Whirlwind

5 - Part II

[Riley]

After all these years you'd think I'd be accustomed to the weather Chicago had to offer, but I wasn't. New York pretty much felt the same during this time of the year so I knew I would have to bring my North Face Denali and possibly my wool jacket just to have options. In actuality, I needed a ton of scarves and my winter boots the way the gust and breezes were clashing with each other this vibrant morning. The label Windy City can sometimes be a bit of an understatement for what the wind really felt like. The teaming up of the lake and skyscrapers did nothing but fuel the wind more and for some reason, 2009 seemed like it wanted to start winter early with the warnings of snow flurries I was hearing about.

Even with all this I still kept my word and rolled out of the comfort of my bed to pick Lamarr up from the airport. His flight was coming in at 8:15 and I refused to have another airport fiasco like that I had with Damon months ago, so I was up and at his Southwest terminal a twenty minutes early. I even stood outside my truck just so he wouldn't have to search high and low for me along the assortment of cabs and other vehicles waiting.

"It's a fuckin' brick out here," Lamarr gritted while walking toward me, pulling his hood over his bare head.

"I know, and you have the nerve to wear a hoodie" I shot back snidely. "Lamarr you're going to get sick."

"Aight mom," He began, totally dismissing me. "Can you just unlock the doors so I can get in."

It wasn't a question, more like a demand and I understood and abided. I myself was freezing in this nippy air and hadn't even been standing outside the car any more than a minute. I spotted him peaking his head out of the automatic sliding doors through my rear view mirror and got out just in time to catch his attention before he walked back inside. Even within those few seconds my fingertips and cheeks were among few of the things that were freezing. I could only imagine how his skin under that hoodie felt.

"Luckily for you I had the heat on for a minute so you should be warm in no time," Lamarr nodded before tossing his Nike duffle bag into the back seat. He then rested his head against the window as I saw a look of relief take over his face.

"Thanks,"

"Sure thing, love. So, how was your flight?" I asked before pulling away from the parking spot.

"Quick as hell. Champaign isn't that far from here and thanks to my manager, he found out they have small flights that leave the university out there and travel to the city during the day. I was here in no time,"

"Well that's good. Where is Ibrahim?"

"You mean Ib?" Lamarr narrowed his eyes over at me with a smirk creeping onto his face.

He knew that Ib and I weren't really that friendly with each other. For some odd reason whenever I was around the two of them or any of his friends for that matter, he gave me this cold shoulder. Maybe I was looking too deep into it since Lamarr insisted that Ib was always hard in the face and focused most of the time. He also said that came off to people who initially meet him as rude, but he was essentially a nice guy. I just had to give him time to open up to me. I wanted to agree with that but I had been around for a good five months now and the man still treated me like an unwanted guest. I felt like there was more to his actions toward me, but I digressed whenever the discussion came up and left it alone.

"You swear my nigga hates you, he does not Ry." Lamarr insisted, but I wasn't as convinced as he was.

"He does, but I don't wanna talk about that. I just asked where Ibrahim," I stated firmly making sure to add emphasis to his name. "was at since he's not here."