"we fell in love the way you fall in leaves."
Juwan "Rocky" Rockwell has had a pretty hard life. Between trying to find a way to fend for himself and dealing with the normal hardships of teenage angst, he had nowhere to turn as an adolescent and no...
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"no hiding place"
We sat quietly and awkwardly, avoiding eye contact and any conversation. . . At least, that was true for my mother and I. Juwan, on the other hand, was talking up a storm— something he's never done before. I credited such weird behavior to the possibility that he was nervous. Hell, I was too, and it was my own mother.
"So, Mrs.—" "Ms. Hampton," she corrected him. "Ms. Hampton, what brings you in town? Business or—" "Not business. I was simply checking on my daughter," her eyes darted into mine, shame filling me up like a cup although I hadn't done anything wrong.
"But, I can see that she's adjusting quite nicely to New York. I mean— she's so busy now. She can't ever call me because she's got her own male callers to tend to," my mother was never direct when she found a problem with a person, but she always found a way to let them know exactly what was on her mind when it came to them. I wasn't an exception.
"Male call. . ." his words trailed off as he looked toward me for some sort of translation. "She thinks we had sex, Juwan," my irritability radiated from my words as I continued to sink deeper into embarrassment.
"Oh. . . Oh! Oh, Ms. Hampton! It's not like that with me and Quinn. I was just—" "You don't have to explain whatever it is that you two do in private, son," my mother dismissed his words before he could even get them out. "The thing is, Ms. Hampton, we don't do anything. We're just friends. Right, Q?" he nudged me for assistance. "We're just friends, Mom," I confirmed.
"You two are just friends, yet you're both sitting before me half naked. You are naked," she directed toward Juwan, who was still only clad in boxers. "Mom—" "No, you're an adult. It's none of my business," my mother threw her hands up as if she were done with the subject. However, I knew this wouldn't be end.
"So. . . Juwan, what do you do for a living?" She smiled. To the untrained eye, it was a sweet smile, but I knew that she would soon be sinking her teeth into him and tearing him to shreds.
Juwan glanced at me to get some sort of non-verbal response. I shook my head, nearly begging him not to tell her the truth, but he did it anyway.
"I sell drugs, ma'am," he replied. I facepalmed myself. "Oh, really?" my mother's smile grew wider. "Yeah. You ain't a cop, are you?" he smirked. "Oh, puh-lease. If I wanted to protect and serve, I would've joined the army," my mother waved off the thought.
Juwan chuckled, nudging me as if to say 'see, that wasn't so bad.' "So, a street pharmacist. You really lucked up, Quinn," she reverted her attention toward me, her statement meant as an insult. "How'd you meet your friend here?"
"We met at the grocery store," I murmured with folded arms. "Oh?" She feigned as if she was surprised before simply nodding her head for a moment.
