Murphy & Jolen

Chapter 1

My sneakers looked as if they had been whitened out. They were so white that you can't even make out the shoe laces.

They looked fresh though.

I just stared and studied them as I waited at the bus stop for the bus to school. Across the street I see a white, business looking man leaving for work. His white, bath robbed, wife gives him a kiss before he crosses their fresh green lawn and hop into his Mercedes.

It was like this all around this neighborhood.
Rich, white folks, with a few blacks here and there.

I move my head to the left when I hear the sound of the city bus. I was the only one waiting for the bus at my stop. When the doors opened I flash the driver my student I.D. card. At that exact moment there was a few guys that yelled, enthusiastically, "Murphy!" I turn towards them, smiling briefly, and take a seat.

A week ago I was a new student at this new high school, in this new town. I wish my parents never moved us out here because this place wasn't my scene. Before Section 3 of Shoreview, I was attending an all black school with a few whites and Hispanics. At this new school it's all white with a few blacks and Hispanics. Once some of the black guys saw me they quickly swallowed me up. Yay! A new black student. And some even flocked around me as if I had an aroma called "popular" or "cool". I am just a laid back kind of guy. With my nice light brown skin, perfect height, strong solid face, and my creative hair that resembled Wiz Khalifa's old look, with the blonde streak in the front.

Yep, I seemed to have made friends my first day and get a few date offers from the black girls. But I wasn't interested.

Out of all the black guys that tried to befriend me I only remembered and stuck to Marquis and Trent. And all three of us were light skin niggas, Marquis being the lightest.

"Yo, man, you know JoJo coming back, right?" Marquis asked Trent. Trent chuckled.
"You gonna help him catch up on his school work?" Trent asked Marquis as he was messing with his phone.
"Hell no."
They been talking about their third friend, JoJo, since I got here. Supposedly he went away with his family on a vacation or something before I moved into town.
"And there he go."
I looked up and it was another light skinned dude but he looked separate from Trent and Marquis. He stood out from everyone else. I never seen anything like it. It was freezing cold out this morning but all he had on was a white-tee and close fitting blue jeans that hung low and showed off his navy blue boxers. Instead of a back bag he wore a flat bag or whatever those things were called, but they had strings to tighten them and wear over the shoulders, but they couldn't carry much. But what eventually caught and held my attention was his noticeable, very, light brown/tan eyes. My eyes were then drawn to the piercing that was in his left cheek. His whole right arm was tatted up as well.

Interesting.

He looked like he was cold with his hands shoved into his pockets.
"JoJo!" Trent and Marquis called with enthusiasm from the back of the bus where we were all seated.
JoJo stuck his tongue out at them as he came silly jogging towards us. And of course his tongue was pierced. But twice. He had a loop ring that sat on his tongue, pierced on the surface, with a vertical bar pierced through the tongue, through the loop ring. He sat next to me, not even seeming to notice.
"How the fuck ya been?"
Surprisingly his voice was deep and it had a booming quality. His appearance and voice were two different things that didn't match or seem fit.
"Same same," Trent said.
"And this is Murphy," Marquis said with his hand on my shoulder.
JoJo's eyes were then on me.
"JoJo," he said.
I nodded and looked away. After a few seconds it still felt like his eyes were on me, but once I looked at him, out the corner of my eye, I realized that he wasn't looking at me at all.