Gold Palm Trees

Khadijah Jhené Mecca

"Running up on a hoe ain't nothing new to me, I do this and I ain't scared of no bitch. I ain't fighting over dope, if want your fix, you get it . Don't come to me and blame me for your demise."

"Why you think I shoot dope for? I need to get away from the stress. If you were still on it, you wouldn't be a bitch like you are now," Meisha tried to tell me.

"I rather be a bitch than a hoe with an addiction, get it right," I checked her.

"So I'm a hoe now?"

"You fuck for your next fix. What you thought it was? You need to get it together."

"Who are you to tell me?"

"A person who got their shit together."

I continued walking down the hallway with my books in my hand as she kept up with my pace. I was trying to get to class and not get into another yelling match with my professor.

"Oh, so just because you're clean, you wanna judge me? Remember Dijah, you started out like me."

I did. I wasn't going to deny it. Her and I met when I first started using. She introduced me to Donovan, another bad influence that fed into my addiction and made it no better. Now that I was clean, she wanted me to be strung out on drugs with her again.

"I know I did, but I didn't get down like you do."

"The last time I remembered, who was messing with Donovan?" she asked in a smart tone.

"Let me check you on this because you obviously don't know what boyfriend and girlfriend means. I fell for him and he was the wrong one to fall for."

"You still have feelings for him?"

I got to my class and glanced at her, "No."

"Don't lie, Dijah. If he came up to you right now, old feelings wouldn't come up?"

"No."

"Ok. Keep lying, I know you."

"Keep getting in my face, you'll see what happens."

The girl was getting on my damn nerves. She was on some other shit. She felt like I thought that I was better than her just because I broke my addiction.

What did she expect? I wasn't fucking with the crowd I used to because they were gonna lead me down that path again and this time, I might not be so lucky.

I was focused on myself and my studies only. I wasn't concerned about college parties, sex, and drugs like I used too. It was only gonna lead me to be broke, stupid, and half dead and I wasn't trying to have that.

"Dijah, stop acting all high and mighty. You used to be strung out on dope like me and begging for your next slide of some . Now you forgot where you came from? That's where you fucking up."

I furrowed my eyebrows, "No, that's where you fucking up. There's difference between forgetting where you come from and trying to better yourself, something you're not doing. I broke myself from that habit and I'm trying to do great for myself. You the selfish one not wanting me to move on from that part of my life. If you're not gonna tell me anything positive or if you're not gonna get through your own addiction, you might as well get out my face and do what you do . Now if you can get out my way, I gotta get to class."

She moved to the side, giving me a rude look. I didn't pay her any mind. I walked into the classroom and took a seat in the middle of the half full classroom.

Once the door was closed, Professor Dane started to lecture as he paced back and forth in the front of the classroom, "What is culture? What does it mean to all of you? Is it something a certain race shares or something the whole human race does?"