belligerent.

belligerent • eleven

I couldn't stop looking at my reflection. My hair was cute, makeup was fly, nails just done; I was feeling like a snack.

"Amber, girl come on!" I look up from my Snapchat to see Venus had finally found a parking spot. She turned the car off and threw the keys in her bag before she got out. I got out on my side and smiled up at the beaming sun. Wasn't shit about to ruin my day.

We were planning on just walking around Lincoln and checking into a few stores but I had to put together something real cute to go with the rest of my look. Everybody passing me was going to remember this beat face and fresh ass outfit.

We walk down the strip and decided to hit H&M first. Then Forever 21 & Victoria's Secret. After an hour or two, we walked inside of a 7/11 because Venus was hot and wanted a slurpee. I stayed outside because the smell just got to me. I just requested that she got me a slurpee as well and stayed my ass out.

I was going through my phone and checking the views on my snaps and my Instagram notifications. I saw that someone had screenshot one and asked where we were. I saw that the person was Isaiah and I gave him the location. I hadn't seen him in a while.

Venus exited the convenience store and handed me my blue raspberry slurpee. I immediately took a sip, sighing at the coolness and the flavor.

"Remember whenever we used to come down here everyday when we first moved here?" Venus asked causing a smile to spread across my face as we walked.

"Oh my God! We would just look at shit because we were broke as fuck." I took another sip. We sat on a patch of grass running through the strip and all of our bags by us. "And then I stole that shirt out of H&M and almost got our dumbasses banned." She laughed and I laughed along.

"No bitch, your dumbass." I added emphasis on the word 'your'. I wasn't smart enough to be stealing anything. I'd end up snitching on myself.

She rolled her eyes playfully and pulled out her phone. "Isaiah asked where we at." She looked up and looked behind me. I turned around and saw him and about five other people with him.

They made their way over to us and it was clear that they had already been to the beach just down the street. I only recognized Isaiah, Ski, & that guy Rob from that night. Two other girls were with them and they were acting as if they didn't see us.

"Hey y'all." I greeted them and welcomed the hug that Isaiah was giving me. Ski snickered, already wrapped around Venus. "Texans." I flicked up my middle finger at him and waved at Rob and the other two girls.

"Your mans is here somewhere." Isaiah said to me with a smirk on his face. I furrowed my eyebrows and pointed to myself. "Who is my mans?"

"Your mans. My boy. You know who, stop playing dumb." He continued. I rolled my eyes and took another sip from my drink. "That's not my man." I replied. He shrugged and took the cup out of my hand, taking a sip himself.

I was still a little salty about Jahseh even though it's been two weeks. I should be over it by now but I'm not. It felt okay to ignore him but now that he's ignoring me, I feel terrible. I wanted to text him or hit him up somehow to apologize but I had a feeling that he would reject it and me. I've been trying to work up the courage to do it but I just couldn't.

"Let me go put my shit up and we can do whatever." I said. Everyone said some form of 'Ok' and we made our way to the car. I sat my bags in the trunk and waited for Venus before we made our way back. This time, I noticed an addition to the group. Jahseh and some other girl stood with everyone and his arm was around her neck all protective like.

A nervous lump began to form in my throat but I swallowed it quickly. I snatched my drink from Isaiah who had drunk up more than half of the cup.

"You owe me a whole new drink. You drunk more than I did!" I hit his arm and waved the cup in his face. He chuckled and snatched it out of my hand, downing the last of it.

"Come on."

We entered the convenience store once more and I had forgot about the stench of stale taquitos and hot dogs. The smell hit me and I opted to hold my breath. I didn't want to go out there. I didn't even want to see Jahseh's or his little girlfriend's face. My mood had dropped from a 10 to a 2 in a matter of seconds but I didn't want to go home yet.

I watched Isaiah grab a bigger cup for the both of us and fill it with the slushie of my choice. I stared at the cup filling up while chewing my bottom lip.

"Hey Isaiah?" He looked up from the cup in his hand and nodded his head. "Huh?"

"Is...is that Jahseh's girlfriend?" I asked and my fingers began tapping the counter under my hand. The sound of my nails clacking on the plastic sort of calmed me.

He shrugged and handed me my cup after fitting the top on it. He walked ahead of me and grabbed a bag of hot cheetos on the way to checkout.

"That's all you want?" He asked. I sighed, grabbing a pack of starbursts and adding it to the other things on the counter. My eyes wandered to the window where everybody was at. He was whispering something in her ear. Something that made her giggle and lean closer to him.

"Amber." I quickly looked away and towards Isaiah who was gesturing towards the door.

"Oh. Yeah...my bad."