"So..."
Tasha said as we sat in the food court. I had already finished work for the day and was trying to recoup from a brutal opening shift with a plate of fried rice the size of my head. Tasha and Maya were on their lunch break. Tasha sipped from her strawberry milkshake careful not to smear her perfectly applied red lipstick. While, Maya stuffed her face with a burger and fries.
"So what?" I asked taking a sip of my soda.
"Are you going to tell us what happened with private school bae or not?" she specified.
"I thought we had decided to call him Vanilla Ice," Maya said her mouthful.
"You decided that. I decided on private school bae," Tasha said, "But that doesn't matter now. What happened yesterday?"
"Vanilla Ice is so much better," Maya said under her breath.
I swallowed. "Well, I went to his house, and I met his mom and his brother, and his nanny."
"A nanny, how fancy," Maya commented.
"Oh, Tasha, I got a gift for you." I pulled the copy of Ellen's book out of my bag.
"How did you get this?" Tasha turned the book over in her hands. "I've been trying to get this for weeks!"
"What is it?" Maya asked looking at the light blue cover of the book. "Oh is that that white woman you're obsessed with?"
"Ellen Garret is a lifestyle God." Tasha turned the book around tapping on the cover. "Do you see these pants? Givenchy silk trousers." She moved her finger down the cover. "This couch. Custom made by Italian designer, Antonio Dante, it's worth more than everything I own."
Maya nodded. "Dope."
Tasha huffed unsatisfied with Maya's irreverence. "Anyways, how did you get this, Nia?"
"She's Marcus's Mom," I explained. "She even signed it for you."
Tasha immediately opened the front cover and stared down at Ellen's pretty cursive handwriting. "This is awesome, Nia. Thanks." She hugged me.
"You're welcome," I smiled.
"Now that we're done giving gifts, can you finish telling us what happened yesterday?"
"Okay, I met his family, except his dad. He wasn't there. We studied for awhile, we jumped on the trampoline, and he tried to kiss me."
"Excuse me?"
"What did you say?" Maya asked her cheeseburger a few inches for her mouth.
"We jumped on the trampoline. It was actually a lot of fun. Have you ever seen an in-ground trampoline? Apparently, they are all the rage in Europe," I explained.
"Not that. He tried to kiss you?"
"Well he didn't so much as try. We were going to, but his brother interrupted us before anything could happen."
"Alright, girl!" Tasha explained. "Get it, you how you live it."
"Kissing before the first date," Mya acted offended. "Nia Owens, you whore."
"I mean, duh," I laughed. She gave me a playful shove with a laugh. I sighed. "But I'm still not sure if he likes me."
"Of course, he likes you," Tasha and Maya assured me.
"I mean at least enough to want to make out with you," said Maya.
Tasha scrutinized her. "Do you ever get enough of being a sarcastic asshole?"
"Mm," Maya pretended to think about it for a moment. "No."
Tasha rolled her eyes. Maya gave her a cheeky grin in return. A shrill ring came from Tasha's phone.
"Fuck," she said under her breath. "It's time for me to go back to department store hell." She stood placing her bag in the crook of her arm. Taking a sip of her drink she said, "I'll see you bitches later."
Maya wiped her mouth with a napkin before tossing it on her tray. "I should get going too. We just got in a new shipment of Taylor Swift CDs, and Jerry scored some really dope vintage vinyl records at a yard sale." She stood from the table. "Do you want to come back to the shop? We just got a couch in the break room if you want to chill until I get off."
"I'm good, I'm going to walk around for a little while. Maybe shop." Maybe I would find a few accessories for my car. I'm only a few weeks away from not having to bum rides and take the bus anymore.
"Okay, but I'm still taking you home, right?"
"Yes." I took the bus this morning, but the Jefferson Heights bus is not a place you want to be after sun down.
"Text me what store you're in, and Tasha and I will meet you there."
"Later, skank," she called to me as she walked away.
"Bye, whore."
Before I started my little impromptu shopping trip I got a smoothie from the over priced juice bar in the food court. Almost nine bucks for a bunch of fruit blended up in a cup. Capitalism at its finest.
I ambled around for a while going into a few stores. I planned to buy a few air fresheners and some stickers to go on the back of my car, but instead I bought a few shirts and a pair of jeans. It was an honest mistake.
"Nia! Hey, Nia!"
I heard someone call from behind me as I passed a store front. I took an headphone out of my ear turning around.
Thomas waved at me from a comic book store, To The Maxx. I waved back. He motioned for me to come in.
