Shootin' Shots: Black Boy Joy Imagines

Often - Quinn Cook

Dedicated to TheCreativeSilence

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You said
"I can't wait forever"
You said
"I can't wait forever

--

"What was it like?"

Ri asked as she looked at him through her lashes while she laid across his lap. Her mother's ford dodge behind them and the sky above. Her eyes were the wistful shade of hazel they always were , her freckles in contrast against her tanned caramel skin. Quinn just smiled down at her before he sipped his beer.

"Nerve wrecking, I didn't think I'd make it."

He answered honestly as he thought about the fruition of his dream of being recruited to play for Duke University. It still felt surreal to him but he could tell by the slight quirk of Ri's eyes that the 'I told you so' was coming.

"Please , you've been working so hard if you didn't you'd need receipts , reasons why it didn't happen."

Her eyes redirected to the stars and he settled on just seeing their reflection in her hazel orbs, she was something else.

Quinn had known Ri their whole lives basically, they grew up right next door to each other. He was the athlete and she was the academic. He remembered the many nights she'd kept his GPA and spirits up , she was his best friend. Sometimes he wished they were more but he didn't know how that would go down, they'd talked about it but they were going in two different directions. It wouldn't make sense to keep each other lingering for so long , to hazard losing everything altogether.

"What about you? You're off to fucking Harvard!"

She closed her eyes at the mention of where she'd spend her next four years , the place she'd busted her ass for seventeen years to get into. She held onto her locket and sighed , if only he'd been here to see it, this was his dream too.

"I did it for Terrell."

Her voice was as light as a feather as the cool night air breezed past them sweeping in the memory of her late younger brother. Terrell was only twelve when his ct scans lit up like a Christmas tree , brain tumor the doctor said and then the following month they'd discovered it was malignant.  It wasn't two months before he'd succumbed to it and her family was in shambles. Ri still wasn't over it especially as she'd also lost her father to Osteosarcoma when she was five.

"He'd be proud of you Ri."

Quinn whispered before he pulled her into him. She found solace in his touch and allowed herself to close her eyes and feel the sadness that washed over her. She didn't cry , she just felt it and he let her have her time. He understood.

"Quinn! Quinn!"

Red square nails snapped in front of his eyes bringing him down to Earth and he took in the lasy clad in a black pantsuit before him.

"Sorry."

He murmured apologetically as he readjusted himself in his seat.

"It's fine Quinn , what's she like?"

Quinn's mind went off to another time before he answered the question.

"Indescribable , she was like a fresh breath. Her state of being , the way she looked at the world , she was everything."

His voice trailed off a bit as her image came back into mind. The way she'd smile at him and the small gap that was between her two front teeth. The way her hips were rounded and stood out from her body. The way winter would kiss her and her ears would be red the entire season.