Him & I

Oh Thy Romeo

Monday, March 20, 1995

During lunch, everyone was talking about the party on Saturday night. Hallie, Papi and I are sitting at our usual table. I see Lucky and his friend Harry walk in.

I signal them to come to our table. "What are you doing?" Papi whispered to me. "What's it look like I'm doing. I'm being friendly." I whispered back. "Well, don't I owe that dude money." He said right before they showed up. "Hello," Lucky greeted us with his tray in hand.

"Hi, do you want to join us?" I asked them. "Sure," He said and they both sat down at our table. "So are you both from London?" Hallie asked them. "Umm, yes," Harry answered and left again in awkward silence. Lucky and I shared a sympathetic look with each other.

"Wait a minute, don't you owe me money," Harry suggested to Papi. A look of panic flashed in Papi's eyes. "Umm, no, nope. I think you have me confused with someone else." He said taking a sip from his carton of milk. "No you definitely have his fa-" Harry started to say but Papi interrupted him "Hey guys, how're the TLC tickets coming." He said. Hallie sighs.

"It's going horribly. Every time we call that fucking radio station we're too late or too early. Sooner or later someone else is going to get those tickets and we're not going to see TLC."I stressed out.

"TLC? The TLC is coming to Brooklyn." Lucky said. I nodded my head and popped a fry in my mouth. "I Love TLC." Lucky booms in excitement. "Really? What's your favorite song?" I asked him. "Umm, Baby, Baby, Baby."He said in a duh tone. "I'm more of a Creep kind girl." I joked. Lucky an I both started t laugh and talk about TLC and I notice how quiet my table got and notice Papi, Hallie and Harry are looking at us crazy.

"What! We like TLC." Lucky said. "Anyway, did I tell yall about Braxton at the party." Hallie chimed in. Braxton is the school dumbest jock. I'm not trying to be mean but it's true. In geography class, we were talking about Africa and this fool said 'isn't India in Africa' and at first I let it slide but in history class, we were talking about the Holocaust and the man asked the teacher 'wasn't Hitler the good guy.' and the teacher actually walked out of the classroom. And more and more time Braxton says the dumbest things in class and he swears up and down he is right.

There is no hope for that boy. It's a good thing that he is good at football. "No, what happened?" I asked her. Hallie leaned in so we all leaned in, "I think I'm the only one who saw this so this has to stay between us, swear it." she said. This must be serious. We all looked at each other and back at Hallie.

"Swear." we all said. Hallie looked in all directions to make sure no one else is listening. "I walked into one of the rooms in Ashley house and I saw Braxton giving Cole Micheals a bj," she said. We all gasped and fell back. I did not see that one.

"You lyin," Papi said. Hallie shooked her head furiously. "I put this on my mama. I saw it with my own two eyes but they didn't see me," she said.

"Now that you said it, it kinda makes sense now," Lucky said and we all looked at him confused. "Care to explain, mate." Harry saying what we're all thinking. Lucky looked at me, "Remember when I told you about the guy who lost the bet to me."

"You mean the guy who pulled his pants down, grabbed his penis and sung the star-spangled banner. That was Braxton?" I whispered yelled and he nodded his head. "Look let's keep this to ourselves okay, "I tell them

"What why."Harry blurted out making some of the students look at our table.

"Because its cruel of us to expose him like this. This is his business, not ours, so if he wants to come out he should be the one to do," I tell them. They didn't look to onboard with keeping this a secret. "Okay," I said, they all mumble okay while playing with their fingers. "I said okay," I use my mama's voice on them. "Okay," they said more firmly. That's what I thought.