The skate rink celebration was fun, and what I think everyone needed until we were back at the camp. I sat in Darius' room, talking to him about the day as there was a knock on the door which caused us both to look up and see Raquel with a wet stained face.
"What's wrong?" My eyes watered.
"Can y'all come to the lobby?" She wiped her face, yet more tears ran down her cheeks. "Please."
I looked over at Darius who seemed to be thinking heavily in his mind since he was silent but we both jumped off of the bed to follow Raquel to the lobby. As we moved through the hallways that led us to the lobby – I knew exactly why she was in his tears because there stood Sienna with her luggage packed and beside her was Antonio holding his.
I quickly rushed over to my friend, pulling her into a hug. "You're really leaving?"
She pulled back, nodding her heads as tears welled up in her eyes. "I'm leaving now, I'll be staying with Antonio for a few days until I finally move.. I'm deciding to do it now because the camp leaders are most likely sleep.. so that they won't question me."
"Awe, I'll miss you so much." I felt a tightness in my throat, but I held it. "You deserve a new journey Sienna, you are an amazing, beautiful and sweet person that'll be able to be free from this, I hope to see you again someday on the big screen or something."
"You're my best friend, thank you so much for not giving up on me and continuing to push me to go to therapy and just being there for me," Sienna stated. "I love you, and I have your number so we'll talk still!"
"Wow. I'm going to miss you too Sienna," Darius finally uttered. "Known you for years, you'll be missed here and I want to apologize for all the unnecessary things that I did to you."
Sienna hugged him, "Stop.. You know me, I love you brother. We just grew up and I'll miss you a lot."
"Wait, y'all were best friends?"
"More like brother and sister." Darius smirked. "I love you too, sis."
Sienna waved see you later to everyone, as I gave her another hug with tears now falling.
"Take care of my friend Antonio." I told him.
"I got you, this my baby." He held her hand, giving me a side hug while giving one to Darius as well. "See y'all soon."
Together they rolled their things out of the camp and now it was down to twelve people in the camp. I turned around to see the crew lost for words and of course Raquel was still crying so I headed towards her, pulling her aside from everyone.
"It'll be okay, she probably needed to leave." I said. "You already know what she went through."
"She was really like my big sister," She cried out. "I remember being so annoyed that she treated me like such but now she's moving.. I can't believe her parents, like that makes me so angry every time I think of it. She really held that in for so long and when she told they didn't believe her, that's heartbreaking."
"It is," I agreed. "I just hope she continues therapy sometimes we think moving away from our problems helps but it is what's going on the inside that she's dealing with. The therapist was helpful with that I'm sure."
"Yeah, I'm changing rooms." Raquel wiped her tears. "I might room with Braylon for the last month."
"If you need someone to talk to me or just for me to be there for you to vent, let me know." I squeezed her. "I'm here for you little sis, no matter what."
"Thank you!" She hugged me back. "My seventeen birthday is happening soon, so I should be happy about that?"
She didn't know that we had things already getting planned for her big day.
"Yes, you're going to be seventeen! You getting up there!" I cheered her up. "What do you want to do for your birthday?"
"Since Sienna won't be here to celebrate it with me, I want to cry and eat ice cream all night but I guess eating out would do.. I love food!" She tried to hide her smile.
A surprise party with lots of food. Check.
"You alright?" Braylon walked up to us, checking on Raquel.
"I am now, thanks to Con." Raquel nudged me.
"Of course, thanks for helping my shorty," He placed his arms around her, glancing up at me. "ConBon."
"Not a problem." I smiled, leaving them to speak alone while I met back up with my boyfriend. "Why you've never told me that you were close with Sienna?"
"A lot of stuff happened in high school," He admitted. "I feel bad for not being there. We were close like brother sister type close.. we just somehow fell off in high school over something so dumb, my ex."
"Why did that make you fall off with your sister?"
"Well my ex was the type to be petty and persuading me into thinking that Sienna had something for me.. it was never like that between us though." He explained. "I used to always look out for Sienna in middle school, like her brother like if some dude bullied her I'd beat them up and vice versa – I never knew her problem that she was dealing with yet she still would talk to me like everything was good. Never did I think that she was being sexually abused."
"How did you know?"
"I recently found out, because I was putting two and two together as to why she was how she is." He responded as his voice became shaky. "I'm even more angry at myself for us not being close no more.. like I could've did something."
"You were young too Darius," I stated, making sure to hold eye contact with him. "Don't blame yourself because you didn't know at the time. It's okay to feel bad about it because I do to, but none of was your fault okay?"
"Yeah, sometimes I feel like a lot of bad things happen to the people that I really care about but I'm going to listen to you and not feel guilty anymore.." He held my hands, entwining our fingers together. "I love you so much!"
"I love you too," I felt my heart fluttering. "DaryBear."
Somedays I felt like looking into the future and wondering how our love story was going to be played out — but other times I wanted to get use to the present, and us learning so much one another that we've never told anyone.
. . .