Stepping inside, I looked around.Shelves of comic books lined the store, and old arcade games had been stuck in the back corner.
Thomas stood behind a glass case of older comic books. He had a large book shelf filled with vinyls stood behind him.
"Hey, Thomas," I said setting my bags on top of the glass case. "I didn't know you worked here." He wore a pair of light wash jeans and a striped shirt. He wasn't as muscular as Marcus but he was just as tall, a pair of thin glasses framed his brown eyes.
"I work on the weekends, and some days after school," he explained. He looked at my bags. "Are you doing some shopping?"
"Yeah, just trying to decompress after work," I said. "I work at Barnes and Noble."
"Oh, really. How is that?"
"Hectic, sometimes. But I get a discount, and I'm surrounded by books so I can't complain." People can get a little crazy when new Funko Pops come out or a new John Green novel is released, but for the most part it's a chill place to work.
"It's the same here," he admitted. "Nerds are serious about their comic book releases."
I chuckled. "I bet." A familiar song played from the record player behind the counter.
What I want, you've got. And it might be hard to handle. But like the flame that burns the candle. The candle feeds the flame.
"Are you listening to Hall and Oates?"
"Uh, yeah," he scratched the back of his neck. "I can change it if you want. We have plenty of records."
"No, I like it. You Make My Dreams is actually one of my favorites," I told him.
"A girl with taste," he smiled. "Do you want to check out some of the others we have."
"Sure," I shrugged. I walked around the counter. I thought their collection of records was all only on the shelves, but crates of records sat on the floor and on a small desk hidden behind the counter.
I started flipping through the crate that sat on the desk. "This is an amazing collection, it must have taken the owners years to get all of these."
"These are mine actually," said Thomas. "And my Dad's. He owns the place. He runs the place when he's not traveling for his other job."
"Oh, what does he do when he's not here?"
"He's a movie producer, so he has to be on set sometimes."
"Anything I've ever seen?"
He leaned on the counter. "Maybe, have you seen any Marvel stuff?"
"Of course, I have, who hasn't?" It seems like there's a new superhero movie coming out every week.
"He's produced a few of those, and some action stuff, but he likes to stick to the nerdy stuff," he explained. "But he'll produce a music documentary every once in awhile."
"That sounds like a cool job." Thomas's dad owns a comic book store and produces movies, and Marcus's mom runs a lifestyle blog, and my grandma manages a grocery store....nice.
My hands stopped on an old Earth, Wind, and Fire album. I pulled it out of the crate, "Is this yours or your Dad's?"
"That would be mine," he said. His collection had an uncanny resemblance to my grandmother's.
"Do you mind if I put it on?" I asked. "I really like this one."
"Go ahead," he encouraged me. Gently I removed the large Hall and Oates record from the player and placed it back in its sleeve. I placed the Earth, Wind, and Fire record on the turntable. Listening to the sounds of the music play as the record began to spin.
"The girl at the record store gives me weird looks," he said pulling a stool up for me. "I think she's silently judging me."
I had an idea of who he was talking about. "What does she look like?"
"Septum piercing. Shaved head. Always wearing a leather jacket." It's definitely Maya, I'm sure of it. She can't hide her emotions, and she's pretty judgmental when it comes to others music taste. Music is her thing. She wants to pick songs for movies and TV. "Do you know her?"
"Uh, maybe." I sat down. Thomas had his composition book laid open, its pages covered in permanent marker drawings. There was one of two people, a girl and a boy, standing in front of a store front. "I like this one." I told him pointing at the image.
"I just started working on it. I still need to color it," he said picking up his black marker, and making the girls hair bigger. "I'm thinking about doing a series called, Mall People."
"And what do these mall people do?"
"They shop," he said, "And at night they turn into mannequins."
"So Night at the Museum, but in reverse?"
"It's a work in progress," he stated staring down at the page. He looked over at me, his glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose. "Do you like PacMan?"
"Yes," I replied. "But I do think that Mrs. PacMan is superior."
"I totally agree. Will you be staying awhile?"
I looked at the time on my phone. Five-thirty. I still have a few hours until Tasha and Maya's shifts are over. "Yeah, my friend's driving me home, so I have a few hours to kill."
"Sweet." He pulled out a bag of quarters from under the counter. "Do you want to play a few rounds."
"You keep a bag of quarters laying around?" I asked him.
"What do you think I do on breaks?" Thomas walked to the back of the store where all of the arcade games were. I followed behind him, and watched as he slipped two quarters into the machine.
"I'll play a round and then you can play," he said his eyes focused on the screen.
