The name of the character that's our narrator is Monet Browning. I don't include her name in this chapter because I saw no use, but here's a little something that was basically an introduction to the book.
Songs:
Twenty88 - On the way
Wale ft. Miguel - Lotus Flower
Lauryn Hill ft. D'Angelo - Nothing Even Matters
India.Arie - The Truth
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To start this off never have I ever been in love before. I believe that love is an unrealistic thing created by people that believe that their feelings for another person can be defined by a meaningless word. Love has never been there for me, nor have I ever had the need to depend on it.
Growing up in a household of 13 kids and 6 adults was love. Never was there a moment where we had to beg for it or wish upon a comet for it, it was already there. Being apart of that household you learned at a young age that no one else would love you as much as your family does, because those are the people that knew you before you could comprehend anything that took place.
As a little girl I stayed in the church and in protests with my daddy and auntie Faye. They taught me that I needed to be focused on only two things in life: God and Equality for all. It was rare for me to not be in the streets getting attacked by other people because I was seen as just another black little girl that had nothing resourceful to say. I used to run to my mama and have her clean me up from the paint to my open wounds. She wanted me to be focused on two things as well: God and school. Of course that opened up many rooms of arguments for her and daddy since he believed that school was placed there for the white people to shackle us down, but I knew that wasn't the case.
It wasn't until one time in junior high was love ever brought up to me in a non-family way. It was our 8th grade social or dance and I was asked to go by this boy named Kyrie Sanders. He was one of the popular guys and for some odd reason he wanted to go with little old me. I dressed up in this lavender dress with my mama flats with my hair in pinned curls, I decided that make up wouldn't had done me justice since I was already a gentle looking girl. When Kyrie pulled up in his mama car with his older cousin and her date I was a little nervous, not only was I going to my first social gathering with the people I really didn't care about, I was going with a boy. I opened the door and saw as Kyrie eyes grew wide in awe.
"Wow, you're more beautiful than I thought you were." I smiled knowing that I was already beautiful, but to hear it from another person outside of my family was refreshing. We walked to the car and drove past the school where the dance was taking place.
"Um...Sorry to be a back seat driver but we just passed the school."
"We're going somewhere private that's gonna be more fun than what you think." I stayed quiet and prayed to God that I wasn't gonna go somewhere and end up dead. We soon pull into this campus where in the parking lot people were dancing and having fun. I hopped out as Kyrie took me by the hand, took me deep into this wooded area where it's trees and a blanket.
"What are we doing here?" I asked, a little panicked.
"I wanted to bring you out here to ask you something, properly." He went behind the tree and pulled out a small box. He then grabbed me by the hand and sat me down. "For a while I seen you around school and I been digging you. I always knew that you wouldn't give me the time of day so I acted more feminine to see if you'd open up around me a little bit. So I wanted to bring you out here to be honest and to see if you'd like to do something if you're open minded." I looked at him for a little while in silence.
"What?" I asked this time a little scared, who knew what Kyrie was gonna do. For all I knew at the time it could've been just some cruel joke to make fun of me, but instead it wasn't. It was a piece of rope. "Why are you giving me rope?" I began to laugh in relief, but his face started to frown up which made me clear my throat and stop laughing.
"I wanted to ask if you'd be my girlfriend. I couldn't afford a ring like a promise ring so I decided to use a piece of rope until I one day give you the proper gift that you deserve. I know it's tacky and all, but I was trying to be sweet and different from what you've probably heard around school."
I had thought that this was the sweetest thing that anyone could've ever done for me. A boy was never talked about in my house or ever a thought in my head, but for some odd reason in the spur of the moment I said yes. After he tied the rope on my finger he gave me a kiss on my forehead and said that the lips was for the promise ring.
I always remembered that day as the day that I not only met my best friend, but my first love. He appreciated me enough to save our first kiss for a promise ring, and that he did. Kyrie worked everyday since that day trying to give me that promise ring and I've just worked on being the best person I can be for him and I both. I'm not going to lie and say that we're the perfect couple that don't argue and break up, but we are a work in progress. You see, before you meet that person that you want to spend the rest of your life with ( your true love ) you have to have already figured out a portion of yourself that's in the moment not in the future. Then once you've figured that person out you become a whole and then have to work on the both of you at that point.
That's just what's wrong with everybody, no one is ready to put the work in but want goals. If only you all would understand that that's not what a relationship is about. But what am I but someone that's trying to get their point across by telling their story, right?
