The 2 Minute Engagement

Chapter 5

Chapter 5
Lucile

2016

"Kim! Jackson! Lucy!" Auntie Steph yells from the kitchen in her Los Angeles house. "It's Chris on the phone for you!"

JJ, Kim, and I run out of the living room where we were playing the Wii with our brothers and cousins. We grab the landline phone from Auntie Steph. I hold the phone in between us so that all three of us can hear.

"Hey Chris." Kim greets politely.

"Did we get the roles?" JJ asks. I glare at her rudeness and impoliteness.

"Of course you got the roles," Chris Robinson says. He's called us from the usual big birthday celebration we do in May because we have so many May birthdays in our family. "I already knew who I wanted to be SJC. Your cousins were great but they were carbon copies. They couldn't act like how I wanted SJC to be portrayed. You three, however, have the looks, the skills, and the potential to take the movie to the next level."

"Thank you, Chris." Kim smiles.

"Do you have NE casted?" I ask, trying to contain my excitement.

"Almost. We're missing a big Ronnie, Mike, and Ricky but we have big Ralph, Bobby, Johnny and all five littles." Chris tells us after a pause.

"When do we start boot camp?" JJ asks. "Will we have to actually do the boot camp? I mean, this is a big part of our lives that we know like that back of our hands. The performing, I mean."

"Yes you still have attend. It's a requirement for the role," Chris shrugs. "You start next week. See you then."

We smile as we hang the phone up and walk back to the rest of our family. We take great pleasure in telling our family that we will be portraying our moms and aunts in the movie.

"Duh," Auntie Jacque rolls her eyes after our brothers and cousins stop making so much noise. "You were the next options after it fell through with Lynn, Andra, and Annie."

"My babies will be movie stars." Daddy stands up to wrap his arms around me and Kim. He kisses both of our foreheads.

I smile widely as our uncles and brothers hug us and give us words of encouragement. It feels great to be apart of something like this. And it hasn't even started yet.

"I just can't believe that you wouldn't sleep with Michael B. after six years but you slept with a random at the club." Wally teases me as he and I stand outside in the balcony of his old bedroom.

"Yeah. Me either. But I needed just one good fuck," I say and we laugh. He shifts uneasily next to me. "What's wrong, Wally?"

"The secret lover." Is all that he says.

"This secret lover isn't a girl, is it?" I ask. He looks up at me with tears in his eyes. "Oh, Stephen," I wrap my arms around him. "What's his name?"

"Uriah Owens," He answers. He pulls out of the hug to wipe his face. "You're the first person I told. I haven't even told my mom or dad."

"What's he like? When did y'all meet?" I ask all the right questions. But are there really any right questions to ask your cousin who you assumed liked girls? "Are you bi?"

"I'm not bi. I'm not gay. I'm not straight. I'm just Wally Gill. I love Black women but he's special. He's the only guy I've ever felt like this for. I mean, I've secretly had crushes on Idris Elba and Michael Ealy for the longest, but I never wanted to sleep with them." He says.