pushing rayana's head to the side, sierra parts her hair slowly, dividing it in half to section it for the fourth cornrow. her sister came over slightly unannounced—an hour late from the time she said she was gonna be over—with nothing that sierra had asked for her to be done, done. like having her hair washed.
"quit moving, rayana!" sierra says, purposefully yanking on her hair harshly.
"ow!" her sister yelps, slapping her leg.
"hold still, girl!" sierra says, pulling her head back to the position she needs it in. rayana mumbles something and sierra rolls her eyes.
they sit in silence as sierra finishes the fourth cornrow and starts on the fifth of six. "how was miami?" rayana asks. sierra hopes her sister doesn't catch her hesitation when she momentarily stops braiding.
"it was fine," sierra lies, clearing her throat. she'd rather not tell her sister all of the detail of the trip and make her hate jack even more, because sierra doesn't even care about the situation even more, and actually misses him. the moment he came back to the hotel, she knew that she'd regret leaving and she did, but she felt less suffocated when she came home so it did some good.
rayana snorts. "you ain't gotta lie, craig. what did he do?" she asks. sierra rolls her eyes and shakes her head, even though her sister can't see her. "sierra, lying won't make me dislike him less, so just tell the truth. i don't even care like that anymore, because you don't listen to me anyway, so my opinion really shouldn't matter that much if you're just gonna do what you want." rayana adds when sierra doesn't say anything. she has a point, but sierra still cares about her family's opinion on him, even if she continues to date them knowing they all care less. at the end of the day, she's gonna date who she wants, but the approval would be nice.
"i don't know, we just kept arguing, and maybe i was overreacting, but how would you feel if rakim was shooting a music video, and you walked in and some random bi- girl was dancing on him?" sierra asks. she feels kind of crazy for how she acted when people kept telling her it meant nothing. she understands that jack is a rapper and that girls are always going to be around, but she could have lived without seeing that in front of her face.
"i'd be mad," rayana says simply. sierra lets out a breath and nods. "but also, like, it's kind of apart of the job, right?" she adds.
sierra frowns. "um, disrespect? not really, no," she says. it was embarrassing for her to come all the way to his video and see that. she knows it wasn't on purpose, and that it doesn't matter anymore because the video is done, but it felt big in the moment. maybe it was a moment of insecurity, but her feelings were valid.
"whatever. so you guys were arguing—whats new?" rayana jokes.
"fuck you, but we just couldn't stop. and then... you remember cole?" sierra asks, unsure if she really wants to tell her sister this part.
"he's white?"
"obviously."
"you hang out with a lot of whiteboys, but no, i don't remember him," her sister replies.
"okay, never mind. but basically, he called me drunk and jack answered. to make a long story short, jack thought it was cheating on him, which basically makes no sense because jack and i weren't dating until a few weeks ago, and cole was befo— wait, you're dating jack?" rayana asks, cutting her off.
sierra drops her hands from rayanas hair and her sister spins around to face her, her face serious. "yeah," sierra answers, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. rayana scoffs and shakes her head.
"you really don't learn," rayana says, turning back around and shaking her head. "you're willingly putting yourself in a position to get fucked over again, that's crazy." her sister says, still shaking her head. sierra sucks her teeth and continues braiding her hair, going faster so she can get rayana out of her house.
