Trying To Endure

Chapter One

I stand and avert to Tanner. He grins and hugs me.

"I can't lie, I got bored."

"I didn't. Bit nice to have you gone. You're a dick."

I scowl. "Wow. Thanks."

He pats my shoulder. "I'm just kidding, bro. Well, not about the last one."

Our chefs made my favourite meals — vegetarian lasagne, skillet cod with lemon and capers, pork tenderloin with three-berry salsa, turkey club roulades —, prepared as an imposing buffet. My friends and I lounge on the sofas. Naila is cross-legged, next to Theo whose legs are propped-up on the table.

Jackson swings an arm around Ines leaning onto him. He has a septum piercing like his girlfriend, four more piercings on both ears, and lastly, his tongue. Since sixteen, his body is a neat canvas of tattoos, complementing his lean, skinny frame. He'd go to countries where the age tolerance is low to get them. His neck is now inked with spiders. 

"So, you miss us?"

Aunt Marlene restricted my friends to visit over the summer. I'm glad she did. I used my time wisely. No distractions.

Atlas rests on his heel, patiently waiting as my brother breaks a piece of pork tenderloin to feed it to him, to which the Doberman gulps in one go. Duke's head on my lap, I stroked his ears. "Of course. I miss a parrot."

Theo snorts, amused, and Jackson narrows his eyes at my obvious sarcasm.

"I have to deal with this parrot every day," says Jasmine.

I theatrically pat my chest. "My condolences." My hand rub my boy's back, Tanner flopping down beside me. "Did anything happen while I was gone?"

"Remember my party in June?" Ines is Chinese; hair silky and dark, skin soft and dewy. "The neighbours snitched. It got too loud, so the police came."

"That's ridiculous."

"Right? It's not like I'm throwing a party every day. My neighbours can't even be nice for once."

Theo leans forward, grabbing his smoothie. Mexican. Pansexual. Round-shaped face, buzz cut, squared jaw-line, and dark-haired with the standard, right eyebrow slit. "You really don't remember anything?"

"Bits and pieces like—" I glance at Jasmine. "—our stripper talk."

Tanner stops munching, looking at me like I'm a Cyclops. "Pardon?" he says, mouth full, at the same time Theo utters, "Bruh."

"He wants to be a stripper," explains Jasmine.

"I don't mind," I correct.

"He thinks he'll be good at it."

Tanner snorts. "That's the funniest shit I ever heard." He's mixed-race. His father's side are Kenyan, though immigrated and grew up in France. His mother is Dominican. He has rich, dark, flawless skin, a lean body, broad shoulders, downturned dark eyes, and a low-fade-cut hairstyle.

"Destiny talked to me," I add.

"So that's why she was crying," says Naila. She has vitiligo — a condition where pale patches appear on your skin, caused by a lack of melanin. She's insecure about her appearance; made Jasmine, Ines, the boys and I protective as she gets insulted and called a cow by Edgewater Independent students.

Theo puts his glass on the table. "She was faking it."

"I know. I mean, it's Destiny we're talking about."

"Manipulative bitch she is," seethes Ines.

"What, she's still pestering you?" asks Jackson.

"Yes," I say, tone frustrated. "I tell her to fuck off so many times but she keeps talking to me as if I give a damn."