Karma

Moving out

It all started that summer, my Junior year of high school. I wasn't the brightest student in class, but I was smart enough. That night, everything changed – 9:37PM - I heard a loud yell and saw people pointing at me and my two friends Tim and Vonte. Tears filled the eyes of bystanders; their cries filling the air with sadness. The sounds of yelling could be heard muffled through my ears as reality set in – why did it have to come to this? We were just trying to make it through another day...

I hated working but I did enough to pass. By the end of the school year, my grades were beginning to slip and my teachers told me they would inform me if I would be promoted to 12th grade or have to attend summer school. All I wanted was for the year to be over and become a senior in just a couple months.

The bell on the final day of school rang - everyone including myself rushed out of class door, eager to start their summer break. Just as I was about ready leave, a voice came from behind: "Forgetting something?"

I turned around and saw my girlfriend of a year holding out her hand with a smirk on her face, the other hand clutched tightly onto a bag of chips. I went over to grab it from her and said "Thank you, I was kinda hungry!" She playfully hit me in the chest before saying "Not that bag of chips, dummy."

Confused, I asked her: "Then what then?" She paused for a moment before softly turning around and responding "Forget it".

In that moment, I grabbed hold of her arm gently and planted a kiss on her cheek as I whispered into ear "Happy one year anniversary babe".

She blushed deeply and gave me a big hug, expressing how surprised she was that we had made it this long. I agreed before we both left the school to wait for her ride home.

As we were walking out, however, a guy bumped into her purposefully and kept walking - which immediately offended me. I yelled out "So you're just gonna bump into my girl without any kind of apology?" He turned around with an arrogant laugh before continuing on his way.

That's when my girlfriend grabbed onto me as if sensing what I was about to do and said softly: "It's fine bae".

Her ride showed up around 3:07 and we kissed and said our goodbyes for the evening. A couple minutes went by when I heard the bass of one of my favorite songs booming from a car nearby. The car pulled up close to me and rolled down the window, with a cloud of smoke billowing out. My friend Tim poked his head out the window and said "What up my dawg? Hop in this new whip."

Curious, I asked him where he got it from but he just replied "I'll tell you later." Not wanting to wait, I insisted on knowing immediately - only to be met with an exasperated "Nigga! I'll tell you later - now are you riding or walking?" Feeling slightly embarrassed at being called out like that in public, I quickly opened the passenger side door before more smoke escaped - then shut it again as fast as possible so as not to draw attention while still being on school campus. We drove off listening to old school rap music; one particular song - Real Compton City G's - caught my ear, which Tim began rapping along too: "Homies like y'all is what i call wanna be's but ain't nothing compared to real compton city G's..."  The song continued playing but neither of us spoke until finally he turned down the music before looking over at me expectantly.

Tim looked at me and asked "Bro, you good?" I told him that I was, but he didn't buy it for a second. (He then pulled out a blunt and lit it up before handing it to me.) "Smoke this shit and talk about it," he said. So I took the blunt and began to smoke as I told him what had happened with the guy bumping into my girlfriend without an apology - only for her to act like nothing had happened when normally she would have reacted differently.

Tim nodded his head in understanding before responding: "Oh wordup, you know the nigga? We can ride up on him, I've been looking for a reason to fight all day, so just let me know!"