SPIRIT!

Pushing Forward

I woke up the next morning and realized that I had probably had the best night sleep that I had since Marco died. I rolled over and look at his side of the room which was now empty. I shed a tear but did not break down. Speaking at his funeral kind of gave me some closure. I know Marco would not want me laying around crying and dragging around. I got up and grabbed my things to take a shower. After my shower I went to get some breakfast with Niecy.

"I am anxious for the cheer meeting later today. This will be the first time the whole squad is together again since Marco died", Niecy said.

"Yeah it will. It is a shame that everyone could not travel to the funeral but I was still happy with the ones who did show up", I said.

"I have to be honest it will be strange being at this meeting knowing that we are one member short. I still can't believe that he is gone", Niecy said about to tear up.

I placed my hand on hers. "I struggled to believe that he was gone too up until the funeral. Seeing the coffin made it more real for me. One thing that has been helping me cope is knowing that he died having fun. I mean don't get me wrong I know he did not want to die as a result of a motorcycle accident but he had one hell of a night before the crash."

"I guess you are right about that. I know that I had too much fun. I apologize again for wandering off at the party. Maybe if you all had not been looking for me we both could have kept Marco from......"

"Niecy....stop. We can not blame ourselves for the accident. We had no control over his actions that night. He wanted to be on that bike and neither one of us could stop him."

Niecy shook her head in agreement. We continued to eat and then I remembered that I wanted to talk to her about the party this weekend.

"So, yesterday I had one of the most unexpected encounters on campus", I said.

"With who....oh shit! Did Jimmy come here to visit you from Atlanta?", Niecy said with excitement.

"No.....that is one lighter that has no flame. I actually spoke with Wesley yesterday."

"Wesley?!!!? Oh please tell me you both didn't get into a fist fight", she said with worry.

"NO Niecy. I can admit the conversation started off a little rocky but he ended up offering some encouraging words on how to deal with death and he even invited me to a party this weekend."

"Really? I mean it could be a set up. You both were at one another's neck ever since you spilled that drink on me that night."

"He seemed genuine Niecy and I honestly felt like he was being honest."

"Ok, so I guess the question is are you going to go?"

"Not really sure yet but if I do go, I can ask him to invite you as well because I do not want to go alone."

"If you go, I go", she said smiling.

"Well then looks like we got to get some new clothes for the party then", I said as we finished eating.

About an hour later Niecy met me at my car and we headed to the mall. We stopped at a couple of stores and I found an outfit pretty quick but Niecy was taking forever.

"Come on Niecy, you been looking at that same skirt for over 10 minutes. Either you want it or you don't."

"Please do not rush perfection Olen. I need to make sure that I turn heads at this party tomorrow."

I shook my head in disbelief. I walked over to the bench just outside of the store when I saw Ejay walking out of one of the shoe stores. He saw me and I quickly looked down at my phone and pretended like I got a call. The trick didn't work because he still walked over right to where I was sitting.  I was trying to act like I was still talking on the phone but he just stood there waiting for me to finish my fake conversation. I acted as if I was ended it and stood up.