𝙑𝙞𝙗𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙉'𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙣

Chapter 𝙏𝙬𝙤

"I invited Enez to come sit wit us for lunch," Dynera informed them. "You should get our numbers too," Nina says innocently. "In case you ever tryna hang."

I pull out my phone and hand it to Dynera first. I see her type "D-i-e" in and I'm perplexed. "I thought you told the teacher it was spelled D-y."

"She was doing too much about it and it's pronounced the same way, so I let her slide," she shrugged. She passed my phone along to Londynn, then to Nina.

"She's from Baltimore," Die tells them.

"That's cool, you know a nigga named Wallace? He light skin, red dreads, hazel eyes, real buff. Kind of look like me," Londynn asks me.

I think real hard then snap, "Yoo, I know that nigga. He was everybody's plug. I remember in middle school he got locked up for selling weed."

"That's my big bro. From another mother," Londynn nods. "I'm from LA. Me and him was always in touch but we never...like lived together," she explains.

"What made you move to Texas?" I ask her curiously. She shrugs, "My dad was on his gang shit in LA, and my mom run shit at a trap house here, but my mom fell in love with Houston when she visited here when she was 16. So she moved us all here after she was starting to get bored of LA a few years back."

I nod. "What part of LA?"

"East," she answers boredly.

"I been to LA a few times, but I snuck there," I laugh. "On some road trip shit," I explain.

"Yo parents must be chill," Dynera comments, "Cause mine...nope," she shakes her head, laughing. "Nahh, they just be...doing they own thing," I shrug. Everybody could sense the need of a topic switch. "I been here all my life. Been going to school wit deez same classmates all my life too," Nina shrugs. "I wish I could see another state."

"The next time I take a random road trip, I'll sneak you out too then," I smirk.

"Nahh, my parents too crazy. I'm an only child, and ion wanna stress them out even more. They hardworking," she explains.

"What do they do?" I lean on a hard chair.

"My mom's a flight attendant at Hobby Airport, my dad owns a Shipley's," she tells us.

I nod along, wishing that my parents were normal too. I don't even think they're sober half of the time, but I can't say the same for myself. "My mom's a freelance writer. We moved here after my dad got shot. We was from North Houston, so my mom moved to South Houston for a change of scenery," Die said.

"Why he got shot?" I turn to Die, intrigued.

"In the crossfire of some gang shit that was occurring at the time. I was 11," she gulps, looking down at the floor.

"What's y'all's favorite color?" Londynn randomly asks, to ease the tension I suppose.

We all answer different colors at the same time.

I laugh, pointing at Nina. "Let's go around inna circle. You first."

"My favorite color is dark green," Nina says, smirking as she plays with her hair. I swear shawty acted like she was high- or either she really was. I needed the shit she was on. She don't seem like she ever could be in a bad mood. You know, except for this morning.

Nina gestures to Londynn in the PINK hoodie.

"My favorite color is pink," Londynn shrugs, playing with her lash.

"My favorite color is red," Dynera nods her head at me to go. "Oh nahh, ion usually rock wit niggas wit they favorite color bein red and allat, but you seem cool doh," I tell Die. "My favorite color is blue," I then answer.

Die only nods and stacks our papers up to put in the center of the table. "What time this class ends?" Londynn asks, sliding her phone into her back pocket.

"8:06, I believe," Die answers.

"Let's start packing up," Nina says, even though none of us brought backpacks, and we all seemed to only have a mechanical pencil to our names.

"You guys can start packing up. Two minutes until the bell rings," the teacher then notifies us.

I bite on my nails, looking around as students head back to their seats. I decide not to walk back to my seat, and instead sit on the black table Londynn, Nina, and Dynera were sharing. "What time is lunch?" I ask them. "Ion know what lunches we got yet, so ion even know if we can all have lunch together," Die commented. "I hope so doh."

"I feel like ima be the one who gon have a completely different lunch this year," Londynn pouts.

Dynera (Die) Ericks
Physics Class
8:05 a.m.

"I hope not. It's been like that since last year. One of us bein left out from a lunch. Freshman year lunch is the only year all three of us had it together," I say.

"The fact that our friendship lasted throughout freshman year shows how solid we all are," Londynn comments. She then turns to Enez. "Hey, I text Wallace and he says he remembers you. He asks how you doin." Enez suddenly looked a bit pale, or maybe just uncomfortable. "Tell him I'm doing cool. Uh, Londynn, do me a favor and don't tell him...I uh, live in Houston."

"Oh shit, I already did," Londynn says, then shrugs as she goes back to texting her brother from another mother. Enez shakily grabs her phone and starts typing. Nina and Londynn are engaging in a harsh game of 8 Ball again, so I go over to Enez's side just as the bell rings. She doesn't even see me, taking off towards the doorway. I tell Londynn and Nina "bye" quickly, then start chasing after Enez.

Was it something Londynn said?

Why was she acting like this?

"Enez," I caught her shoulder and she turned around in the packed hallway. We were near the freshman wing. I could smell the bathrooms from here, and everybody was stopping in the middle of the hallway and pushing and shoving. "What's wrong?" I ask her.

She looks away from my gaze and pulls me to the side of the hall. "My people and I are in some trouble back home. I just don't want Wallace going off and telling people and then they come to Houston."

"What type of trouble you in, my boy?" I look her up and down. Enez genuinely looked scared. "Ain't really me, it's my parents." I could tell it was more to this story than what Enez was leading on. We were both going to be late to our second periods by this point. "Come with me," I grab her hand and tightly hold on as we make our way through the swarming crowd of kids and find an empty stairwell. The door shuts on us and we're alone.

"What's up?" I ask her, crossing my arms across my chest and waiting for Enez to spill.

"Shit," Enez slaps her forehead. "Okay, so my mom is sumin of a crack whore, and my dad is a drunk."

Damn, well lay it all out there.

"They fucked with the wrong gang back in Baltimore and that's why we came to Houston. I don't even know what my parents be up to half of the time, and ion even know where they be. I'm sure they forget that they have a daughter sometimes. Or two," she sighs heavily. "Anyways, I just don't want Wallace, you know, mentioning to anyone that we're here and then have people coming for my parents."

"I'll talk to Londynn about keeping your secret and telling Wallace," I promise. "Don't worry," I add, patting her arm. Enez looked like she wanted to say more, but then someone barged into the stairwell, flinging the door open. "Uh, uh, sorry I'm just lost," a tiny kid apologizes, racing down the stairs and groaning loudly when the second period bell rings.

"I appreciate it, Die," Enez smiles at me.

I shrug like it's nothing, even though I'm oddly nervous now. Enez looks down at her phone and shows me her online schedule. "You know where this is?"

"Yeah, that's by one of my classes from last year," I tell her. We start walking towards her second period. I'll find mine...if I go at all. I'll make sure to deal with everything concerning Wallace for Enez. It might sound weird, but ion want Enez Lyons taken from me.