at that roller rink wants to see you anyway." Even though he was talking to himself more than me, I couldn't resist responding back. My attitude could be just as bad as his at times.
He rolled his eyes and after he finished tying both of my shoes, he slapped my feet before he got up. "You don't know who wants to see me there, just come on."
He continued mumbling to himself as we left the house but I let him drive himself crazy. The roller rink was only down the street from their house so his mom never cared that we walked there since they lived in a nice neighborhood, even when she worked nights like this one.
Even as the sun was going down, it still felt hotter than it usually ever got in New York so I was glad to only be wearing shorts and a graphic t shirt.
After we got to the rink and Wayne paid for the both of us and got me my skates, he handed me a five dollar bill and told me I was on my own for the next couple hours. Unsurprisingly.
I was left alone in a sea of older kids, and with the strong smell of sweat and pizza.
He was right, and pretty much everyone was not only older but taller than me. I stuffed the money in my pocket and walked with my skates in my hand to find a corner where the bass from the music wasn't shaking the walls.
Once I found a seat near where they sold food, I couldn't help but look around and stare at everybody but especially all the girls. They looked so mature and glamorous.
While I was looking around, a girl my age stopped directly in front of me and smiled. "Who's your favorite?"
My eyebrows furrowed. "Huh?" Even though I'd been spending months in Houston for years, I still got confused by things people did here.
She pointed to my shirt and matched my facial expression. "Your shirt. It's TLC. Who's your favorite?"
"Ohh!" I looked down at my shirt and realized I actually was wearing a shirt with a TLC graphic on it. "Left eye."
She looked at me up and down like she was looking for something. "Mm... I can see that. I'm Solange."
I half smiled. "I'm Onika." She seemed a little strange but I didn't want to have to spend the next couple hours alone.
"I've never seen you here before, did you just move here or something?" She invited herself to take a seat at the sticky table I was sitting at.
"No, I'm just visiting my cousin for the summer but he abandoned me." Even though I sounded like I was joking, he actually did abandon me.
"Oh, I know all about that." She rolled her eyes. "My sister leaves me as soon as we get here. Her friend works here though so I get all the pizza I want. Want to get some? We can go eat it at the arcade instead."
I didn't even know they had an arcade, but I wasn't going to turn down free pizza so I happily nodded and got up.
We went to go get slices of pizza and then she showed me around the rink on our way to the arcade on the upper level that I didn't know existed.
For the next couple hours, Solange and I played arcade games while getting to know each other better.
She was a year younger than me, in the 6th grade, but she hung around her older sister and cousins most of the time because she had a big family and hard time making friends. She liked music a lot just like me and she was surprisingly funny.
I didn't have any way to talk to Wayne, but I knew once it was 9:00 that it was time to go. We exchanged house phone numbers and then both went downstairs to find the people that were supposed to be watching us.
We walked around downstairs trying to find them in the busy rink and we both stopped and pointed at the same time. "That's my-"
We stopped and laughed once we realized we were speaking in sync and she stopped to let me go first. "I see my cousin right there."
"Next to the tall ass girl? That's my sister." Just as she pointed her sister out, she turned from facing Wayne to facing our direction.
"Woah." I didn't mean to say it out loud but she was the prettiest girl in the rink. Her skin was almost golden and matched the color of her hair perfectly, that was straight and in a messy half up half down. She was wearing a tight orange t shirt with baggy track pants that could probably fit somebody's dad.
Solange made a noise of disgust. "Ew. Please don't."
"I didn't even say anything." I laughed. "But you guys kind of look the same except for the hair." Solange had her hair in neat long cornrows.
"I can never see it, even though people always say it. But let's hurry up before she gets an attitude out of nowhere." She grabbed my hand and pulled me through the people over to where my cousin and her sister were.
Wayne looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "How did yall meet?"
I shrugged. "Around."
He chuckled and then Solange pulled me into her conversation before he could say anything else. "Bey, this is my new friend Onika."
"Hey." She barely paid me any mind before turning to Wayne. "This is the cousin you were talking about?"
"Unfortunately." He gave me a teasing look as he responded so I gave him a dirty one. "Yall want to walk home together?"
Solange's sister, Bey, shrugged. "Sure, why not."
"Bet. Come on." He playfully hit my shoulder and then quickly started making his way out the rink with Solange's sister before I could do anything back.
The four of us walked down the street in pairs and held separate conversations as we made our way back to the neighborhood.
We walked on the same path until we got right in front of my home for the summer, and they crossed the street and went into the house directly across.
Wayne wanted to be a gentleman so we stood outside and waited until they got inside their house before we could go inside ourselves.
That night, I went to sleep happy I made a friend and excited for the rest of the summer.
——
Onika?
Bey?
Solange?
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