After the morning run, I jumped straight into the shower and completed my morning hygiene routine then I started to get ready for today. I was truly excited because after the sadness that transpired yesterday, it was now time to plan for Raquel's special day.
She was turning seventeen, so we decided to have a girls day out then end it with a after party. It was happening in less than a month so we were planning it earlier.
I wore a olive green long sundress, with strappy black sandals and brushed my hair into a neat bun, applying edge control to my edges before leaving the room to meet the rest of the crew.
"Constance!" I heard a voice yelling.
I turned around, seeing Jacqueline wearing a burgundy long sundress with black ankle flat platforms, her J initial necklace, big bamboo hoop earrings and her hair in a half down, half up style. Her makeup was flawlessly done, as she stared at me.
"You look so cute girly!" I complimented, moving closer to her. "I love this entire look!"
"You too, I see the reason why we're best friends." She laughed. "So what are going to do for Raquel?"
I thought, as we proceeded into walking in the hallway.
"What's Raquel favorite foods, colors?"
"Turquoise blue," Jacqueline answered. "She loves soul food, so maybe a big dinner that well help Ms. Esther with but what kind of party?"
"I was thinking of us having a girls night day then a after party for everyone. So us going to a spa, and just relaxing would be good!" I stated my suggestions.
"That sounds good actually," Jacqueline nodded her head. "I think that's a great idea, that'll relax a lot of the girls since we've been all dealing with a lot of stuff and I know Raquel will need it, so it's the best idea!"
"Good, now for the after party.. it could be based on a theme and we play the actual songs from the theme."
"I love it, let's tell the rest of the people without Raquel finding out." Jacqueline voiced.
We started it off by going to the game room where the guys were, goofing around and playing the games which made us stand in front of the screens.
"Come on!" Dante smacked his teeth.
"Why y'all right there?" Braylon crossed his arms.
"Because we're going to plan Raquel's birthday party, the next party will be here and it'll be a after party but we need to have a theme." I said.
"So do any of y'all have suggestions?" Jacqueline looked at everyone in the game room.
"Uh.. we could throw a hip hop party!" Lamont chimed in.
A hip hop themed party sounded good.
"Hollywood themed." Dante quipped.
Another nice idea.
"Gold party theme." Desmond distributed.
"I like Lamont's idea with the hip hop themed party." Eugene added.
Braylon agreed. "Me too, I'm with Mont."
"So far Lamont's idea with the hip hop themed party is winning, Darius you have the end vote." Jacqueline told him.
"Hip hop theme is cool." Darius ended the vote.
"Well, hip hop themed party it is." I clapped my hands excitedly. "Now what year are we going with?"
"I think it should be all the years of hip hop, the hip hop culture has so much styles that makes it better." Lamont remarked, "That's why it's the most inspired genre, you have a lot of things to choose from!"
"Okay, I really can't wait for this party. Raquel deserves it." Jacqueline beamed. "We're having an all girls' day before the hip hop party so that'll be the after party, so y'all will be the host of it, so have plenty of hip hop music from all of the years, be versatile and we're going to wear different fits to match the theme, okay?"
"Yeah, this after party gon' be lit." Braylon jumped up, rubbing his hands together. "We got to kill it for my shawty."
"We'll have to tell the leaders of the camp and let them know so that we could buy the things for the party." I clarified.
"Sounds good." All the said in a union.
Jacqueline and I then left the room, going to the girls room. First, we stopped by Tatiana and Bianca's room, knocking on the door.
"Is there something wrong?" Tatiana's eyebrows furrowed.
"No, we just want to discuss some things with y'all about a party." Jacqueline specified.
"Ooh okay," Bianca opened the door wider, stepping back to let us in before shutting it behind her. "Who's the party for?"
"Raquel, we're deciding to have a all girls night out first," I explained in detail. "So expect a spa day for us then we'll have a after party and the guys decided on choosing a hip hop theme so we're going to do that, so we're just letting everyone know first to make it a surprise for her."
"So that means we could wear anything for the hip hop themed party?" Tatiana questioned.
"Yeah, there's no specific time for the hip hop themed party, so you can find anything from the culture." Jacqueline concluded. "So come looking cute, and it'll be happening in less than an month so we're going to tell the leaders of the camp and then I guess go shopping for fits and things for the party."
"Wow, that sounds like it's going to be fun!" Bianca blurted. "I definitely can't wait!"
"Same, so when will we be getting the things?" Tatiana glanced at us.
"After we ask Ms. Esther and Ms. Erika," I replied. "We're just making our rounds, next will be Dahlia's room."
"Okay." They both cheered.
"Alright, so we'll talk to y'all more about it later on." Jacqueline assured, turning to leave out of the room.
I followed her out of their room, leading us back into the hallway and I glared at her. "I'm sure that Dahlia and Raquel are together, so how will we tell Dahlia?"
"That's true." Jacqueline sighed, before tapping her chin and her eyes seemed to light up. "How about I pull Raquel out of the room, speak to her about how she's feeling and you talk to Dahlia?"
"Sounds like a plan." I gave her a high five, as we headed towards Dahlia's room.
