THE BLEU BROTHERS|MJ

05 | PROMISES & CHANGES

The weekend after graduation, Inga called Michael asking if he'd travel with her to Shiloh Heights. It's a metropolitan area located between the suburbs and rural town they each reside as a fifteen minute duration for each. She was still in search of an apartment and wanted his opinion to help with and speed up her decision making. Luckily, he was free of work and could enjoy the day with her. He had no plans arranged for his day off, but when she rang his phone and asked if he'd tag alone, he would've been a fool to decline the offer. He would take any and every opportunity to surround himself in her effervescent presence. Besides, he get to see her lovely visage again—twice in one week.

In all honesty, she only asked because she found him to be her good luck charm and hoped that today was the day she decide on a new home. It's all she rambled on and on about for the past month. Now that she's graduated with her degree, she can begin the new chapter of her life as a well established young adult. With a multitude of job opportunities lined up like Rolexes on display, it was only a matter of which company suits best for her. She had the connections thanks to her father but just like every average person in the world, she wanted to earn this one all on her own. In other words, allow her hard word and intelligence speak for itself.

When she pulled into the gravel driveway of his aunt's home, she parked in between Michael's GMC Sierra truck and a bronze Honda Accord. She was able to see clearly his aunt gently rocking back and forth on a wooden swing attached to the roof of the front house veranda smoking a nicotine stick. She stepped out of the red sports car to properly introduce herself to the woman she's heard so much about in the last three weeks. Michael had forgotten to mention to Vivian that Inga was picking him up, so seeing her approaching the house, it was automatically assumed she was some fast tailed girl searching for Khalil.

He had only been home a couple of weeks and already was having young women laying low and spreading it wide for him. She didn't appreciate him giving out her address to strangers either, and it all stemmed from past issues they've had. On the other hand, he's yet to come home and it's going on day three, so whoever the young lady was surely made an absent trip. The closer Inga approached the veranda, the more she was able to have a whiff of bad habits permeating the fresh air of Mother Nature. A miasma that consist of a combination of stale burnt fog and chemicals.

She despised cigarettes with a passion and not just because of its horrendous stench that lingered after hours and even days, but because it kills what's inhaling it. And someone as pulchritudinous as the woman her russet orbs admired at first glance made her frown internally. However, her alluring smile remain plastered on her face. As she ascended the steps, she stopped once her feet touched the floor, her hands slipping into the front pockets of her ripped Levi jeans.

"If you're looking for Khalil, he ain't here, baby," Vivian spoke, tapping the end of the nicotine stick to dispose the ashes in the purple marbled ashtray. She brought it back to her lips and took another long inhale before pursing her lips as the fumes evaporated into the air.

Inga wore a look of confusion at the fact Vivian thought she came over for Khalil. She didn't even know him let alone what he looked like, just know of him because Michael mentioned he had a younger brother three years short of his age.

"Oh, no, ma'am. I didn't come by for Khalil," she began to explain, laughing lightly, "I'm actually here for Michael. I'm Inga Avery—his friend."

Vivian may have blinked more than she could count hearing the familiar name. Michael hadn't told her anything about the young girl stopping by. She was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, though. Thankfully, she looked presentable dressed in a white V-neckline and light blue high-waist jeans. Her hair—cut into what the boys today called a fade, was the least of her worries.