Damon Grey, a basketball coach and New York City's top real estate agent, suffers in a complicated relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Audrey. She's rude, egocentric, and doesn't care about his feelings at all.
Out of rebellion and quick to dis...
It's been weeks since I've seen Damon. He gave me a few calls and texts, but after our shower incident, he seemed to have distanced himself. I don't really care, though, but it would be nice if I could get a text or something cute from him.
I've been so focused on what I want to do with my life that I put everything else aside. School is about to start. I wanted to make sure I have all of my supplies beforehand. I want to make sure I have prior knowledge of what I'm getting myself involved in. It's college and the curriculum is very different from high school.
The last thing I need right now is a distraction from Damon.
A couple days from now, August will begin and that means classes will have begun.
Zoe seemed relaxed and extremely ecstatic for food.
She stuffs her mouth with spaghetti. She's sitting next to me on the bench of the campus ground.
"I mean, look at this way, at least there's hot guys, good food, great service." she adds on looking around the campus of Pace University.
"Of course. You and this food thing." I said.
"Obviously. It's so obvious that food and I are meant to be soulmates."
She scrolls through her phone and smiles at her screen. I looked at her wondering what could possibly be making her smile so sharp.
"Did you hear from Cole or Anna?" I asked looking at my phone, too. I looked for their Facebook accounts but both have been removed from the app.
"Yeah, I noticed that too and I called both of them but no answer. As a matter of fact, it was telling me the numbers are not in service, like hey, Cole if you're fucking Anna and would love to be alone, fine, but like it'll be cool to let us know what's going on." Zoe joked seeming internally upset at the fact that Cole and Anna would shut off all communications with her.
I don't know if they could be getting it in but there was major PDA going on upstate.
"They probably want nothing to do with us anymore." I assumed. Zoe picked up her head and furrowed her brows.
"What? If they ever switch up, I'll kill them both. Don't say that, I've known them since the eighth grade."
"So, people change and grow tired. I would block off communications with you, too."
"Shut up, billygoat!" Zoe quipped chortling.
She finishes up her spaghetti, wipes her mouth with a napkin, and cracks open a peach flavored Snapple.
"So like, I never got to ask you about the guy at the party." I bow my head down shying away from the thought of Damon's sexual desires. Just pretending to hear his voice gave me chills. I was trying to avoid any aspects of this subject.
"I should email my professors right now," I said grabbing my notepad from my bag.
"And tell them what? You'd like to start school a month early?"
"No, I want to get to know them."
"You will," she grabbed my notepad and tossed it in her backpack. "Summer is almost over and you're here talking about 'professors'."
"So, I'm different. I want to know the people I going to spend a semester with."
"Girl, bye." She drinks some more of Snapple and looks into the sun. Her brown orbs don't look brown anymore. They look golden and striking. She looked beautiful.
"What are you doing Friday?" I asked trying to change the subject. Zoe rolls her eyes and smirks.
"I don't know," she looks through her phone again. " I'll probably chill with some Soho heads, smoke pot, and probably get the worst hangover."
Zoe was always one of these counterculture kinds of kids. Her parents also went against the 'American Life'. As she grew older she learned the knowledge of her ancestors and life itself. Her father was a philosopher and her mother was a nurse. They're weird just like her.
They wear really baggy tie-dye pants and chokers around the neck. Her mother has extremely long dreads and her father still, thinks he's a rock star from the golden ages. He still listens to oldies but goodies and his favorite movie, Roots. Sometimes Crooklyn if he's not in the mood for Roots.
Her parents influenced her. Zoe has the mindset of her mom but the personality of her dad.
And I. . . I'm convinced I have nothing. I'm nothing like Zoe nor are my parents but It'll be cool to experience a family like hers.
I've always wondered what it'll be like to have Zoe's parents. By the time I was thirteen I'd have so much freedom. Her parents gave her a lot of freedom. I think parents who give their children a lot of freedom tend to know more about the street life, connections etc. But Zoe wasn't one of those kids who had freedom and ended up on drugs. Her parents would kill her besides giving her so much freedom. At the end of the day, her parents were her parents. They never treated her like a friend.
"I worry about you, Jaide." She says getting off the grass.
"Why?" This was very unusual and unlike her to mention something like this to me. I know friends would worry about other friends but she implied it like she was scared of something absurd taking place.
"You're my best friend you know, and I care about you and the last thing I need is being alone. I don't want to go through this alone." There was sadness in her eyes. I feel her pain too. I don't want to do this alone either but did she just call me her best friend?
"I'm always here ZoBud. I'm always going to be here no matter what happens to us." She crashed into my arms. Her hair was big and poofy now. She had taken out her box braids and went Au Natural.
Her curls are astonishingly cute and coiled. I pulled at them while hugging her.
"I love you, Jaide." She cries out in a baby voice.
"I love you too, Zoe." Zoe and I never connected emotionally. As a matter of fact, I never saw her get emotional with me. We've joked about it before but this time, she wasn't joking. She held on to me like she was afraid of losing me. It felt good getting on the other side of our friendship. I never thought she'd break down.
She pulled away from the hug and looked me in the eyes.
"If I ever do something I didn't mean to do in the future and I hurt you so bad, I want to apologize in hindsight." She tugs my sides.
"Same for me." She smiles then walks away from me and laughs uncontrollably while picking up her backpack.
"What's funny?" I asked bewildered at the thought of Zoe bursting out in laughter during a serious moment. But then a very surprising smell wafts under my nostrils. Suddenly, I'm disgraced by the smell and immediately wrinkled my nose. The smell mixed with the humidity flowing around the hot sun. If you're a New Yorker, during the summertime, any bad smell in the atmosphere that collides with the humidity, death is the only thing you'll want to experience right after.
"Yeah, I farted, I apologize for that too!"
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