february 4th, 2024
11:23 pm
THIS WAS DEFINITELY MORE Noelani's scene.
Instead of a crowded club where she had had little to no space to properly breathe, Leilani had taken Noelani to a party located inside a one story mission style home deep in Inglewood.
The house was lit up purple from the LED strips on the ceiling and no matter where you traveled to inside the home, you couldn't escape the haze from all the smoke or the bass that shook the floor ever so lightly.
Noelani followed Leilani deeper into the house, trying to desperately ignore the whispers and the looks of recognition throughout the party.
"She looks mad familiar to me." A brown skinned girl with long ombre blonde box braids said in a horrible whisper as she nodded to her friend, a shorter Asian girl who was sipping out of a red solo cup, "Where have I seen her before?"
Nowhere, Noelani thought to herself in a slightly irritated fashion.
You don't know me and you've never seen me in real life before right now.
A camera zooming in on me sitting court side or a picture on my boyfriend's instagram doesn't mean you know me.
Noelani made brief eye contact with the brown skinned girl who immediately turned away and towards her friend next to her.
Leilani tugged lightly on Noelani's hand, "C'mon. Jamie told me that she was gonna be in the living room."
"Who's house is this?" Noelani replied, moving closer to her shorter cousin to ensure that she was heard over the blaring rap music.
Leilani paused in the hallway and gave Noelani a disgruntled look, "I don't know. Does it matter?"
Noelani looked around at the multiple pictures of a Latino family hanging on the taupe painted walls, "It might especially if they don't know someone's throwing a party in their house."
"Please don't act like we haven't done this before," Leilani groaned and then pulled at Noelani's hand, "Don't be boring Noel."
Noelani bristled a bit at the use of the boring but allowed herself to be dragged into a medium sized living room complete with a velvet green couch, "I'm not boring. Stop saying that before I go home."
Leilani ignored her last statement just as the two cousins crossed over the threshold, "Aye! What's up?"
Jamie, dressed similarly to the two cousins in a pair of ripped jeans and a bralette, was the first one to greet them, "Hey! I didn't think you were coming."
Noelani released a tiny chuckle, "Yeah, change of plans."
Jamie delivered a peck to Leilani's lips then squeezed in between the duo and threw one arm over each woman, "Y'all got here just in time. The guy who delivered our tequila just left."
"Shots!" Leilani laughed in a childlike manner while Noelani immediately shook her head, "That sounds like a bad idea. I'm still breastfeeding and driving so-."
"No," Leilani whirled around on Noelani, "No responsible Noel tonight. If you don't want me to call you boring then don't be boring! Be Hawaii Noel again."
Noelani flickered her eyes between the two women who were staring her down intently and then relented with a low sigh, "Well, I guess I did pump enough for the rest of the week and there is always Uber..."
"Yes!" Leilani cheesed, "Let's go."
The guy holding on to the clear bottle of Casamigos looked to be a little younger than the girls, nineteen, if Noelani had to guess.
Jamie took the bottle out of his grasp leaving the boy only enough time to protest with a 'hey'.
"Thanks," Noelani said automatically when Leilani handed her a full shot glass.
The other two women next to Noelani took back the alcohol easily which left her staring down at the shot glass alone, a little perturbed.
The last time that Noelani had drank any liquor was before she got pregnant, nearing two years now and she would be lying if she said that she missed the taste.
But her friends were staring her down like she had three heads and there was nothing Noelani was more tired of than being called boring.
So she pressed the rim of the shot glass to her mouth and let the tequila through.
The burn cascaded down her throat, letting Noelani track the travel of the drink.
"Mmm," She groaned a little at the aftertaste then straightened her posture at the pleasant lightheadedness that hit her similarly to a pillow, "Woah."
"When was the last time you drank?" Jamie asked with an amused smile on her face.
"Before I got pregnant," Noelani admitted as she looked around the living room at all the dancing teenagers.
Leilani gripped Noelani's wrist to steady the hand holding her shot glass, "And now you're making up for lost time. Go ahead," Leilani encouraged.
Noelani gave her cousin a playful eye roll but threw back the liquor easier than the first time.
The lightheadedness grew exponentially and caused Noelani to start giggling in a childlike manner.
"What the fuck? After only two shots?" Jamie laughed and then pushed back the straightened onyx colored hair from around her shoulders.
Noelani couldn't stop chuckling long enough to answer properly, choosing instead to extend her arm towards Leilani and the bottle of tequila.
Before the younger girl could pour Noelani another shot, her cell phone began to vibrate in the back pocket of her jeans.
Noelani frowned, took the iPhone out of her pocket, rolled her eyes at the fact that Jalen's contact picture had filled her entire screen then slid the phone back into her pocket.
She was not in the mood to answer him or hear his voice.
"This party's dead," Noelani noted, her mood shifting.
Leilani gave Jamie and Noelani a wicked look, "I know where we should go next."
Thirty minutes later, the trio were standing in the parking lot located in front of a beach in Playa del Rey, all carrying their respective pair of shoes in their hands.
Jamie and Leilani were chattering aimlessly about some unimportant thing but the only thing that Noelani could focus on was the sound of the ocean slapping against the sand.
She let out a content sigh before starting to roll up the hems of her jeans so that she could stick her feet in the water.
"Wait! We should go swimming." Leilani said, already pulling off her shirt and tossing it onto the sand.
"Don't have to tell me twice," Jamie began to shrug off her jeans.
Noelani shook her head, "Y'all are insane."
But even as she said it, the proximity of the ocean was too good to ignore.
The dark mass of water she had grown up with had been calling out to her for months and now that she was within running distance, the smile etched on her face was unremovable.
With a final look around to check that no one was watching her strip, Noelani began to lift the articles of clothing off of her torso so that she could join her friends in the water.
The ocean was cold around Noelani's abdomen but that didn't stop her from moving forward to bathe in the moonlight.
For the first time since Alani had born, she felt free.
Maybe Lei is on to something.
NOTE FROM KY
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