Douleur

Chapter Six

Chapter 6

The cool breeze from the wind did nothing but cause shivers for Heaven. She had been chilling with Quincy and his boys for the longest, but it was as if she weren't part of the conversation. They could start talking about cars, and end up talking about the latest girl they smashed. She wasn't the jealous type of girl, because she had her eye on the man that she wanted. It made her no never mind that he didn't realize the woman that she could be for him. The smell of weed floated around the porch as they boisterously talked about this and that. Her eyes scanned the streets, but nothing seemed the appease her. "I'm going to the bathroom," she announced, but no one seemed to even care. They were planted in front of Quincy's grandmother's house. It was the house that you could usually find the boy. He was a mama's boy, but his mother worked a lot, so Quincy usually resided at his grandmother's. He always told Heaven that it was because of her old age. He wanted to spend as much time around her as possible.

She went inside of the house to smell the Saturday cooking that his grandmother was preparing. Heaven had never met a woman that cooked every single day. "What you doing in here, girl?" His grandmother, Barbra, asked from her position in the kitchen. She was rinsing off the collard greens for tonight. "I just came to use the bathroom," Heaven answered sweetly. Barbra laughed softly. "Them boys out there ignorin' you, aren't they?"

Heaven shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. It was something she chose. She didn't really hang out with girls, because she didn't like the judgmental environment. With guys, it was more of a laid back environment, and she enjoyed that more. It was also the fact that Quincy was around that she enjoyed. "You get used to it." His grandmother stopped what she was doing and looked to Heaven. "You shouldn't get used to being ignored, Heaven. You're what, sixteen?"

"Fifteen," Heaven corrected. "That's even worse. You're fifteen, and the boy you're wanting is ignoring you and you're still here?" Heaven couldn't help the frown that formed on her face. She hadn't told his grandmother about her feelings for Quincy. She hadn't even flat out told Quincy, yet. The only person that truly knew how deep her feelings were for Quincy was a friend at her high school. "How do you know that I want Quincy?"

Barbra gave Heaven a knowing look. "Well, you did just admit it. But who can't tell? Everybody knows that if you ain't in school, you're around Quincy. That boy be talkin', and you be lookin' like he the most interestin' person in the world."

"He is," Heaven defended. "And that's beautiful for you, darlin', but sitting back and lettin' him do him ain't gettin' you nowhere."

Heaven didn't want to argue with the woman. She was right. One thing she was happy about was that his grandmother wasn't stuck on the age thing. Seeing that Quincy was technically grown, it made a lot of people side eye Heaven. She was trying it, but who was going to stop her? She strode to the bathroom to handle her business, but was abruptly stopped when she opened the door to see Quincy's best friend, Armani. "Uh, excuse me," Heaven mumbled as she tried to go around him. Armani shook his head and pushed her back in the bathroom. It wasn't a hard push, so she wasn't frightened. Armani wasn't the type of person to do anything bad. She had learned that during their conversations.

Yes, he was your typical male when it came to sexing women, but he never took advantage of a woman sexually. "Armani, what the hell are you doing?!" Heaven angrily asked through a whisper. "Why you sittin' outside all quiet and shit?" The question threw Heaven off. Why was he worried about whether she was using her voice or not? "Why does that even matter? Is that why you just locked me in this damn bathroom?"

"Answer the question. You could've left hours ago, why you still here?" She wanted so badly to just walk around him, but Armani was strong. He could've held her up in this bathroom for as long as he wanted to. "Because this is America, and I can stay until the owner of this house tells me to leave. Now, can you let me out?"