DUDE (zion kuwonu)

!Birthday!

~february 13th~

it's edwins birthday party tonight, it was his actual birthday yesterday, but who throws parties on thursdays? i see jalen coming around the corner and i immediately turn my back and grab some random items to decorate with
"you know you can't hide from this" he says noting that i saw him

"from you or the situation?"

"...yes" he says with a sly look then walks off....honestly at this point i'm happy to be with zion, committed or not, he'll get the signs.
"tonight's game was crazy right?" i hear a voice as i snap out of my thoughts
"huh" i turn around and see Kameron, we met through edwin, we usually stay after together for fun without bus passes while he teaches me "the senior life" he makes it a big thing but it's really just about, how getting high honor roll can be easy and how to make teachers love you for no reason "yea it was crazy especially when you missed that pass" i respond to him

"i slipped once...ok?" he says as he laughs at me

"oh so we quoting drake now?"

"what?"

"you can't be serious 'niggas caught me slipping once, ok, so what' don't tell me you don't know that song"

"yea but not word for word"

"disappointed" we laughed and talked for a while about the game, its fun to talk to him, his bubbly personality hits different when you're mind is stuck on something that you don't want to think about no more...for example it's like this stupid song has been stuck in your head allll day but as soon as you jump on face time with one of your friends and then they start singing a song and now that's the only song you can think about now...yea he has that type of attraction

"so where's edwin at?" he says looking around

"i don't know probably trying on 5 different outfits at once"

"wrong" edwin comes at of nowhere "i can't believe my mom really let me have the house to myself this time...i think she's starting to trust me"

"wrong" i mock edwin "she put me in charge"

"no she didn't" he says as if he knows all the facts

"did too bro, i have the receipts" i pull out my phone and show him the text messages between his mom and i

"well damn laylani, you couldn't just let me get this one win"

"...next time birthday boy" i tease him as he walks away. Kam and i talk for a good 20 minutes as we do the bare minimum of  setting up, it was good until people started coming in and the party actually began. i hate parties, sure they're fun, but...the germs, the sweat...it skeeves me out!

i move to the kitchen as i slowly back out of a conversation that i didn't mean to get into with Kam and his friends, they're too high strung for me anyway, as i back up i back into Zion
"what took you so long to get here" i say as i give him a quick hug

"middle child stuff, but what are you doing in the kitchen"

"trying to get away from a conversation"

he laughs at me "you need to widen out"

"well i only walked away because Kameron's friends starting talking about their basketball game for the 5th time, i'd rather a one on one convo with purpose, but you already know that"

"ok then maybe you shouldn't widen out"

"why such a quick change of mind Mr.knowseverything ?" i ask sarcastically

"their whole vibe is off"

"what do you mean by off? Kam is fine but every-"

"yea it's that Kameron dude that i dont like"

"uhhhhm why, hes mad chill, plus you sound like a dad" he looks at him for a little longer "comon stop being a weirdo and be the party person you are" i say as take his hand and bring him to the middle but he pulled the both of us to the stairs, it's some what quieter just enough so that we can hear each other over the music.

"my head hurts ode" he lies so that he has a reason to why he's acting weird...i'm used to his fake excuses

"yea it's because of that damn phone"

"headass" he calls me as we both laugh

"nah but seriously aren't you 'sick'" i throw up my hands and make the air quotes

"well i just wanted to miss first period and then second and also third did i say fourth, fifth, sixth and sevent-"

"okok i get it" i laugh at him. we talk for a while about his family and he said that everything is really coming together almost perfectly he says that it's too perfect and his dad is hiding something but i think that his dad is really trying he just can't see it at the moment.

________

"yea i know i saw it, that had me weak" zion laughs as we talk about brandon tripping over a cord when he had all the cups in his hand, but he wasn't here early to see that...

"how long have you actually been here" i ask even though i know the answer

"long enough to see you and Kam become best friends all of a sudden"  he laughed, it was a joke to him but it wasn't funny

"cause we are friends" i said with a straight face "exactly what you and i will be if you don't stop playing around" i mumble under my breath knowing that he can't hear me over the music and talking but he did

"huh? what is that suppose to mean?"
well maybe zion it means that you should just claim me as your own girlfriend, it's not like i'm asking for marriage or something i just want everyone to
know that we're together i'm tired of people seeing us as some mystery it's getting old and i just want you to be mine. but instead i say

"nothing"

"so you wanna be petty now?" ...why is he getting serious

"sure just like you're being jealous"

"jealous?" his voice gets more defensive

"yes jealous, you've mentioned Kam's name like 3 times under 10 min just because we were talking before...jealous"

"since when does that point out jealously?"

"you can't be serious?" he just stares at me with nothing to say, this is dumb, why are we in a heated convo? i see Kam wave me down from the corner of eye because he needs a cup pong partner, any other day i'd take sitting in complete silence with zion than do something with someone else but i have the opportunity to be 'petty' like zion says i am so imma take this and run with it "i guess i'm needed" i shrug my shoulders and get off the stairs

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{i'm starting to put down the dates so you guys can understand the timeline} also austin's and ainsley's new baby is soooo cute🥺i'm really happy for them.

also i'm so proud of the boys for using their voices to spread the words on this, unjust, current situation. it's really sad to see my people go through this...#BlackLivesMatter✊🏽

k bye🤙🏽💕