⠀⠀⠀⩩𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦？༉‧₊⋆.*ೃ·˚

Twenty-Three · Hitched

Rancho Palos Verdes, California · Wednesday, August 4th, 1993

Alexandria "Alex" Wright

"Alexandria Carlette Wright, if you don't hurry up! You'll be late for your own damn funeral, I swear!" 

In the midst of tying the black shoestrings to my transparent jelly boots, I could hear my mother shouting my government name from the bottom of the staircase.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." I said, barely above a whisper.

I rose up from my neatly made twin bed once I was finished lacing my boots and approached the mahogany wood workstation desk in the corner of Lesley and I's bedroom to quickly grab my knapsack hanging off the back of the desk chair. I struggled to push my arms through the straps as I jogged down the staircase where my mother was standing in her black pants suit and pumps with an unpleasant look upon her face.

"Here," She gently pushed the key to the house and a $5 bill inside my chest. "That's the key to the house and money for lunch. Please, don't misplace them."

"When do I ever?" I asked, pushing the items inside the front pocket of my high waist denim jeans.

"I don't know who you've been trying to impress lately, but it better not be those nappy headed hoodlums I see standing on my porch every morning with your little friend. What's her name again?"

"Linda, ma, and they're not like that. Those are her older brothers. They go to school just like us."

"I don't care who they are, if I catch you with one of them, I'ma put something tough to your behind! Now, look, I gotta work overtime tonight, so no hitting the library. I want you and Lesley in this house after school, ya hear?"

I nodded understandingly as I approached the front door with her hot on my trail.

"Have a good day at school. I love you." She placed a gentle kiss upon my forehead before pulling the front door open.

"Love you too." I mumbled, stepping out on the porch.

Lloyd was sitting sideways in the rocking chair while Linda, Ché, Malcolm, and Ferris were sitting on the porch or either leaning against the posts. They all jumped from their previous positions once my mother closed the door.

"Let's get a move on before we miss this bus." I said, jumping from the porch. They all followed me out the gate and down East Piru Street. 

"Y'all know it's career day at school, right? I hope y'all prepared for the teachers to be asking what y'all wanna do with your lives in the next year or so. I already know what I'ma say." Linda said, clutching her Literature textbook and marble composition book close to her chest.

Malcolm kissed his teeth and glanced in her direction.

"Whatchu gon' say?"

"I'ma say one of The New York Times Best Sellers." Her lips curved into a smile of triumph.

"Ayo, Linda fin' to be a 70 year old woman with a hundred and one cats surrounding her while she sits in front of a typewriter typing a bunch of bullshit!" Ferris clowned causing everyone to laugh excluding me. My face remained solemn only because I didn't find anything humorous about his joke.

"Shut the fuck up! You ain't gonna be laughing when I'm getting paid for a character based off your wack ass!"

"Ay, I believe in you, Linda." I said, gently placing my hand on her shoulder.