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I knew never to judge a book by its cover, but I honestly just assumed that Jah was a dope boy. Number one, he walked around with large amounts of money in his pockets, wrapped up in rubber bands. He knew damn near all of the niggas that stayed in the apartments where I lived, not to mention the damn car that he drove. I knew my reasons were probably crazy to think that he sold drugs for a living, but that was the purpose of assuming, it was meant to make an ass out of yourself.
“Wow, that explains all of the tattoos you have,” I told him as his arms lay out on the table, filled with tats. He was wearing a polo shirt, which he had the first two bottoms undone, making the few tattoos that he had on his neck visible.
“You can say that. I have a love for art. What about you, Ms. Antonia, what do you love?” he asked me.
I couldn’t stare at him in his eyes for too long because it was almost as if he were hypnotizing my ass when he did that. And what was up with this love topic? Why has it been a topic of discussion lately?
“I guess you can say I love school. It’s the only time I really get a break from the problems that I have at home,” I told him.
As I was answering his question, Tacarra walked past with her group of friends, and they all stared in our direction. I immediately felt the hate that they radiated my way, which caused me to bend my head down. Jah rea
ched over and lifted my head back up.
“You know them or something?” he asked me.
“I know three of them. The one with the curls in her head is the one I came here with,” I told him.
“You got anything in her car that you left in there?” he asked me.
“Yeah, my book bag is in there,” I told him.
He nodded his head and then stood up. “Ay! Come here,” he yelled toward Tacarra and her friends.
They all looked back and started coming in our direction. I looked at this man like he was crazy, but I didn’t say anything. They wall walked over to Jah with school girl smiles on their faces as they admired how fine he was.
“Antonia said she left her book bag in your car. Go get it and bring it back over here. You ain’t got to worry about dropping her off at home. I’ll make sure she gets there,” Jah said to Tacarra and she looked at me.
“My sister know you out here fuckin’ with the homeless?” Meccah asked Jah, referring to me.
“Ay bitch, watch your mothafuckin mouth! Fuck your sister by the way! You saying that shit like that’s my bitch or something! Like I’m supposed to be scared of her ass. Tynesha don’t run shit but her damn mouth, you remember that,” Jah said and I smiled inwardly at him taking up for me.
“Bring her book bag, we’ll be over here when you get back,” Jah said, taking his seat again and they all walked away, but not before they all gave me hateful stares.
A part of me was happy that Jah had taken up for me, but then another part wasn’t so happy because I knew for a fact that whatever friendship Tacarra and I had was definitely now over. I could tell from the way she looked at me when she walked away.
“Don’t let them bitches talk about you like that, Antonia! You let them get away with it once, they’ll consider you to be weak and they’ll keep doing that shit. I understand that it’s four of them and it’s one of you, but you got to stand up for yourself. Matter of fact, you don’t even need to be hanging with them bitches. They fuckin’ miserable, and they got to put on all of that damn makeup to feel good about themselves. Don’t ever feel like because you not dressed the way they are and because you not wearing a shit load of makeup, looking like a damn clown, that you’re not beautiful because you are! All of that extra shit don’t mean a damn thing to me,” Jah said.
I assumed that he would be attracted to Tacarra and her friends, and never thought that he would see something in me. When you go so long not seeing anything in yourself, you expect people to feel the same way.
“You two ready to order?” Phillip asked, coming back over to the table and placing our drinks down in front of us.
Jah looked at me, indicating for me to go ahead and place my order first. I saw a few things that I wanted and I didn’t know when the next time would be there to eat, so I decided to order all of it that I wanted.
“Okay, I’m going to have the smoke house double with one half onion rings and the other half the American fries, with a strawberry shake,” I said and Jah looked over at me and smirked.
“And for you, sir?” Phillip asked.
“Let me just get the rocket double, with the original American fries,” Jah said.
Phillip then took both of our menus and walked away.
“I want to see your little ass eat all that damn food,” Jah joked.
I may be small, but I was greedy as hell and I could eat. I think I was like this because it was rarely ever any food in the house, so when it was, I always took advantage of it. We sat and talked, and a few minutes later, I saw Tacarra and the girls heading in our direction, with Tacarra holding my book bag. Jah stood up and took the bag out of her hands and set it next to him.
“Damn, girl. What the hell you got in this damn bag? Bricks?” he asked me.
Laughing, I said, “No, I have seven classes and I make sure I have a folder for each class, plus pencils and stuff like that. Oh, and my uniform is in there too because my aunt thinks that I’m at school right now,” I told him.
