Ty'Lia's momma was trying to grant a favor. Mother to mother, she understood that having a child move out is hard. She would want them to be safe at all times, so she offered her friend's son a place to stay until he officially got on his feet. Nobo...
"You can order whatchu want, you know I'm paying." I nodded reluctantly, picking something. I wasn't used to it. With a big family like mine, we rarely eat out. And when we do, we don't go anywhere expensive.
"Why you looking like that?" He chuckled. I just shrugged. "How was school?"
"Stressful, per usual. How was your day?"
"It was straight." He shrugged. "Same ole same ole." I nodded. I sat up a little.
"Hey..." I started. "What's it like? Being famous and stuff." He smiled.
"Shawty, ian famous. But I guess havin' people know me is cool. I like meeting new people, and I'm glad I got to do it this way, ya feel me?"
"Yeah...must be nice."
"Could be better."
"Well, I think it'd always feel like that, cause you always hustling."
"Yeah, when you always hustling." He agreed, a smile forming on his face.
"What? You bein' weird again."
"You just don't know, you fucked up." My heart rate probably went up by 1,000.
"What I do?" I asked, biting my lip.
"Let me find out you got my mentality, then you really ain't gone get rid of me." I was kind of shocked, and he thought it was just the funniest thing.
"Oh, you jus' reminded me. I found out what I want when I win the bet."
"You're not winning, but okay. I'm listening."
"If I win, you gotta let me take you to Savannah for a minute."
"Why?" I asked, curious.
"I want you to see how I lived. What about you, know what you want?" I finally did.
"Well...I mean, you could help me decorate the twins' room. We got all the furniture, I just wanna surprise my parents with a paint job and decorations while she's in the hospital."
"Awwww, you so sweet." He picked at me.
"Shut up." I mug him and sip my drink. We talked for a little while longer before the food came. And lemme tell y'all, that junk was bussing.
"It's good, huh?" I realized how I probably looked and eyed him, nodding shyly.
I am the queen of making myself look stupid.
"You good, I'm just fucking with ya." I sucked my teeth. *
"No, I'm saying though...I just don't listen to it." I shrugged. We were in the car now, about ten minutes away from my house. We were having crazy ass conversations. This time, it was about me listening to rap—or the lack thereof.
"So, youn like it?"
"Ian say allat, I'm just saying I've never had an interest in it."
"Do you want an interest?" I shrugged.
"I mean, I guess it wouldn't hurt." He had his arm extended with his phone in hand, but he drew back a little.
"Now, ion want you gettin' in trouble and shit. Can't pin that shit on me, ian going down withchu. Yo daddy is a big ass nigga." I sucked my teeth.
"Man, gimme this phone. Mama and daddy don't care as long as we don't blare it."
"Listen to my playlist, then. Matta fact, imma download it on yo phone when we touch the house. Imma have yo lil ass Kodak bopping and shit." I scrunched my face up while he snickered.
"That sound weird."
"Imma let you determine that when you see it. But for real, it ain't all about bad shit. You'll see, especially listening to my boy."
"Who ya boy?"
"You'll see." I roll my eyes and scroll through the playlist. His phone buzzed in my hand.
678-272-0182: I need some more tho 😩💦
678-272-0182: LMK when u coming
I handed him the phone back quickly.
"Somebody texting you." I wiped my palms on my pants. It was an area code for Atlanta and the surrounding areas, so this was probably really recent.
Great.
"Aye, ian talked to that girl since I got down here."
"Who?" I tried to act clueless.
"You know what I'm talkin' bout. Yeen gotta worry about her."
"I wasn't, but okay." I bit the inside of my lip as we pulled up at my house. He cut off the car and I opened the car door. He grabbed my arm and I looked back and him, confused.
"Come here." He licked his lips and leaned over. I shut the door back in fear of something flying in.
"What?" All of a sudden, he came close and kissed me on the lips. Obviously, I was caught off guard and felt like I was making myself look stupid again. He pulled back and smiled.
"Them preacher boys kiss better than me, or what?" I really didn't know what to say.
"I had a good time, Preciate it. I need a shower though. See ya inside." I closed the door and rushed in the house.
"Hey, y'all!" I say to everybody sitting in the living room. Kelsey and Amber gave me a look, and I just ignored them. I went upstairs. Instead of showering immediately, I went in the empty room that's supposed to be the baby room.
I looked at the mess of the walls. Before then, I had started painting. I decided one side would be blue, and the other pink. After I let it dry, I would paint an animal and some other stuff on both sides, then set up the room.
I had a lot of faith in myself, I was just too lazy to come through. To get my mind off of the events of today, I started back rolling paint onto the baby blue side.
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