One year earlier...
Brooklyn
"Bihhhh hurrrr up," I yelled through my phone as I put my car in park and then killed the engine.
I had put on a little country accent to make fun of my best friend, Anika. She was from North Carolina, so her accent was heavy as hell. When she came to my high school, she was real quiet, but after sticking to my rib for three years, she had become just as ratchet as me. I tapped my stiletto nails against my steering wheel as I impatiently waited for her. We were supposed to go and get us some graduation dresses.
When it came time for us to pick colleges, we made sure to both apply to the same universities. I'm a New York girl, so although Brooklyn was all that I knew, I wasn't scared to be far away to get the full college experience. Out of every college that we applied for and got accepted to, we decided to take our talents to North Carolina. It worked out for the both of us because, for me, it was far as hell from home, and for Anika, it was familiar territory. She was from that state, and her big brother was going into his final year at the university that we had chosen.
My aunt would always say that maybe I should have applied to a CUNY school so that I could do my classes and still keep my job, but na, I didn't want that city college experience I wanted to be on campus. I wanted to be surrounded by lit ass home games and parties. The quicker I got out of my aunt's house, the better. For one, it was too many damn people in that small ass apartment. I was my mother's only child, but living with her quickly became unbearable, so in my junior year in high school, I moved in with her sister. My aunt had four daughters, and two of them had their own kids. Overcrowded and all, her house was better than mine. College was supposed to be my escape from the drama if you asked me. I had big dreams about how my life would go in college. I wanted to stay up late studying because the day prior was filled with parties. I wanted to walk around campus wearing the letterman jacket of some football or basketball player. I wanted all of that shit from the movies and shows that played on television. If you ask me, I deserved all of that.
The sound of my car door slamming broke me from my thoughts.
"Hey guh," Anika said.
"Uh uh bih, you ain't gotta slam my damn door," I said playfully as I rolled my eyes.
"Guh byeeee this beat-up ass Toyota. Maybe if I slam the door again and harder, the damn dents on this side will pop out on this mufucka."
She laughed hard, and I mean hard as hell. She was always cutting ass on my car, but yet she always needed a ride. I took pride in my little piece of shit ass car because I had worked hard for it. While in high school, I got a little job at Burger King. I saved my coins and got this hooptie because I knew that I would need me a set of wheels for college.
I let Anika have her laugh because she didn't know anything about the struggle. She wasn't rich, but she was fortunate. The only reason why she didn't have herself a luxury car like her older brother, Monroe, was because she didn't start college yet. It was like her parents were handing out luxury vehicles with a freshman college schedule. I wished that I could have hopped in line for one of them bad boys, but I was given to the wrong womb.
Her mother was a doctor, and her father, a college professor. You want to know what the fuck my parents did for a living. Well, my mom was an unemployed drug addict. Instead of putting food in the fridge for her child, she sold whatever food stamps she got to support her drug habit, and my father was off somewhere living his best life. So basically, her way of living and mine were totally different.
I just ignored her clowning and started to drive towards Kings Plaza mall. When it came to her graduation dress, there was no budget, but with me, I had planned on going to Forever 21 and calling it a day. I had to save all of my money, especially since I had to say bye to my job in a few weeks when we left for college. In two years, I had saved up a little over twenty thousand from working at Burger King and occasionally taking money from guys that I used to date. Mind you, I had to dig into my little stash every once in a while for gas, food, and to pay the little under the table car insurance that I had. I knew that everything would work itself out on its own as soon as I started college. That would be my fresh start.
