Once You Go Hood.....

Chapter 22: Cali Or Bust

Kyra-

I stood beside the car watching Luis and his roommate load our luggage into his truck. We had about a 2-hour drive to Cincinnati. I was soooooo dreading my return to the place I never wanted to be again. I really honestly could never go back home and be just fine with that. Cincinnati was a part of my life that I never want to re-visit. Everything happened there. Some of the most fucked up times of my life happened there. What reason did I have to go back? Sire's words rang in my ear as I watched my bags being put into the back of Luis's truck and secured tightly.

"Just in case you change your mind, I left a ticket to LA at will-call at the airport. All you have to do is pick it up and I'll do the rest."

Those were his words. If I wanted to go to California, I could. But I promised I'd go to Cincinnati with Luis and I planned to stay true to my word. Besides, I couldn't escape my past for the rest of my life. It was inevitable that I'd run into someone from back home sooner or later so I'd much rather get it all over with now.

"Alright, that's the last one. Let's go, mami." said Luis as he dapped his roommate. I waved as he walked back to their dorm room and I got into the front passenger seat as Luis climbed into the driver seat. He turned the key in the ignition and his truck came to life, instantly blasting Ain't No Way Around It by Future. He turned it up, if that was even physically possible, and pulled out of his parking spot and got on the road. I took my ipod out of my purse and hooked it up to his radio so I could play my music. He looked at me like I was stupid but I didn't give a fuck. I searched for my musical obsession as of lately and landed on the song Fantasy by ScHoolBoy Q. That's my JAM. I started singin along to Jhene Aiko's part and Luis looked over at me.

"You know, you got a nice voice Kyra. How come you ain't in no type of music program at school?" he asked me. I shrugged.

"Music ain't where my heart is. Fashion, that's what I wanna do with my life." I said. He nodded.

"Yeah, I can tell. That's part of the reason you get so many niggas. You have your own unique swagg. You don't dress like any other female on campus. I mean, look at how you dressed." he said, causing me to look down at what I was wearing. I was wearing an aztec patterned bandeau and white and black Boy London tights. My hair was up in a messy bun with my bang left down and a black bandana rolled and tied in the front on my head. On my feet were black combat boots and I wore a denim jacket with the American flag on the back but instead of it being white, red and blue, its was black and white. To set it off, my lipstick was bright red and I just loved the way it highlighted my skin tone. Yeah, I guess you could say that my style was a lot more eccentric these days. But people seemed to like it so I stuck with it. Not that I gave a fuck about what people thought anyways.

"Yeah, but I hate the word swagg. I prefer to call it style." I replied. It was true. All anybody ever talked about anymore was swagg. I HATE that word. It seems like any and everybody has it and I'd like to think that I'm an original. So having 'swagg' is out of the question.

"Well then you have style."

"Thank you, Lulu." I said. He looked over at me with an unamused face. I chuckled. He couldn't stand when I called him that. But I made it clear that he'd better get over it because I wasn't gonna stop.

"That's not funny." he said and I laughed even harder. I turned up my music and laid back into my seat. I closed my eyes with a smile on my face. But I knew that when I opened them and woke up in a few hours, my smile would probably be long gone.

*

I woke up just as we got to the part of the highway that I recognized. I looked over at Luis and he was focused on the road. I looked at the time and sat up when I realized we were minutes away from being close to my side of town. I sut up and he looked over at me.