Finding My Normal

Chapter 6

"Ki!" Lee groaned, his large hand wrapping around my wrist to stop my movement. I used my other hand to smack his hand away and kept braiding his hair. The boys had decided that we would relax around the house today. Everything was cool until Lee remembered he had a date later tonight. His only problem was that he wanted to put in an effort with this girl, and that meant he came to me. I'd suggested braids because I'd never seen Lee with them in before. I'd also taken the liberty to shave the back and sides of his hair. So far, though, my friend looked great.

    "Lee, honey, I'm going to tell you this one more time before I smack you. Let me finish, and you can go." I replied in a fake sweet voice.

    "What did I ever do to you? These are unnecessarily tight!"

    Laughter came from the side of the room where Brent and Trevor were sprawled out on my couches, playing video games on the TV. They had waited extremely patiently for me to finish with Lee's hair, unlike Jahmil who had his back leaned against mine as he slept. He'd wanted to fall asleep in my lap, but at that time, I had an electric razor in my hands. After throwing a small tantrum, Jahmil settled for waiting for me to sit before he laid leaned against my back. He'd claimed to have had a rough, long day. Honestly, the most I'd seen him do was unscrew a bottle of water.

    I was almost done with the final braid in Lee's hair when Jahmil's phone started to buzz on the coffee table. He shifted his body slightly before mumbling for me to pick it up. There was an unsaved number on the screen. It buzzed a few more times before I decided to just pick it up. I propped the slim piece of metal between my cheek and my shoulder as I twisted a rubber band onto the end of the braid I'd just finished.

    "Yo?" I greeted whoever was calling.

    The sound of rustling papers was all I heard for a solid 15 seconds before the deepest voice I'd ever heard asked to speak to Jahmil. Despite my half-assed efforts to wake him, Jahmil decided to stay asleep, only moving to cuddle into my lap when Lee sprinted away from me. I told Mr. Deep Toot that I would be able to take a message for him since Jahmil wasn't available and he asked me to tell him "we found your guy." That peaked my interest, but before I could question the deep voiced man, he had hung up. I was left with one option.

    A mischievous grin stretched across my face as I allowed my legs to fall slack, causing Jahmil's head to slide. His body followed slowly behind his big head. Soon enough, his whole body flinched and he woke up as his body flipped off the couch. The guys burst into laughter at his bewildered face. He turned towards me slowly, a look that promised death was directed at me. I immediately stood and began running. Why did I do that? He's going to kill me.

    Jahmil chased me around the living room until I ran up to Brent. Brent opened his arms for me and put his foot out to keep Jahmil away. I smiled sweetly, sticking my tongue out at the big baby. He was so fussy when he woke up. Anytime that any of us had to wake Jahmil up, we had to think of a way to do it without getting caught. Jahmil hated being woken up, but unlike me, he was always angry when his sleep was disturbed. I was always grumpy for a while after. The guys learned quick that if I was going to be woken up, they could bribe me with food. With Jahmil, he needed to be left asleep.

When he had decided to calm down, I climbed out of Brent's lap and hugged him tightly. The scowl was still on his face, but he dropped a light kiss on my forehead.

"Who called?" he grumbled.

I shrugged. "Who were you looking for? You asked someone to dig up dirt for you? On who?" Questions were fired off at Jah who slowly began to lead me upstairs. When my questions became too much, he slapped a hand over my mouth and quickened his pace. He waltzed into my room as if he owned it and pushed me towards my bed until I was sitting on the end of it. A storm was brewing in his eyes as he battled with how to tell me whatever it was that was on his mind. Eventually, he kneeled in front of me with a worried expression on his face.