Breathe.

12

Nafessa Williams

The sun had just finished setting and soon the moon would rise higher in the sky. It was getting dark and I'd be more than content with staying here just sitting on the roof of my home. A car pulled into my driveway as I sat. I stood up when Zendaya, Ryan and Toni got out. "What's up?"

They all jumped as Zendaya yelled. "Bitch! What the fuck? Why would you do that?"

"My bad. I didn't mean to scare y'all. I was chilling. Toni knows the code to get in though."

Z nodded and they found their way upstairs. One by one they crawled on the roof with me. Toni sat next to me and Ryan and Zendaya sat near.

"What's up?" I asked when everyone got silent.

"Kelly put weed in Toni's backpack and the damn drug dog was on campus." Zendaya laced me up.

I looked at Toni who didn't meet eye contact with me. "So we beating her ass too? Cool."

"No!" Toni and Zendaya yelled out.

"We barely got away with that last fight. These hoes can meet me at the park or something." Ryan muttered.

Nodding, I agreed. "True."

"Weed though bruh. These girls want trouble." Zendaya called out.

"And fucking with us, they gone get it. If it's war they want, it's war they'll get." Ryan replied to her. "It's four of us now. So it's whatever."

I noticed Toni was looking at me and when we met eye contact she pouted slightly. Rolling my eyes playfully, I opened my arms and she scooted over into my embrace. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head and then laid it on my shoulder as she wrapped her arms around me. "Nothing. I just missed you."

"I missed you more."

"Oh best friends my ass Toni!" Zendaya yelled.

Ryan chuckled as she smiled. "Lesbians? I love it."

I giggled. "Girl, you told Z we were best friends?"

"Well I didn't know what to label it. That's not on me." She mumbled as she looked down at her shoes. "What time is your mom coming home?"

"Uh, I think she's working a graveyard because she left pretty late today." I mumbled back.

"She's still being an ass?" Ry asked me.

Nodding, I mumbled. "Yeah. Pretty much. She's about to make me start taking my damn medicine again. I hate taking that shit. It makes me hella sleepy."

"Medicine?" Toni asked me softly.

"Well, my mom calls them anger pills, but it really just makes my ass tired. I told her that I'm fine. It was just a simple fight, not like I went all ham bam, thank you ma'am."

Zendaya begged you differ. "Oh please, you fucking banged the girls head on the concrete. She could barely walk. They had to carry her to the nurse."

"Twitters saying that you chipped one of her teeth and busted the girls eye so bad that it started bleeding." Ryan reported.

"Not to mention the broken nose and busted lip." Z chimed in again.

I noticed Toni was shaking her head and I sighed. "Look, I ain't mean to do all that aight? I just black out when I fight. It's always been like that since I was a kid. That's why I try not to, but she disrespected Toni and that wasn't gone fly."