“I told you to meet me out here. What do you think I’m on?”
We only had a little over a month left in the school year, and I had already been accepted to the college of my dreams. I was going to be twelve states away, and she knew that she was not coming with me. Justine was a cool girl, but she wasn’t the brightest. Although my skills on the court were carrying me to the school of my choice, my academics spoke for themselves. Our parents didn’t play when it came to all of us having our shit together academically.
“Sssss,” I hissed when Justine started rubbing on me through my sweats.
I looked deep into her green eyes. Under her eyes were red as if she had been crying, and I wanted to ask what was wrong, but ever since I had been accepted into school, she had been an emotional mess.
“Are you going to miss me when you’re gone?” she whispered in my ear before gently nibbling on my lobe.
The truth was, I was so ready to pick up and leave that I didn’t think I would miss a damn soul. I loved my family dearly, but a nigga needed his space for real. Besides being the oldest in the house, I really wanted to create some distance between my father and me. He had expectations of all of us, but for some odd reason, I felt like the ones placed on me were far more. I knew parts of my father that the girls didn’t know. So, I was holding on to that weight as well as the weight of this new him. I shook my head to rid my thoughts of my family and focused on the light-skinned beauty in front of me.
“Mmhmm,” I grunted.
Right when she was about to pull my pole out, the bell for the end of the day went off.
“Gotta go, love.”
I kissed the side of her face and quickly fixed myself before rushing out of the bathroom. I walked through the sea of kids rushing out of the school until I made it to Maliah.
“Aye, big head, you ready to roll out?”
I poked her in the neck as she was walking past me. She lifted her shoulder to block me from doing it again.
“Yeah, man, let’s go.”
Although she had her license and own car, we always drove together. On the ride home, I drummed the steering wheel with my hand. Maliah was quiet, too damn quiet, and I knew that she was sitting beside me, probably overthinking how this conversation was about to go with our mother. We sat silently as the massive gates to our home opened for us. Once they were fully out of our way, I sped down the long driveway to the house.
“Hey…”
She turned and looked at me.
“You got this,” I reassured her.
She shook her head up and down and then popped her door open. One of Dad’s cars wasn’t parked in the driveway, so Iknew that she could have this conversation with Mom without worrying if he would overhear anything. Shit, if you say the word boy too loud in the house, he appears in the doorway of whatever room you’re in. I remained seated in the car as I watched her walk into the house. Before she opened the front door, she turned and looked at me one last time. I stuck my thumb up to give her all the encouragement she needed. She smiled and then walked in and closed the door behind her.
“Ma gone kill her ass,” I mumbled under my breath before grabbing my phone and scrolling around for a bit.
I didn’t have much time left in Florida, and I was about to have as much fun as I could before leaving.
Chapter 2
Maliah
Itook a deep breath as I stepped inside. My heart was thumping so much that I could feel it in my ears. The house was quiet, too damn quiet, and I knew Mom was probably in the living room sitting Indian style, scrolling her phone.
“Ma?” I called softly.
“Hmm?”
Her voice came from the sofa. Just like I expected, she was sitting cross-legged with her robe wrapped snug around her curves. When she was relaxed, a robe always graced her frame. Her face was clean of makeup, and her hair was up in a messy bun. Her eyes lifted to me, and I knew instantly she sensed something was up by the way worry coated her face. I knew that she could tell by just the tone in my voice that something was bothering me, so I forced a small smile.
“Can we talk?”
She tilted her head slightly to the left and held this look of curiosity.
“About what, Mali?”
My hands were sweaty, and my chest was tight. I rubbed the palms of my hands down my jeans before I opened my mouth.
