Blessing in Disguise

Niggas

Picture: Malik Romero

After I left his house, Marquise climbed back into his car, and drove straight to his best friend, Dre's house. Dre lived on the East side of Dreyers, the ghetto. He and Quise went way back- their mothers were best friends, so they were like cousins. But unlike Marquise, he was a hood nigga. Quise had hood in him, but Dre had ghetto running through his veins. He was brown-skinned, with tattoos all over his body, he dealt drugs to make a living, and always wore a grill on his bottom row of teeth, the hood girls around Dreyers loved his straight white teeth.
But anyway,

When Marquise arrived at Dre's "trap house", he was welcomed by his squad.

"Ayeeee, it's Quise!", the youngest member of the group, Terrell beamed.

Terrell, Dre's younger brother, was 15, & bad as hell. He was lightskinned, with his hair tapered, like the rest of the boys his age. He was sitting on the ratty, used couch, playing Xbox. He paused the game to get up and give Marquise dap.

"Wassup, Lil nigga? You been good?" Quise asked, embracing him.

Terrell rolled his eyes and laughed. "Yo, yall gone get enough of treating me like a lil kid. I'm grown! I'm one of yall!" He exclaimed boldly, his chest pushed out.

Brushing him off, Marquise laughed, and proceeded to the backyard, where everybody else was. There he found Dre, along with his 3 other friends: Marcus, Malik, & Jamal. The boys were sitting in lawn chairs, drinking beers, watching a basketball game on a small TV resting on 2 crates, and passing around a blunt. Upon seeing Quise, Dre passed the blunt to Marcus, and loudly exclaimed

"QUIIISSSSE!!" He was greeted by the other boys, and pulled up a seat.

"Ayeee, y'all. So what's the score?" He asked, reaching for a beer in a red cooler sitting nearby.

Jamal, who was the most into the game, pushed back his long dreads, and filled Quise in on the details of the game- Clippers were ahead by 2 points.
Dre was less interested in the game & was more interested in Quise, since he hadn't seen him in a while. Since Marquise's parents died, Dre made it his business to make sure that he was always doing okay- & it always made him feel nervous when he hadn't heard from Quise in a while. He was like his brother, and he would go crazy if he lost Marquise. But he never told him this, of course.

"Aye nigga how you been?" Dre beamed, glad to see him. Marquise took a sip of his cold Corona and smiled.

"I been straight. I got finals this week so I been-"

"Finals? You still at that hoot ass school?" Malik laughed, cutting him off.

Malik was 19, black and Mexican, his light skin was covered in tattoos and he had long curly hair that flowed down to his back. He'd dropped out of his fifth year of high school just a few weeks before this. He told everybody that he did it because school was dumb, but really, it was too hard for him, and he just gave up. He was secretly jealous of Quise, his blood cousin, because he loved school, and always had good grades. He would always try to put Marquise down about staying in school, making him believe that it was stupid and "fa suckas". It made Quise feel bad, which made Malik feel good. Marquise shuffled uncomfortably in his seat, trying not to seem like a loser because he was still in school.

"Yeah" he said blandly "I only got a few months to go, a nigga might as well finish, I guess."

He brushed it off, but Dre knew what Malik was doing and he knew that Marquise was very excited to graduate. Still, he ignored Quise's bland tone, and continued talking about school.

"Well dassit? You ain't on honors or sum?"

Marcus, who didn't really care much about school (he was still in school, but didn't make grades, so hearing about Marquise's success annoyed him too), wasn't trying to hear any of this either.
He was more interested in other things like-

"Fuck allat, is there any fine HOES atcho school?" He asked excited.

This got the attention of all the boys, except Jamal, who was still glued to the TV screen. Marquise half-smirked, and puffed on the blunt that Marcus had just passed to him.

"I mean yeah they aighhhht... But this new girl-"

"OOOH, was she bad?!" Marcus asked eagerly.

Marquise was feeling himself, he had his friends undivided attention & especially because of what happened with me earlier. He liked me a little, but he wasn't really in the mood to be in a relationship. His ex girlfriend of 2 years, Janae, left him right after his parents passed & that pretty much killed his faith in relationships. He didn't believe in love, since almost everybody he loved left him one way or another. I was no different than the others to him.

"Oh maaaaan, she bad as hell! Cute lil shape, nice booty, brown skin, good hair, big lips... She ain't no hoe though. She one of those quiet-"

"Then why we talkin bout her?" Malik laughed as he rolled his eyes. Marquise smirked smugly.

"I'm gettin to that, but niggas won't let me finish" he said confidently. "So anywaaay...."

He had told the boys everything that went down when I came to "Watch Netflix & chill". He gave them all types of details & the guys hung on to his every word. By the time he finished his story, he was feeling himself. He felt like the man.

"Aright young blood, I see you!" Dre cheered, giving him dap.

"Wait, so is she ya girl?" Marcus asked, curious.

That question caught Quise off guard a little, but of course I wasn't his girl. He barely knew me, which is why he was so surprised that I put out so quickly. Even I was surprised that I put out quickly. Neither of us liked each other THAT much, so it was a mystery to us why we both decided to share such an intimate moment.

"Hell nah that ain't my girl, nigga!" He laughed, totally brushing off the thought.

"So she ain't ya girl, and she let you hit the first time y'all chilled.... She a hoe!" He laughed loudly.

The rest of the dudes started laughing right with him. Marquise laughed, but in the back of his mind, he couldn't help but be bothered with the fact they were calling me a hoe. They didn't know me, and he thought I was really cool. But still, he didn't want to look look like a pussy, so again, he played along. He laughed with them as they talked about me. But soon after, the conversation faded into other things, and a few hours later, Marquise drove home.

As soon as he got home, he cleaned up his living room, went upstairs, and took a shower. His iPod on the jack blasting music, he let the hot water fall on his body as he began to relax. The shower was where he did the most thinking, and of course, he began to think about me. He thought of the conversation we had over the phone, how long we talked about normal things, he thought about how shy I would get when I was around him, and how he could taste my peach lipgloss when he kissed me. He told his friends I wasn't his girl, but he began to wonder if maybe it was time to give relationships another chance. He could definitely see himself with me. & he didn't have any reasons not to like me...

Right?