"SEE YOU LATER, MAMA. I LOVE YOU." I kiss her cheek before leaving home. "Good morning, Sun." I smile up at it softly before making my way to the side walk.
I'm eligible to go back to school now. I'm still a little sore in the chest but that's about it.
"Friend! I missed you." Sammi throws herself onto me once I'm at the bus stop.
"I missed you too." She pulls away and examines me. "Damn, I still can't believe you got shot. And I can tell you did 'cause you walking all stiff like my Nigga was when he did."
I roll my eyes playfully. Her "nigga" always gets brought into our conversation one way or another.
"But, what did you do for your birthday? I'm sure I would've known sooner if you could call and text me. You really need to get a phone."
I sigh. "I know. But, I went to get a cake, and me and my mama went to the park with my bro."
She cocks her neck back. "Bro? What bro?"
"The girl who took me to the hospital."
"Hold on! Let's rewind. What girl? 'Cause, you sholl neva told me 'bout no girl." When Sammi offered to start walking with me to the corner store I didn't tell her the full story. I just told her that I got shot and went to the hospital.
"Her name's Karsonique."
"Karsonique?" she mumbles. "That sounds familiar."
"I don't remember her taking me to the hospital but when I woke up she was there."
"Okay....but how did she end up taking you and yo Ma to the park?"
"To be honest...I can't really tell you. She just showed up on my porch one day and surprised me."
Sammi gives me a weird look.
"She also went with me to buy the cake. And when I was in the hospital she got my mom elder care 'cause I had nobody to look after her."
Her eyes bug. "Dang! She must got big bucks. Those aren't cheap."
"That's what I'm sayin'! But she insisted."
She side-eyes me. "Girl, I'm not tryna be like, weird or nothing but like... she treatin' you like you her girl or som'n and she barely know you. Do you know why she doin' all'a this?"
I look off in thought. I never really thought about it. Why is she?
"I don't know."
When the bus pulls up we get on. "How did your mom like the park?" Sammi asks once we sit.
"She loved it. I haven't seen her smile so much." I smile just thinking about it.
"Awww, I miss her. I need to come over sometime and catch up with her."
"You can come today."
"Nah, I'm going with my Nigga."
"Of course. When are you not with him?"
"When I'm with you." She cheeses hard.
I mention that Nique got my mom a new wheelchair.
"Girl, what? It's starting to sound like this girl is head over heels for you. The fuck? Or she tryna be yo sugar mama."
I bust out laughing and a few people look back at us but I don't care. "Bro, on me it's not like that. She really just a cool homie. And actually, I think I know why she's doing all of this."
"Why?"
"She's trying to make up for what happened to me."
"What does what happened to you have to do with her?"
"She told me it was her fault."
"What?"
I don't elaborate any further.
At school, I got a lot of questions as to why I wasn't at school and I was open to telling why. People gave their 'damn's' and 'I'm sorry's' and I went on about my day. In each class, I had tons of makeup work to do and it caused me a lot of stress. How am I gonna get all of this done? I email Sammi on my computer.
Me: MiMi!!!!
Sammi: yess
Me: you mind letting me copy yo work from the last few weeks? Ion think I can get it done in time 😕🙏🏽
Sammi: you alr know you can. After school I'll give you the papers
Me: thx! You the best 😝🤞🏽
Okay, well that's settled. But, I still got two more classes that's not covered. Freak. Math is one of them and I so happen to be in that class right now. I look around to see who I could target. I smack my teeth when no one rings a bell. I turn around and my eyes land on the girl sitting right behind me. She was quiet and stayed to herself. I know she does her work.
"Excuse me," I whisper. She looks up from doodling in her journal. Everybody was still working on the worksheet while she was doing this. Only proving that she does her work and gets it done on time. "If you don't mind, could I see the work from the past few weeks?"
"Sure." She hands me all of the graded work from her folder and I smile.
"Thank you so much. I promise I'll pay you back."
She waves me off. "Don't worry about it. I heard about what happened to you. I'm sorry you went through that."
I nod. "Thank you so much. I really appreciate you."
The last and final class that wasn't covered was art. And for this class, I couldn't just copy down the answers from someone else's work. I had to actually use my mind and craft something of my own. Luckily, my teacher is very understanding and told me to take as much time as I needed to get the projects done.
"There's no rush," she had said. So, I used the whole class period to get as much done, including starting on the project due today.
After school, Sammi and I usually walked home so we could get more time together so that's what we did. She gave me her graded work and once I made sure I had all of it in my folder, we were on our way. We were laughing and talking when a car slowly rolled up next to us. It caught Sammi's attention before it caught mine.
"Girl, who is that driving up on us like that?" I look over and instantly knew who it was.
"That's Nique," I say, lowly. "The girl who took me to the hospital." The passenger window rolls down and Sammi mumbles,
"Damn, she look familiar."
I hadn't seen Nique since she took me and my ma out. That was about a month ago. She kinda just disappeared.
"Wassup, Nisey."
"Wassup." I dap her up through the window and lean in.
"Say, you doing some right now?"
I look at Sammi to see if she was still going to her "nigga" house. She shrugs.
"You know where im going and you not coming."
Why did I even think to second-guess her answer? I look back at Nique. "Nah, I ain't."
"Come on. Get in."
I tell Sammi I'll catch her later and we dip.
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