Summers' Storm

•••Two

Rep your yesteryears like it's your own flesh and blood

        His body was bigger now. When I watched him stand up to leave it seemed he's gotten taller and more toned and not at all as lanky as I remember him being. As if he stole his brother's tough frame right off his shoulders. The veins in his arm ripping through his even coat of dark skin that covered his entire body, showcased more than the appearance of his mental strengths that formed beneath the crease line between his eyebrows, but his physical strengths as well. His new physique commonly distracting, although, not as distracting as I suddenly found Angus and her choice of nouns and adjectives.

"Melanin on fleek!"

I quickly looked over to see her eyeing Jelani while placing her heavy bag again over her shoulder as we began our own exit. She was complimenting his skin while smiling, I'm sure, at her chance at finally being able to use the popular phrase amongst the black community. I hate it and that word— melanin.

I think it's so over used and held no powerful effect to it. Nothing near as powerful as I found Jelani's inscription of skin that unmercifully decoded a trapped past. Or not as powerful as her own pretty penny skin or mine that could match with the sun on its hottest days. It was an off brand tasty tongue twister to me and that's why I didn't like it as much as everyone else did because I couldn't pronounce it

Melanin.

Maybe that was the reason why some of the other kids avoided getting too close to him while exiting Mr. Davis' room. As if the skin on his bones would jump onto their collard shirts and bury itself underneath their finger nails and crawl behind their pale red ears to live there while seeping deep into their veins.  It made me think about if what had happened to Jelani would've happened to somebody like Nick? To reverse the roles of the two most popular boys at school. Would they all react the same way as they did in their Facebook posts and Twitter rants all summer long? Was it easy for them to just see the wrongs of the Long boys or did they really stand up for what was right?

Then I remembered what happened to Latonya and knew they didn't always stand up for what was right. This past summer I stayed off the internet completely for the sake of my own sanity.

I truly believed the kids thought Jelani was going to transfer, maybe even disappear completely and that was why they were so bold to say what they said about his brother online. But Kenny Long's little brother has made himself thirty-one days of Michael Myers upon his return to Hansen High. With his all black attired manner and gold dog tags draping his neck, I could bet money Mr. Davis thought the massacre would begin a little after time struck eight.

I wanted to give him a standing ovation for his bravery, although, he hadn't spoken a word to anyone, yet. Or maybe that could just be me being a bit bias towards Jelani Long. There has always been this incredibly tiny crush that followed us two around like a moving cloud across summer skies that rained the good out of him to me.

I saw necessary in his wrongs while others just saw trouble. I knew we related on a lot on unspoken struggles that most kids around us could never ever comprehend, not even the slightest. But I'm myself to him as Angus is to me. It's like I just wanted his permission to talk to him just to let him know there would be no whispers from me. Not unless they were whispering secrets I needed to bury deep behind his vaulted stygian eyes.

"Who is that, Stome?"

Speaking of the devil herself, there she was again already packed up with an empty Mcdonalds cup in her hand waiting to walk with me to second period. Her khaki pants sticking to her thin legs and white collared shirt hung off her body as delicately as possible and was easily overpowered by the dark denim jacket she matched with all her outfits made me want to throw her back into whatever Old Navy she purchased her closet from. She was so plain and had the nerve to ask about Jelani.