Still Waters

Chapter 40

She nodded understandingly, but I could tell she thought that Collin would be the exact opposite of what I should be doing by the way she nodded her head yes every time I talked about Kenney and shook her head no every time I talked about Collin. We chatted a little more about married life and the honeymoon, and eventually I even broke her down enough to at least tell me about the wedding, if not show me pictures. I had already seen them anyway, on Kenney's laptop since she had emailed them to everyone but me.

Eventually we decided that for old time's sake Shipwreck would be a good choice for the night, since it was now smoke-free and something that even the preggo chick could participate in. That was if I could still fit in the chairs and, more importantly, if I could sit down that long. I hadn't written anything in forever, but Shayna had written something for Drama - her very first piece - and thought that would be the perfect place to surprise him with it. I agreed. He didn't even know that she had started writing.

We walked out into the living room just in time to see Drama put a hand on Kenney's shoulder and tell him "Stay up, bruh." I had no idea that Kenney was down about anything, but I could tell by the way they both straightened up and stopped talking when we came into the room that it must have been something about me that they were discussing...or something about the baby. I wasn't sure which.

"Waddup lay-dies!" Drama called to us, flashing his Billy Dee and sounding just like MCA from Beastie Boys.

"We have decided," Shayna put an arm around me and looked at Kenney, "that tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999."

"Ok..." Kenney kind of looked aggravated, like he wasn't in the mood for foolery, but had to be hospitable and go along with whatever his out of town guests wanted to do.

Shayna and Drama had moved to New York shortly after graduation to jumpstart Shayna's modeling career, and once that had gotten into a consistent place, they decided to move to DC to jumpstart Drama's hip hop historian career. For a free agent, Drama had been doing very well for himself. Shayna, of course had had an agent since high school. Kenney was doing pretty well, too, with his architecture firm and freelance photography. I was the only one throwing my life away, but since I had moved in with Kenney I had been pulling writing gigs left and right.

It was like prosperity lived in Kenney's house, and baby and I had no choice but to fall in line. I guess he saw, and knew firsthand, what life could be. That's why he was so adamant about me doing my thing "while I could," as he put it. I peeped immediately that he was alluding to the fact that at any moment I could foolishly fly out from under his supportive and protective wing. But when he put his money where his mouth was, I knew he wasn't just blowing sunshine up my butt. That was all the motivation I needed to - like the rest of them – "go out and get it."

When we got to Shipwreck, Kenney immediately perked up. We hadn't told the boys where we were taking them, but we told them to wear something Vibe Magazine worthy. They went all out. We had the two finest dudes in that piece. And luckily we still looked young, so nobody could tell that we were at least three years older than everyone else.

I thought about my days of being the only one too young to get into the eighteen and up club without my school ID and chuckled. Kenney may have been thinking the same thing because he looked over at me and snickered, too. Ironically this time, I was worried that I was going to be the old lady giveaway, with my black 60's style maternity dress and one inch healed go-go boots. But Kenney had always had impeccable taste - even in maternity clothes - and everyone was looking at me more like I was the cutest thing ever than like I was the hugest thing ever. I was all belly anyway. As Kenney had said on numerous occasions, everything else wasss checkin' out.