𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬 𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦

ch.ii:good for you

CHAPTER TWO 🐛

VON:
If you asked me the question, 'what's one thing you only get once a year?', my answer would be BOTHERED.

One day of the three hundred sixty five in a year, I'm bombarded with messages from people who wouldn't look my way any other time. For one day, anyone with my phone number, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram has an excuse to hit my line and disturb my peace— be it with good intention, however.

I don't give it too much energy though because if Facebook didn't remind people about birthdays, I know I would never be getting this many acknowledgements. And in knowing that if they didn't get a notification I wouldn't be hearing from them makes me a tiny bit less appreciative— I ain't ungrateful.

But, the way my phone's constant notifications woke me up this afternoon is highly disrespectful.

I turned over, looking for my phone, finding it between the cushions of Javi's couch where I fell asleep in the earliest parts of this morning after chopping it up with Antwan well into dawn.

The notifications continued as I unlocked my phone and pulled down the notifications bar only to find out that these were not all birthday messages I was receiving. Something happened. They all were along the lines of 'come home', 'where are you', and 'granny looking for you'.

The last door in the hall opened and Javi's brother came walking into the front room, shirtless with the night still hanging over his features. With a face like his though, even a year full of sleepless nights couldn't take away from his perfect complexion.

"You mind giving me a ride?" I asked him, unsure of what I was heading into or what I was going for. He nodded, walking back down the hall to his bedroom.

Zar's car is a newer model than Javi's. It has fresh paint, new car smell, and he actually uses the radio. Steve Harvey Morning Show was on a low volume when Zar looked over at me. "Happy Birthday by the way."

"How old you turn again?" He asked, looking at me as long as he could while keeping his attention on his surroundings while driving. I could see him smile from the side when I answered. "Word? So you grown grown." He said, looking me up and down. Times like this I really thank my maker that I ain't a light bright or I'd be as red as the sun the evening before a hot day. Red— not from being turned on or bashful, but from embarrassment... or maybe irritation? I couldn't decide in the moment. Either way, the twenty three year old on the inside acknowledges the sixteen year old that lives on my face; we coexist in harmony on most days.

"I thought you was gone say eighteen or something. Good for you."

There it is. Them words that make you feel like shit for something that's actually a good thing. 'Good for you.' The way my middle finger itches right now is beyond this world. Good for me?

I nodded my head letting my eyes scan the street as we turned the corner into my neighborhood— usually barren with just my grandparents' house and four others; the dusty pavement can only park so many cars. The empty lot beside the canary blue two family flat was now strewn with caddy's and obvious rentals because no one I know lives in Florida or Illinois.

The just about abandoned street was eerily quiet despite the crowded way. My stomach dropped into my ass as only the worst scenarios streamed into my psyche... the last time folks drove in and popped up at my grandparents' home, someone had died. It was a huge deal because deaths are so far and few and in-between in my bloodline; everyone lives well into their early hundreds if not older not including the hood rats who get killed in their early twenties — only because those aren't natural deaths. The oldest family member living now has been walking the earth for sixteen years past one hundred.