All Grown Up (Sequel To WDE)

20.

I follow Adam through the streets near his home. I can honestly say I'm quite impressed. This place looks like a normal city, the total opposite of how the media painted it. The marketplace smells of rich, savory meats, sweet incense, fresh fruit, and hard work. The men and women of the market were competing with each other on deals and who had the best merchandise. The whole scene seems quite normal. I honestly feel at home with everything, minus a few odd looks.

I trail Adam and my stomach growls. "Uhh, Adam?" I'm starving and those biscuits did me no justice.

He turns to me and his stomach growls too. "Let's just get the meat and go home. Maybe Maya has cooked?" I nod but my nose leads me to a stand not too far from us. My stomach growls loudly as the smell of cooked meat fills the air with various spices. I walk over.

"What's this?" I say over my shoulder.

"Falafel," Adam says as he catches up to me.

"What's that?"

He contemplates something and after mulling it over buys me a falafel. I bite into it and my eyes roll back a little. "Man ... where can I get me some of these in Charleston?" I ask. He laughs and asks for some. I give him half as we walk on. He buys the meat and we head home.

"Zeus, can I ask you something?"

"Sure ..."

"Have you ever regretted not being honest ? Maybe with others , maybe yourself , I don't know. Like, you feel as if you wish you would have did something ... something a long time ago ... but you didn't because you were afraid ....?"

I stop and think. "Yeah, maybe. I regret a lot of shit."

"And how did you handle that?"

"Sometimes I didn't. You just gotta make sure it doesn't happen twice. Why?"

"I've been thinking a lot lately ... you know what? It's stupid, never mind."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." He walks on.

I put my hand on his shoulder. "You wouldn't bring it up if it was stupid. You sure you're sure? Adam -"

"Boys!" Maya yells. She comes outside and I've realized how far we've walked. "Have you gotten the food?"

Adam switches from his melancholy mood to a more natural one. "Yeah. Aamir must have been asking a heap of questions. "

She gives a knowing nod. She collects the bags and walks back inside to help cook. "Adam -" I start.

"I'm fine , okay ? I'm just dealing with a minor problem. No biggie." He smiles at me. "Stop worrying."

I scoff. "I'm not worried ... you're the only friend I have here. I can't lose you too."

"You really wanna know what's wrong with me?"

"Yeah."

"I'll tell you after dinner. But in the meantime ..." he looks deviously at me.

"Adam?"

He steps towards me.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing." He pounces at me,  knocking me into their pool. I scramble to the surface, my hair blocking my eyes. I hear Adam laughing. "Payback is a bitch!" He howls.

"And she know she bad," I say as I pull him into the water. We end up play fighting for awhile until somebody stops us.

"If you two dumb asses want to fuck around some other time, that'd be nice. As for now, we're about to have dinner. Get yourselves cleaned up, " Abraham orders. He looks at us in disgust and leaves. I shake my fro and we get out. I wring out the turban Adam gave me. He looks down then leads me to get changed.