Someone to Love

-2-

I was sitting at the kitchen table, trying to ignore the fact that I had to work in a couple hours. Being a receptionist at Dad's job was boring work. Being pleasant just wasn't my forte. If I had to choose, I'd be out with my friends until the crack of dawn.

"Good morning, sweetheart." Dad's voice chimed, pulling my attention away from my phone and to him.

"Morning, Dad."

"How are you feeling?"

"Crappy. I really don't want to work today. I just feel like going out with Olivia and Dee."

"Well, that's what adults have to do, sweetie. Pops and I told you that if you didn't go to college, you were going to get a job."

"But Dad, what about my party years? I'm entitled to those aren't I?"

Dad laughed and poured himself a cup of coffee. He didn't answer, which meant he was done talking about the matter. I went back to scrolling through Twitter.

"Have you spoken to your sister lately?"

"You mean, Miss Perfect Everything? No, haven't heard from her."

Dad was about to press more when T.J. came into the kitchen. "Good morning, Sis. Hey, Dad."

"Hey, there, son. How are you this morning?"

"Hungry. Hopefully, curlyhead over here didn't eat all the Lucky Charms."

"Real funny, T.J." I snapped. "Let's keep in mind that your hair is just as curly as mine is."

"Yeah, but my hand doesn't get lost in mine." He put his hand in my head and gasped. Instinctly, I swatted him away with the back of my hand.

"Be nice." Dad warned. Pops came into the kitchen after a while and greeted us with a hearty Goodmorning and Dad with a passionate smooch. Even after all these years, they were still in love.

T.J. left for school, Pops and Dad left for work, and I was home alone for another hour. I decided to shower and get dressed in my usual black slacks and dress shirt. I put my curly, light brown hair (the product of having a black dad and a white mom) into a ponytail and put on my cat-like eyeliner and deep red lipstick. My white wedges finished my outfit, and I was finally ready to go.

I was there in twenty minutes after struggling through Miami traffic. I clocked in and headed to my desk in front of the building. Fuck, I really hated this job.

Lunch couldn't have come sooner and I was off to find a grilled chicken sandwich and a latte. I was just sitting down to my lunch when Olivia called me.

"Tri, guess what I just got for us."

"What, girl? Damn. Calm down."

"We're going to see Beyonce live in New York. Can you believe it?"

"How in the hell did you get tickets?"

"Rolando got them for me. And you said he was just a creep."

"Well, considering he's married, I still think he's a creep."

"Whatever. I called Dee and she's coming, too. We're leaving in two weeks so make sure you take off."

"Alright, alright. How long we gon' be gone? Dad gets mad when I take off work to go out all the time."

"Just three days. We leave that Wednesday, the show is Friday, we leave Saturday afternoon."

"Okay, I'll make sure to take off. Speaking of work, I gotta go. I have like two minutes to get back." I threw away my trash and wuickly got back in my car to drive the ten minute drive back to my job.

"Alright, don't forget now."

"I won't. I promise. Bye, Livie."

I hung up and drove back to my job. The rest of the day all I could think about was how much fun I was going to have.