A Good Thing (Completed)

Chapter 2

Two
Fix It
Jailah Christians

"What the hell did this all happen? How could I have gotten so damn drunk?" I muttered under my breath as I stared out of the window of the cab. Cairo sat next to me, busy on his phone. It was awkward, of course. Not because we had sex last night, but because we hated each other's guts!

Cairo and I grew up together, he wasn't a stranger at all. Our fathers were the best of friends for as long as I could remember, forcing us to be nothing less than the same. They were the biggest players known to man, women came in and out of the both of our lives and with that being said they kept us occupied by sending us places together, so they could have the houses to themselves. Not that we minded it though, there was nothing we didn't do together that was until the beginning of high school when everything changed due to his father marrying one of my dad's many ex's. Although it didn't seem super serious to me, apparently, they took that 'male code' to another level and banned us from speaking to each other.

It was hard but I was loyal to my father as was Cairo. My dad was my best friend before anyone else just as Cairo's was his. They were all we had after all, his mother passed and mine was on a corner somewhere; leaning over the windowsill of some thirsty old man's car, accepting his offer for a shoot-up and nothing more than fifty dollars. My dad and her split after my birth, they co-parented but all my memories were filled with her doing just that, selling her body for much less than she was worth. Eventually I stopped spending time around her due to CPS labelling her an unfit parent, but I had a few run-ins with her since our city wasn't the biggest, those run-ins revealing that nothing at all had changed.

In addition to our father's beef as time progressed, Cairo began to climb the social ladder in high school while I stayed right at the bottom where I felt comfortable. Comfortable until the bullying started and he was the ring leader of it all. Teasing me for my freckles, how untamed my hair always was because I really and truly didn't know how to deal with my curls which is something he knew; especially due to the fact that I was raised by a man that almost gave me an edge up one day because he was getting overwhelmed by putting it into a ponytail. I got used to being called a nerd, being pushed into lockers while him and his group made their way down the halls, but when he realized that it wasn't getting to me anymore; Cairo then went for low-blows during our junior year about my mom. That's when I had enough and basically... broke his nose causing me to get kicked out of the school of my dreams and sent to the ghetto-est high school that was located a good hour away from my house; and that was on a good day.

Although Harold Lively Academy was nothing less than a mess, it was the cocoon that allowed me to become the woman I am today. I didn't know why people always belittled hood schools, I swear their teachers actually cared about their students even though they were underpaid and left with less resources. You learnt not only book smarts amongst those four walls but you also learned streets smarts, which is what I loved more than anything. HLA became my stomping grounds easily, guys foamed over me for the things that people used to hate me for at my old school. It was also the place where I met Ericka, who became my ride or die, sister, and other half. Our friendship wasn't typical, we didn't hate on each other, we genuinely wanted each other to succeed which is why we constantly pushed each other. Ericka and I became roommates after high school, struggled together until we made it out; she pursued her modelling career while I found a good medium of my love for sports and being bossy; becoming a scouting agent for the NFL.

For a couple years we were both barely home due to our traveling schedule conflicting. Our friendship started to fade and of course we decided to take a vacation together and fix it; it mattered that much to us. During that vacation however, she introduced me to her new 'boo' and my worst enemy. Cairo. I had wished that she would snap out of it and come back to her senses but unfortunately, she moved out of our spot and in with him which I hoped was a phase that would go away, but sadly she ended up making bigger mistake by getting engaged to the damn fool and of course being the best friend, I was; I supported her dream without one negative peep meanwhile trying to keep my distance from him as best as I could.