This is Us

6. Elevators

      After I left Oreo's house that day, I had to give myself some concentration, being up under Oreo for too long can make me want to throw myself completely at him. Falling for him just isn't in the quota.

     Besides, I was too young to fall in love anyways. The following weekend Oreo had asked me to come with him to some party, I forget where it was. I told him that I was going to spend my weekend with my cousins Brandon, Robin, Raheem and my brother was tagging along too.

      We went to 620, an old apartment complex that was the center of sexual violence in the city of Trenton. It was always someone being sexualy attacked there. Days like that made me wonder what would life be like without them.

      A life without Robin, a life without Brandon and Raheem. A life without Leslie, Isrealys, Tinaje, Ashlie, Dasia, Natalia (talie), and Breasia. How would life go on?

      I stopped thinking like a sentimental bitch and began my weekend off with a game of hide and seek in 620, which was a really popular game back then!

     Me and Robin went together and the others three nighas went in a trio.

     Robin texted me, "Cusso, take the elevator to floor 18, imma meet you there and then we can split up to confuse them."

     We played too much Call of Duty for this!

  

   We met on floor 18 and decided that I would stay in the building and she would run outside to distract them. I saw  them all running after her so I was headed up to the 29th floor to sit and wait for them to come back once they realized that I was still inside.

   I pressed "29" and tried to get service, which was shitty at the moment.

    While I was busy fighting my phone I noticed that the elevator had came to a stop. Some one was calling the elevator! I ain't want it to be no nigga off the street who was gone try to rape me in the elevator, after the whole "Jeremy situation", I wasn't about to get raped!

     Scared I hurried up and pulled my A&F hoodie over my head , and stepped to the back-right corner of the elevator. I waited till the person walked inside the elevator to look up. Get the fuck outta here!

      It was Oreo!

"Oreo?" I asked.

"Yeah?" He replied with a confused look on his face.

"No. Bae it's me!", I reached over for a hug and got a huge handful of his dick. Of course his freaky ass grabbed my whole right ass cheek!

    "Damn. What you doin here at 620?", he asked.

"I was here wit Robin and them. But they gone now. What you doin here?", which was the question of the hour, cause he ain't cool with nobody at 620.

     "The party I told you, it was here.", oh OK, it better.

"Were you bout to go?" He said while wrapping his arm around me.

      "I was about to go sit at Jessica's house on floor 29. Where you bout to go? I asked.

"I was bout to go home, but since you here, I might as well go wit you!' He said while kissin on my neck.

    Jessie would a been cool with me bringing over Oreo, but I was afraid if Oreo came with me we would have ended up fucking.

     "I'm not going anywhere special. You might as well just go home." His face grew sad and he turned in thought. He came over to me and kissed me on my forehead and began to speak.

     "Come with me.... to the roof." Oreo says while taking my hand.

      "What's on the roof?", I asked nervously. Taking deeper breathes cause he was getting closer and closer.

     "It's a surprise. Something that I was going to wait to give to you, but why not just give it to you now, right?", he said giving me "the puppy face".

   "I guess I don't have any thing else to do. But make it quick, I don't wanna get locked out!"

     He hurried up and pressed "29" and then gave me a hug of appreciation.

We get to the 26th floor when outta-no-fucking-where, the elevator stops! This time was different.  The elevator just.... stopped. The lights went out.

     "Bae... please tell me we not Finna die! Oh my God!", okay... So..... I panicked, okay?

"Yo chill the fuck out! We good! The power just went out, the back-up generator should be kicking in soon! Calm that shit!", damn baby, you got it!

    The lights came back on and the elevator continued to move up. I hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.

   Ding! The door opened and I made my way to the stairs. He grabbed my waist and walked with his arms around me from the back, it was like he was helping me walk, and I could feel his dick poking up from his pants.

  The door swung open and he watched me make my way up the stairs. A whole bunch of  "DDH" was written in graffiti on the walls. It stood for "down da hill", which was a gang. I was kind of cool with them so I ain't have no problems whenever I went out there.

  The door to the roof was hard to get open, so I stepped back and signaled him to open the door.

    Of course his strong ass got the door open on his first try. He looked back and laughed at me.

  Whatever.

We got to the middle of the roof and I could see pretty much all of Trenton. It was beautiful.

   "I haven't been so in love with anybody before. And what we got going on scares me, but I'm trusting my heart every day to guide me into your happiness." He reaches in his pocket and pulls out something small and shiny.

"Pineapples...", his nick name for me,"this, is the Diamonte del mare, the diamond of the ocean. My grandmother gave it to me the day I left Italy, it's the only the thing I have left to remember her by. I want you to have it. You make me remember her. You take me back to the days when she would hold me in her arms, and make me feel like I was loved, you give my life meaning. You give me..... worth.

    He puts his head down to hide away the tear falling down his cheek.

     I wiped the tear from his face and gave him a hug. He squeezed me so tight it was like he was on the edge of a building, holding onto me for dear life. I had no choice but to say," I can't. What if I lose it?  It just means so much to you."

"You're worth more than that ring! You mean everything to me! Which is why I want you to have it. That way when I look at you, I can be reminded of the two people who loved me more than anything in the world.", he squeezed me tighter.

  "I'll take it. I'll take it. But if we ever break up, i'm keeping this ring!" He laughed and took my hand.

   "We won't break up. Ever." He took my lips for a journey. I swam in his soul, I embarked on a journey inside his memories. Basking in the glory of his soul's happiness.

    I eventually lost the ring when I moved to Georgia, just like how I lost him. I can't even remember how he used to carress my wounds, and make the pain fade into oblivion.

    Tell me Oreo, can you ever forgive me?

No. You can't now.

   Damn.