Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
🌹
Because I was no longer with The Delegation, Abraham had no way of keeping tabs on me. Adonis told me that the band members, though supportive of us as a couple, were frankly relieved that I was off the bus. Angelo had hired back their old guitarist and that was that, or so everyone thought.
I knew that Adonis and I were going to stay together. I wasn't thinking about marriage too fervently, as I only said that to Abraham because I was angry, but Abraham was right-Adonis and I were still kids-but I definitely knew that I was in love and wanted to be with him.
Back in Hampton, I continued living at home with my mother and playing music. I felt free now to tell everyone about my relationship with Adonis and what had happened with his family. It was odd in a way, to find myself immersed in Adonis's family and in The Delegation for so long that I'd forgotten what it felt like to have so much support. I was reminded of how good my own friends and family were.
I started playing music with my friends Rhonda and Mary. We managed to land some gigs, and I made decent money. All in all, I was doing fine. More than fine: for me, the pressure was off. I talked to Adonis regularly on the phone and we saw each other whenever and however we could. He was still on the road a lot, but that was okay; I was busy working on the weekends and he was too. We still had our weekdays together.
Freed of that nerve-racking situation with his father and the other members of The Delegation, I started to enjoy my life again. Adonis, though, was still suffering, having to live with the guilt of sneaking around with me behind his father's back. He was filled with that same nervous energy I'd been feeling before I got out of the band.
Adonis had always been a risk taker, but that energy compelled him to do some even crazier things while we were apart. One night, for instance, Adonis called me to say that he'd hurt himself bungee jumping.
"You did what?" I frowned at the phone receiver, sure that I'd heard him wrong.
I hadn't.
Adonis had been at a carnival with his friends. One of the attractions was a tall platform where you could climb up a ladder, put on a harness attached to a bungee cord, and jump off. Adonis had twisted his back in the fall; he even went to see a chiropractor, yet the pain was still acute.
"What in the world were you thinking, doing something that dangerous, Adonis?" I asked. "What was going through that thick head of yours to make you want to do that?"
"They dared me," he said.
I had to laugh. As I'd discovered with Adonis, it was a mistake to dare him to do anything, because ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, he would actually take the dare.
