Him and I

Cross my heart

When I was five I went into the kitchen for some water. I, being the independent child I was, was fully capable of doing it myself. I went to go sit outside underneath a medium sized tree and watched people go up and down the street. My green plastic cup slowly running out of water.

I wound up locking eyes with the bull mastiff at my neighbors house. I never liked that dog one bit, it bit me once and I still had a scar. It began to bark loudly and menacingly. My mind was made up. I was gonna do something about that dog.

I went inside and fetched an old tennis ball, then went straight in the kitchen. Opened the cabinet under the sink and pulled out a big bottle, with a red lid, green skull and cross bones. I yanked out one of mom's yellow plastic gloves and poured the probably deadly liquid all over the ball.

I let it dry for a few minutes, then threw it into their yard. As expected the dog chased the ball and played with it for hours. The next day it was dead. No one suspected me. Hard to believe this happened while my mom was watching a movie in her room.

Sophomore year. At Jameson Creak High school. I really was not looking forward to it. Especially because today's the first day of school. I moved from the bed and took a long shower, since I woke up early.

When I was finished, I walked into my bedroom and turned on some music. Instantly black skinhead by Kanye West comes on.

I start putting on lotion and then my underwear. For my outfit I decide on black slightly ripped jeans with fishnets underneath. A short sleeve black shirt, black and white Letterman jacket, high top vans and a grey Trukfit snapback. I put on minimum makeup and go downstairs to make breakfast.

Obviously I'm the only one here because my parents are probably getting dressed, my baby brother still asleep and my older sister went off to college over the weekend. I make a bowl CoCo Pops and practically drown the cereal in milk as it turns brown.

I go to the living room and turn on the TV and put my feet on the coffee table. On cartoon network Gumball is playing so that seems good. Quietly munching my food and laughing at Darwin falling in love with Terry instead of that ghost girl. Soon my peace is disturbed when my parents make their appearance.
" Oh. Morning sweetie, you woke up early today."

"Yes Mom. How did you sleep?" I asked. "Tajah, where's your brother?" Dad asked. "He's still sleeping dad." My mother, Faith, gave my father a look for interrupting her. She answered me, kisses my cheek then goes to wake up my little brother but not before telling me to move my feet off her coffee table. Rolling my eyes, I simply stand and wash my dish in the sink. Life here is so much different from home. We have lived here in America for six years. I actually pity my brother he doesn't remember Africa. But hopefully we can take him to see it.

Since school doesn't start for another hour and a half, I take out my phone from my pocket and take selfies. My dark brown skin, wide nose and full lips stand out. My eyes are wide but actually I leave my lids half open so they look smallish. People say I have black eyes like a demon but they're just a really dark shade of brown. I'm also kinda short and on the thicker side of life. In most African cultures they prefer the females to have meat on their bones, as a result it made my grandparents and extended family feed me shit tons of food to keep me like this.

Checking my Instagram, I reply to a few of the comments my friends made on my last post. From upstairs my dad tells me to take coffee and snacks to school. My parents are almost always around even though they have demanding jobs. Which results to them bringing work home often and my brother is almost always playing with his friends and having sleepovers and sport camps, which leaves me home alone most of the time. Something I love to be.