ᴛᴏxɪᴄ // D. Swing

Cԋαρƚҽɾ 19: ρƚ 1.

December 16, 1992

Today didn't feel like Ranae's birthday, that's just how she felt. It was thunder storming and none of her friends were here to sing happy birthday to her like they usually were. Everybody except for Tyrese, Monique and Jarvis went out of state for college, they said if the rain slowed down they wouldn't mind stopping by to kick it with her.

She just missed the whole crew being together and not having to stay by the phone for one of them to call whenever they weren't busy. Ranae has a job of her own so she isn't home every hour of the day to receive a call.

Speaking of phone calls, Donald might've been the first person to call and wish her a happy 18th birthday at midnight. She could just tell he was grinning on the phone like he's been waiting for this day to come.

She still remembers him saying what he was gonna do when this day came but she doubt it since she wasn't even in the mood to leave the apartment. As he said on the phone a few hours ago, he wanted to plan something nice for her or whatever that meant. Ranae knows by now whenever de does something nice he wants one thing out of her.

Now that she's eighteen she shouldn't get into any trouble by hanging out with him. The night she got caught sneaking back in her room by her mom she had to come up with lie after lie. She never once said she was out with Donald though. She just told her mom she was at the bottom of the fire escape thinking or whatever but Mrs. Stewart wasn't dumb at all. She was young before so she didn't believe a word that left her daughter's mouth, in fact since Ranae couldn't seem to tell the truth she got her keys took that night.

She got them back now but felt like she was dying without them for a week and a half. After she got caught she called Donald the next day and told him she wouldn't be able to keep sneaking out for him, she wasn't gonna keep getting in trouble because of him. Of course he had something slick to say about that but after she chewed his ear off about the what if's he finally understood.

It didn't matter to both of them now because she's technically legal. They shouldn't have to sneak around anymore but Ranae doesn't wanna catch the wrong kind of attention right away. She doesn't want anybody side eyeing what they got going on.

"Yo Ranae!" She heard her brother Demarcus yell from the living room.

Not even answering him she got up from her bed anyway to see what he wanted. Once she peaked her head out of her room door she seen Jarvis standing in the living area. His coat was soaked and he had two gifts wrapped up in his hands.

"Hey, happy birthday" He said with a soft smile and she came all the way out the room.

"Thank you, are those for me?" She asked pointing at the gifts with a kiddy smile.

Demarcus smacked his lips as they were talking over the tv "Obviously" He side eyed her and Ranae rolled her eyes.

Jarvis took off his wet coat along with his shoes off because he knew the Stewart's didn't play about tracking water inside the house. Ranae walked over and gave him a friendly hug while he squeezed her making her laugh. He was the only person to show up but Ranae understood nobody liked coming out in the rain.

"Monique was suppose to come with me but she got into it with her parents" He notified her and she chuckled because it sounded like Monique "I don't know what happened with Tyrese though, he never paged me back" He shrugged and so did Ranae.