Skipper's Heartbeat (PRN)

twelve

"Mo, get up!" My mother raises her voice as she rattles my covers. I roll over in confusion. Her words crash down on me like buildings as I attempt to gain consciousness. "Skipper's sick."

I sit up in my bed, allowing my comforter to fall off of my bare arms. Rubbing my sleepy eyes with very little physical recognization of what is going on around me, I reply. "Yeah, I know. Are lessons canceled?" My eyes shoot open in excitement. I can see the clock behind my mother says it is 7:00 AM. "It's nothing against Skipper I just really wan–"

"No, I'm going to drop you off at Bernadette's for the day."

Whining I place my hands over my face. "Mom, I don't want to gooooo."

"I wasn't going to make you but he insisted. The boy is serious about his money. He's really trying to save up for a new guitar. I even told him I wouldn't count it against him. Are you okay with this?"

Getting out of bed, I slip my feet into the furry pink slippers that often await me beside my bed. "Sure! That's my friend. We're super cool now, Mom."

My mother nods her head in approval, "Good to know. I need you to be ready in ten minutes so we can leave."

Ten minutes is not long enough to get ready but I know if I even said a word she'd just simply scold me while saying, Make it work. I beat her and do it on my own. I've never prepared myself faster ever in my life. Quickly tying my top around my neck as I look at my self in the mirror, I helplessly wonder what to do with my hair.

"Monica, let's go. I'll be in the car!" My mother yells from downstairs.

I look myself in the mirror. "Shit!" I whisper to myself as I frantically grab a brush. My hair is still blown out from Saturday and I have no time to do anything special to it. Brushing it out into a tamed mane, I slip on the matching blue butterfly headband that coordinates with my top and jeans. I rush down with to the car the moment I get my feet into my sandals.

Driving, my mother talks to me with her eyes on the road. "You two good friends?"

"He's cool."

She shakes her head, "I see you guys laughing and playing around at that piano. It's good to know he's grown on you."

"Or grew up with me." I look over at my mother as she pulls up to Ms. B's house. She has a semi-bothered look on her face as she says nothing until getting out of the car. She just purposely ignored me! I follow behind my mother into her friend's house.

When the door is open we're greeted by Andre. We once hung out together back in middle school but when he hit high school, he decided I was too young to hang around him and his crew. The funny part was that I was only a grade below him, just like Prince— who I've somehow never seen with Andre. Andre and I are still friends. There are no hard feelings. His family and my own will be friends for life.

"Hey, what's  happenin', Mo?" I throw up a piece sign as his attention turns to focus his wandering eyes on my mother. "Mornin', Ms. Brenda. How are you?"

My mother mother smiles as I come before her, pushing him aside to enter the house. I double back and high-five Andre from beside him. "What's up, Dre?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing much. I'm about to run off to the rink." My mother and his mother are heard embracing in the kitchen. "Prince's real sick. If you want a face mask, I took some last time I was at the hospital. You can have one. They're in my drawer. On the left next to my..." Andre leans forward to give me an exclusive. "Other protection." He then walks out the door, the both of us still laughing upon his exit.

Ms. Bernadette speaks to me from the kitchen where she is with Mom. "Monica, you can go down the stairs to Prince's room. I'm going stop by the store, tell him I'll be home in a couple of hours."