Obstacles | Keith Powers |

tell me about it

Keith

october 18th, 4:15pm
I was stretching during practice with my teammate, Gabriel when I saw the dance team walk out onto the football field. My eyes scanned for Jasmine and when we made eye contact, I smiled and she waved at me.

"You feeling her bruh?" Gabriel smirked at me. I looked at him and chuckled, shaking my head.

"Just a little, man."

"She's pretty but she real quiet. She only has a select few of friends." He said to me. I looked at her and wondered what story she was hiding behind those pretty brown eyes.

-

After practice ended at around 6:30, I freshened up and changed in the locker rooms.

"Alright y'all, practice next week Friday after school until 4. That way you all can head off to the game." Coach Jefferson said to us. I nodded and walked out the locker rooms.

"Good practice today girls. We'll rehearse with the band Friday after school, before the game. Make sure to check the group chat for outfit reminders." Jasmine said to them as she backed out of the girl's locker room.

"Oh shit-- sorry! Oh hey Keith." She sighed as she caught herself when bumping into me.

"It's a'ight. Wassup? How was your practice?" I asked as we walked out of the locker room hallway together.

"Uh, it was good. We have a performance for the homecoming game on Friday night. What about yours?" She smiled as we walked out the front of the school.

"It was good. But what you gonna get into later?" I asked her as we neared the parking lot.

"Well right now, I'm going to call my mom for a ride home, and then I'm going home to help my little sister with her homework." She said as she pulled her phone out of her bag. I took the phone out of her hands and looked at her. She gave me a look.

"Let me give you a ride home. My car is over there." I told her, pointing at the Black 2016 Nissan Altima. She smiled at me and nodded.

"Alright."

-

In the car, there was a comfortable silence. I decided to break the ice by turning the radio on. Once it was on, Take You Down by Chris Brown decided to come on.

"This is my man." I heard Jasmine mumble and grin. I turned it up a bit louder and used my phone as a microphone while I was driving.

"Here we are... all alone, in this room." I sang off key, looking at her. She made a face and laughed at me.

"Oh hell no." She laughed.

"And girl I know, where to start and what we gon' do." I continued to sing as she laughed at me. Eventually, she joined in when the hook started.

"It ain't my first time but babygirl we can pretend yeah. Let's bump and grind, girl tonight will never end.." We sang together before getting ready to hit the high note.

"Let me takeeee you down!! I really wanna takeee you down! Show you what I'm about!" We screamed at the top of our lungs. We sung the whole song until we reached a stoplight and busted out in laughter.

"You know, I'll give you your credit. You're a damn good singer." Jasmine told me sarcastically and laughing. I chuckled and shook my head.

"I can't take all the credit though, the way you almost blew my eardrums when you hit that high note was," I said while holding up the 'OK' sign with my fingers. "awesome." I laughed. She smiled and took a deep breath and puffed it out.

"I wanna get high." I heard her say. I immediately looked at her in shock.

"You smoke?" I asked with my eyebrow raised in excitement.

"Shocker huh? Do you?" She smirked, looking at me.

"Hell yeah. I got two pre-rolled joints in here, hold up." I reached my hand behind her seat and dug in the seat pocket for the bag. I pulled out the small ziplock bag and handed it to her. She grinned deviously and opened it.

"Holy shit, this smells wonderful,"  She laughed. "I know the perfect place we can go to smoke." She told me.

-

2 hours later, we were sitting on the hood of my car at an edge that overlooked the city of Sacramento. It was after 7 so the sun was set and the city lights were on. I watched as she placed the blunt to her lips and lit it. She lit mine too and stared at me as we both inhaled and exhaled, sighing in content afterwards.

"This is the best stress reliever to be honest." She said as she looked at me, blowing out smoke. I nodded in agreement.

"Trust me, I would know. But what has you stressed? You look like you got everything under control." I asked her as I put the blunt back to my lips.

She scoffed and shook her head. "Yeah, I wish. My life is so fucked up right now. Thank God for dance because I probably would've jumped off this cliff by now." She admitted. I looked at her and sat a bit closer to her so I could hear what she had to say.

"Don't ever think about doing that or anything like it. Your life is too precious to waste. It might be a little screwed up right now, but this is just an obstacle you're gonna get over." I told her, blowing out smoke.

"You sound like you have your life under control." She said. I chuckled.

"If only. But let's start with you first. What's going on?" I asked, looking right at her. She stared at me for a moment before clearing her throat.

"Remember how I told you it's just me, my mom, stepdad and little sister?" She said quietly. I nodded not taking my eyes off of her.

"Well um, this is gonna be a long story-" She said.

"I got time." I cut her off. She looked up at me and sighed blowing another puff of smoke.

"Alright..."

fin.

I'm going to stop it right there because then this chapter would be too long. 😭