scriptures. // jahking

Proverbs 13:20

"He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harms."

Jasmine

It'd been about a week or so since our arrival to freeridge. all of us have settled in pretty well for the most part, jahking has started helping latrelle and his crew with missions here and there, isaiah mostly stays with jahking's grandma, leaving me alone most of the time.

I was lucky enough to meet a girl named
monse who lives in the neighborhood, she's not normally the type of girl that I'd befriend, but she was also the first person here in freeridge to show some kind of warmth or friendliness towards me.

Instead of spending the whole day at home monse invited me to tag along with her friends for the day,

"don't worry, my friends are all nice, they're a little crazy but nice." monse smiled as she and I walked along the sidewalk.

"I'm sure if they're anything like you, I'll like them." I answered returning the smile,

It didn't take long before we approached a blue house, monse didn't even knock on the door before just waltzing in.

inside two guys were bickering back and forth, whilst a girl and a guy were on the couch talking.

they were all so invested in their own conversations they didn't even notice our presence.

monse rolled her eyes and cleared her throat,

still no response.

"guys!"

all of their heads snapped in our direction, but it didn't last long before the two guys went back to bickering.

monse huffed and lead me further into the living room, "the two rude ones arguing are ruby and jamal." she announced pointing them  out,

"and this is olivia and cesar," she said taking a seat at the couch opposite of them,

I mimicked her actions and took a seat beside her,

"who's the new girl?" olivia asked directing her question towards monse.

rude.

"this is jasmine. she's visiting a family member here in freeridge,"

"oh." olivia shrugged and went back to talking to cesar,

monse gave me an apologetic look, "guess I lied about my friends being nice, huh?"

the rest of the night was awkward, I didn't want to be rude and just get up and leave, although it didn't seem like anyone else in this house really cared about being polite.

eventually the guy introduced to me as jamal began talking to me, I discovered that he was much nicer in comparison to everyone else other than monse.

"so who's this family member you're visiting? I probably know them, I know practically everyone in freeridge." jamal asked sipping from his juice-box.

"oh, his name's latrelle, he's my boyfriends' cousin." I answered, sipping from my drink as well.

the room fell silent, even olivia and cesar who'd practically ignored me the whole night had averted their attention towards me.

"what, you know him or something?" I questioned.

before any of them could answer, my phone buzzed, jahking's name popping up on my screen.

"I should go, my boyfriend is probably wondering where I am, thanks for inviting me I guess." I answered standing from the couch.

"I-I'll walk you." monse answered standing up abruptly,

"monse don't." cesar answered quickly, glaring at me.

I scrunched my face up and scoffed, "whatever, y'all are rude as hell. thanks for inviting me monse." I said grabbing my bag and leaving out the front door.

before I could make it all the way up the sidewalk I heard footsteps behind me, I looked back to see monse jogging to catch up with me.

"hey, sorry about that..." she said breathlessly once she caught up with me.

I shrugged my shoulders, "no worries I guess. what's their deal?"

"I guess I should've warned you, we've all been kind of going through a rough patch lately, it's a really long complicated story." she explained,

"also...latrelle is kind of...cesar's rival."

I couldn't help but laugh, "don't tell me cesar is in gang."

monse chuckled too, "unfortunately, yes."

"either way, that still doesn't make up for their rude behavior before they even knew I was visiting latrelle." I said.

"you're right, it doesn't." she answered honestly.

we both stopped walking when we were in front of latrelle's house,

"how about you come over again tomorrow, give us another chance to welcome you to the neighborhood? they're not always like that, I promise."

I hesitated, "are you sure? it doesn't really seem like olivia and cesar want me around."

she rolled her eyes, "they can get over it. there's a carnival happening tomorrow, both latrelle and cesar have agreed to let it be a neutral zone, no fighting, and no drama. you should come with us."

I thought for a moment before answering her, "okay. I'll come."

she smiled and hugged me, "great! i'll come by and we can walk over together."

I nodded and we said our goodbyes, she then turned and started making her way back.

when I entered the house I expected to see latrelle or jahking home but the house was dead silent, as usual.

now that I think about it, he was probably calling to tell me he would be home late.

again.