Skin Deep ✔️

Chapter Twenty - One

"Mum I'm scared."

Mum doesn't answer me. Mainly because I've said the same thing like a hundred times in the ten minutes it takes us to get to some fifteen story building.

We walk in and mum asks the front desk for someone named Simone Baxter and he points her towards the lifts telling her to go to the twelfth floor.

"Who's Simone?" I ask.

"A friend I made years ago when you were a baby." Mum answers as we step into the lift.

I frown. "How come I haven't heard about her?"

"People get busy." Mum shrugs her shoulders. "Doesn't mean they're not still friends."

I don't get to say much else because the lift stops and mum walks out of it, leaving me to trail behind her.

She walks over to a woman who I assume is Simone as she gives her a quick hug and they begin chatting. Simone is beautiful with long honey coloured dread locks, dark skin and eyes that reminds me of a calla lily. She's tall too, easily 5"10 but unlike me, she sits with confidence and with a smile. I stand awkwardly by the entrance of the lifts until mum rolls her eyes and waves me over.

As soon as I reach them Simone envelopes me into her arms, instantly hitting me with the smell of incense and Madonna perfume. "Oh Tonoya I haven't seen you since you was a baby!" She sweeps a dreadlock from her face and tucking it behind her ear. "Heard you wanted to talk to me."

I smile. "Mum suggested I should, said it'd be good for me."

"Walk with me." Simone says, pulling me by the hand. "I wanna show you something."

She takes me by the hand and leads me to a room behind her office, leaving mum sitting there scrolling through her insta feed.

In the room there's a bunch of statues and plaques of famous black women and what they've done. It has pictures of Serena Williams, and even of Zozibini Tunzi who won miss universe.

"Who's your favourite celebrity?" Simone asks.

"I don't know, probably Willow Smith." I shrug my shoulders.

"Why?" She asks.

"I guess she's just not afraid to be herself. She doesn't care what people think."

"Then that's what you need to do." She nods her head.

I frown. "What'd you mean?"

"When I was ten years old I moved here from Angola. I didn't make friends at all for a few years and was relentlessly bullied for the way I looked and talked." Simone says, turning to look at one of the photos on the wall.

I copy her stance and sigh. "What did you do about it?"

"I ignored them and I surrounded myself with people who liked me and appreciated all the different things about me. Not everyone is going to like you and you have to seek out the people who are going to uplift you, not tear you down." Simone explains. "It's going to be hard but you have to remind yourself that you are beautiful, strong and an amazing person to be around."

"How am I supposed to do that?" I groan, turning so that I'm looking at her. "The people I go to school with-"

She cuts me off. "Look at all these women on the walls. You think they didn't have racist dickheads breathing down their necks? Of course they did, but they persevered so that they could prove them wrong."

"Right." I nod. "Persevere."

"You've been told your whole life that you aren't enough but your existence is more than enough, your body and hair are perfect the way they are and you are worthy of unconditional love." Simone reaches over to a bookstand and pulls  out a book entitled "You Are a Badass"and hands it to me. "I want you to read this and report back to me, telling me what you think."

"Are you giving me homework?" I ask with a laugh.

"It's not homework. Just read it." She smiles back at me, pulling me in for a hug. "You are loved, you are blessed and you are beautiful."

"If I'm feeling down or something." I pause, pulling away from her. "Can I call you?"

Simone looks down at me with kind eyes and cups my face in her hands. "Of course you can. You can talk to your mum too. She might find it hard to explain herself and support you but all she wants is for you to not get hurt. She doesn't understand sometimes that you don't have to be strong all the time."

We go back to where mum is, and I smile as I watch her bring her phone dangerously close to her eyes, trying to read whatever it is that's on there.

She looks up when Simone kicks her foot and smiles at me. "You okay?"

I nod and Simone throws herself onto my mum. It looks weird considering my mom is basically the smallest person I've ever met and Simone has the height of a run way model.

"I miss you, Dumplin." Simone laughs. "We should have lunch."

Mum pushes her friend off her lap and sighs. "I miss you too, Ackee."

I snort at the nicknames and tuck Simone's book under my arm. After a few moments mum and I walk back to the hotel and I smile as I find Charlie on the floor of my room.

"God I wish I never met you." She beams as soon as she seems me. "Now I'm so bored without you."

I snort at her. "I missed you too."

She quickly stands up and I unlock the door. We throw ourselves on the bed and Charlie turns to me with a serious expression.

"So." She says.

"So." I smile.

"What happened today?" She asks.

I tell her everything that Simone told me and she nods her head to show that she's listening. When I'm finished she moves so that my head rests on her chest.

"You are perfect and I'm so sorry that the world has been hell for you but I will try to make it as good as possible at school."

"And how are you going to do that?" I grab the remote and switch on the TV.

Charlie giggles and pulls out her phone to show me a long series of texts between her and her moms. "I'm coming to your school bitch."