"But what if you get a customer?" I asked watching the little yellow circle eat the flashing blue and white ghosts.
"I won't. We're usually slow around this time."
I was in the middle of a very intense game of PacMan when I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. I tried to ignore it, but as soon as it stopped it started back up again.
"Hey, can you take over for me?" I asked Thomas who sat on top of an out of order pinball machine. He was eating a bag of gummy bears.
"But you're about to beat your high score!"
"I know, but I need to answer my phone!" We had been playing for two hours, and my hands were starting to get sore.
Thomas hopped off the broken machine and took over for me.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, I had three missed calls from Maya and a shit load of texts from Tasha. Shit.
I called Maya back, and she picked up immediately.
"Where the fuck are you?" she answered.
"Um, hello," I said taken aback by her tone. "Nice to hear from you too."
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said sarcastically. "I just thought my friend had been kidnapped, because she wasn't answering her phone."
"Apology accepted." I heard her mutter some curses under her breath. "I am at To The Maxx."
"The comic book store?" she asked in disbelief.
"Yeah," I responded. "Are you guys far?"
"No, we'll be there in a few. Bye."
She hung up before I even got a chance to say goodbye. I went back over to where Thomas was simultaneously playing and eating candy.
He looked over at me as I came and stood next to the machine. "Are you leaving?"
"Yes," I sighed. "My friends are off from work, and they're on their way here."
"I should probably get ready to close up shop too," he said. "We do have school tomorrow."
"I have to study. I have a major chemistry test tomorrow."
"Good luck with that," he said. As Thomas and I were saying our goodbyes Tasha and Maya strolled in.
"So this is where you've been," Tasha said looking around. "Maya thought you got kidnapped. A bit dramatic if you ask me."
"I was not being dramatic. Young black girls are getting kidnapped every day, have you not been watching the news?" Maya argued. "It's a serious issue."
Thomas laughed next to me. I just shook my head at them.
"Thomas, these are my friends, Tasha and Maya. Thomas is the editor at the East Chapel Gazette."
"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Tasha said politely.
"I know you," Maya said scanning Thomas's face. "You're the guy that buys all the oldies records."
"Guilty as charged," Thomas said.
"I knew you looked familiar," she said. "We just got in a lot more vinyl by the way."
"Thanks for letting me know. I'll have to check them out."
"No problem, Hall and Oates." She looked down at her phone with a groan. "We should get going Roxanne is blowing up my phone."
Roxanne is Maya's foster mom. Maya's been with her for as long as I've known her, but Roxanne's just seemed to get worse over the years. She treats her foster children like live in maids, and threatens to kick them out if they don't obey her. Thankfully, Maya will be eighteen soon so she won't have to deal with it for much longer.
"Okay."
"We'll wait for you outside." Tasha said before her and Maya left the store. I saw Maya begin pacing in front of the store while talking on the phone. She must be calling Roxanne.
"Did she just call me Hall and Oates?" Thomas asked once they left.
"Yeah," I laughed. "I'm sorry about that she doesn't really have a filter."
"It's fine," he said. I picked my bags from behind the counter.
"I'll see you at school tomorrow."
"Totally. Good luck with your chemistry test," he said as I began to leave the store.
"Thanks, bye," I called back to him. I met Maya and Tasha outside the store. Maya seemed to be in an even worse mood, but I expected it. She always is after she talks to Roxanne.
She walked away from us without a word.
"Roxanne was bitching at her about chores," Tasha informed me as we followed Maya out to her car. "Now she's in a pissy mood."
"Yikes." Maya slammed the door as she got in the car.
Tasha and I exchanged looks. "Are you okay?" I asked her from the passenger seat.
"I fucking hate her," said Maya. She ranted, "But only a few more months and I'll be eighteen, and I'll be out of that damn house."
Maya had been saving to get her own place since she got her job at the record store. She'll be out of there by the end of the summer.
"I can't wait for you to get your own place," Tasha said from the backseat. "It's going to be so fun. We can sleepovers all the time."
"I'll actually have some privacy, and I won't have to share a bathroom with four other people."
"What a dream," Tasha sighed. Tasha has three brothers and they all share a bathroom. And they all have massive amounts of hair, she's had to come to my house to shower several times because their drains were clogged.
"But until then I have to go home and clean the house," Maya complained. She groaned, "Somebody kill me."
"But then who would drive us around?" I asked jokingly.
She gave me a tight smile, while starting the car. "Your asses would take the bus."
Check out my other story, Cole & Jamie.
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