Finding Grace

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Hey baby. How's it going?" Jess asked Rome when she answered the phone.

"Hey ma. It's fine. I just wanted to let you know that I agreed to be this girl's escort for a ball.

"Awe, look at you making friends. Is she pretty?"

"No, but it was her mom's idea. She seemed embarrassed so I agreed."

"Rome. You can't just go around doing that."

"Well she needed one, and besides a girl like her could use a guy like me as her escort."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Everybody will be so surprised when they see me." He said.

"Rome you're being selfish."

"Sorry." He said. "I'll shut up."

"Mhm. You can do it, but you're gonna be nice to this girl and be her friend and never bring this up again. It's her day and it's supposed to be special for her."

"I got it." He said sadly. "It won't happen again."

"Rome come on!" Cam said waving him towards her and running away.

"Well I gotta go. Bye Mom love you."

"Bye. Behave." He hung up and followed Cam outside where she was waiting on him.

"We're supposed to be there already." She said pulling his arm.

"You're taking this too seriously." He told her.

"Shutup." She demanded. "I don't think you understand this. This is something that I've been looking forward to for months and now you can come with me."

"You all haven't even told me what we're really finna do." Rome complained buckling up.

"They opened up a new supreme store in the mall and I wanna go buy something." She cheered.

He groaned and looked down. "Cam." He groaned.

"What?"

"I'll spend my whole allowance in there on one shirt."

"That's ok it's my treat. My daddy gave me his card." She said flashing Jerome's card. "Whatever you want is what he told me."

"Ok." He said shrugging. "I'm down."

They smiled in agreement coming out of the store.

"That was more fun than spending my own money." Rome said laughing.

"Yeah. He's gonna be surprised when he sees that charge." She said laughing.

"Hey Camiella!" They both turned their heads towards the source of the greeting and Cam took off. Rome was shocked when she ran up and kissed the dude right on the lips.

"Hey Ryan." She said laughing. "Ryan this is my brother Rome. Rome this is my boyfriend, Ryan."

"Yeah." Rome said shaking his hand.

"I didn't know Cam had a brother."

"I didn't know she had a boyfriend." Rome said still shocked. He honestly thought Cam liked girls from his time spent with her, but he never asked.

She smiled and shrugged. "What are you doing here?"

"Hanging with the guys." He said. "What about you?"

"Shopping with my brother." She told him.

"Alright well I'ma get back to them niggas and I'll call you later." He told her while walking away.

"Bye." She said giggling.

"Well he seems nice." Rome said.

"You really think so?" She asked. He nodded. "That makes me happy. Come on I'll treat you to icecream."

"Cam I can't eat icecream-ahh." She started pulling him and Rome struggled to keep up.

"Shutup. You'll eat it cause I bought it." She told him stopping in the food court.

"Fine." Rome said. "You're going to work out with me though. Because your diet's awful and I'm gonna get you in shape."

"I'm not fat!" She said angrily.

"Did I say you were fat dummy?"

"Basically. Telling me to work out it like calling me fat." She said.

"If I call you fat will you work out?"

"You know what?" She said. "I'm not buying you anything."

"Ok." Rome said shrugging. "That's fine with me."

"Good. Go find a table." She demanded. Rome walked away and sat at an empty table.

"I don't know why she be yelling at me. She better be lucky she older than me or I'd be assuring my dominance right now." Rome mumbled to himself. Someone took a seat across from him and Rome looked up to see the same girl from yesterday.

"Hey. Sorry for being so quiet yesterday." She said leaning over. "I'm not usually like that. It's just a facade for my mom."

"Oh, well that's interesting." Rome said.

She flipped her hair and smiled. "Well, I am interested in you."

"Um I'm not." He responded.

"Well you must be. You were so eager to be my escort." She said. "The least I could do is return the favor."

"Well-"

"Um leave." Camiella said rudely. Nova looked up and they threw daggers at each other.

"I'm having a conversation with Rome." She said standing up. She walked over and sat in his lap smiling down at him. "Do you two know each other?" She asked already knowing. "Oh you're siblings aren't you?"

"Yeah." Rome replied looking down at her lap. Rome wasn't no virgin, but he never had a girl just sit in his lap like this.

"Though so."

"Rome is she bothering you?" Camiella asked. "Cause I'll beat her ass for you just say it."

"Oh no you don't have to do that." Rome said wrapping his arms around her waist letting her know he was down with the deal.

"Nova what are you doing being a little hoe again?" Ryan asked coming over and snatching his little sister out of Rome's lap.

"I'm sorry Camiella. Was she bothering y'all?" He asked.

"Yes." Cam responded sweetly. "She's pushing all up on Rome and they don't even know each other."

Nova broke away and scoffed. "Well Rome doesn't seem to have a problem with it." She said sitting on his lap again.

"Look, I'm not in this." He said grabbing her by her waist anyways.

"Rome come on. It's time for us to go." Camiella said walking away.

"Call me." Nova said standing up. Rome nodded and she handed him a napkin. He caught up with Cam and she took the napkin throwing it into the nearby fountain.

"That trick ass bitch whore is gonna get thrown around again I swear. Rome don't ever fuck with her it's bad luck." He had never seen Cam so riled up over something, so it must've been serious between them.

"Why? What happened between you two?" Rome asked.

"It's a long ass story for another day." She looked down and took a deep breathe before returning to her cheery smiling self. "So let's just go home and get some rest. I'm really tired. Sorry we couldn't stay longer."