Jacqueline knocked on the door, as we patiently waited for one of them to open it.
"Hey y'all!" Dahlia smiled at us. "What's up?"
"Can I pull Raquel away for a minute?" Jacqueline queried.
"Yeah, we just finished watching a movie, Step Up 3." Dahlia allowed us to enter.
"Hey you guys!" Raquel grinned, standing up from the floor.
"Can I talk to Raquel?" Jacqueline asked her.
Raquel shook her head, then they left Dahlia's room.
"Okay, so we're planning on throwing a all girls day for Raquel's birthday," I whispered. "Then a hip hop themed after party afterwards, how does that sound?"
"Oh my gosh! Raquel will love that!" Dahlia muttered. "She's been down since Sienna left so I pitched in on us watching movies to get her mind off of it."
"You're a good friend," I uttered. "So how are you feeling?"
"I'm okay, you know Lamont asked me to be his girlfriend.." She babbled, smiling from ear to ear. "I was so happy to know that he likes me too, we've been talking and getting to know one another so I think that it was going to be the next step."
"Awe, I'm so happy for y'all, just seeing your smile increase every time you say his name is really cute."
"I've never felt like this," She confessed. "I understand him a lot more and the things he go through which makes me like him even more. I also talked to his parents, and they've invited me over for dinner.. but there's a problem, my siblings are here to watch me because I can't date anyone."
"Wow, your parents are really strict but if they had a talk with Lamont they'd know he's a good guy."
"Very, but my siblings would probably make it seem like it's more than what it is." She rolled her eyes. "It's not fair that they could date and I can't."
"What did your parents say at the fundraiser whenever they saw you around him?"
"I introduced him to them, and obviously smiled in his face yet told me that I didn't need to be worrying about boys, dating and to focus on school but ugh.." Dahlia sounded annoyed. "I'm seventeen, almost eighteen why are they like that?"
"I don't know parents are weird about dating, you should've saw my face whenever I finally introduced Darius to my parents." I reminisced on the meet up day. "I froze up for a while, until I finally confessed my real feelings and I ended up crying.. my dad wasn't budging until he saw me crying so he decided to give Darius a chance."
"I really like y'all together." Dahlia affirmed. "I don't have goals or anything but I admire y'all a lot. You're really the big sister that I've never had yet always wanted, you know that?"
"Awe, that's so sweet. You're going to make me cry," I squeezed her into a hug, feeling tears welling inside of my eyes. "I appreciate it so much, and I want you to know that after camp is over.. you can always contact me and we could hang out together, okay?"
"Yes." Dahlia's eyes watered. "Thank you for being you!"
"Awe, don't cry." I wiped her tears. "You're like family to me too."
In less than a few seconds, Jacqueline and Raquel entered the room again. It seemed like they were both in tears by the way they wiped their eyes, and it made me cry too.
I couldn't believe how close I was to this girls. This summer felt so long, and I really cherished all of my friendships with everyone here.
"Are y'all okay?"
"Yeah, we are." Jacqueline seemed to find a way out of her tears, as a grin appeared on her face. "It was a much needed chat though."
"Agreed." Raquel retorted.
It was now time to tell the leaders of the camp our ideas for Raquel's special day and hopefully they would agree. Leaving Dahlia's room, I thought about the kinds of costumes to wear for the after party.
"You think we should dress up like Destiny's Child, adding in Raquel or TLC because even though they were mainly based on R&B, their style was definitely hip hop."
"That'll be a good idea, but first we have to see if they agree." Jacqueline combed her fingers through her hair.
We went inside of Ms. Erika's office seeing them both speaking to someone so we waited until they noticed us.
"Jacqueline, Constance would like to introduce you both to one of the advisors here at the camp." Ms. Erika stood up. "Miracle Adams will be helping us next year with the campers and we're preparing a big staff and faculty next year."
"Wow, nice to meet you Mrs. Adams." I shook her hand.
Jacqueline shook her hand as well, "Yes, I'm happy for you."
"Thank you, I'm excited to be apart of the Southside Circle Park family." Mrs. Adams praised, before turning around to speak to the leaders. "I'll see you both tomorrow, thank you again."
We waved see you later to new advisor for next year and she left the room.
"I can't believe we're now going have a full staff."
"Yes, all thanks to you all. Now what did you want to tell us?" Ms. Esther wondered.
We explained again our ideas for Raquel and we watched them with their unreadable face expressions.
"I love this idea." Ms. Erika crooned.
"I think that's going to be good for the end of camp." Ms. Esther affirmed.
"Thank you soooo much— Wait end of camp?"
"Yes, July first is the end of the camp.." Ms. Erika confirmed. "I was going to announce it to you guys in the lobby because we're trying to get ready for the following summer. We have tons of kids signing up, a bunch of people pitching in for donations and also a lot people to help us work in the camp. You all did a terrific job on keeping this place together so we're going to close it July first, to get things in order for the next summer season."
Normally, we ended camp at the end of July but now it was going to be the start of July which almost had me in tears.
It wasn't going to be just the party for Raquel's special day but the end of the summer camp for all of us.