..two weeks later
"So y'all are friends now?" Jakari laughed at me as I talked to her about Kojo.
Kojo and I weren't friends but he let me catch rides home with him almost everyday for the past two weeks so we were definitely something.
"Sorta like carpool buddies." I explained and she smacked her lips.
"Yeah, alright. He's still weird to me."
"Who gets a face tattoo willingly?" She criticized.
"I think it's nice." I shrugged again, looking down at my work that I was currently doing in the cafe.
"Oh, I see.." She smiled and I furrowed my eyebrows.
"What?" I asked confused.
"You like him."
"Bitch, what?" I raised my eyebrows.
I hadn't even looked at Kojo in that way. He was automatically like an annoying older brother to me because that's what he reminded me of.
"You heard me, you like him." She tooted her lips up and I scoffed.
"No, Jakari." I shook my head, brushing that thought out of my mind.
I do not like him. I thought.
"Plus I have a boyfriend, did you forget?" I asked and she smacked her lips.
"Oh..yeah, Reap." She put her eyes to the sky.
"Yes, Reap." I smiled, thinking about him and how we've been seeing each other almost everyday these past two weeks.
"Please, P. Reap ain't shit and you know it."
"First of all, don't talk about him, Jakari." I spoke up and she furrowed her eyebrows.
"Let's not play stupid here, P. We both know he isn't." She went on, offending him.
"Don't talk about my boyfriend. He's not here to defend hisself so watch what you say plus I never come at you for your bullshit ass niggas." I spat and she scoffed.
"Whatever, P. You're letting that boy fuck with your mind, you're mad at the wrong one." She said as I began to grab my stuff.
"He's got you all fucked up in the head. Look at you leaving the table like somebody's supposed to feel bad for saying the truth. I love you girl but get your shit together." She went on, chuckling as I walked away from the table with my middle finger up.
"Bitch." I said to myself.
Making my way outside, I pulled out my phone to call Reap. He didn't answer but he texted me shortly after saying that he was busy and he'd talk to me later.
I replied to him with a simple Okay as I now sat alone. My mind began to drift off, thinking about everything Jakari was saying.
I know it was easy to think Reap wasn't shit but he was just reserved, I had to prove my loyalty to him before he took me serious.
Ripping me away from my thoughts, my phone buzzed.
"Hello." I answered once I saw that it was Smoke.
"What's up, baby sis?" He asked.
"Nothing, I'm eating in the cafe right now."
"How are you? I haven't talked to you since our last conversation. You been doing what I asked? Making big bro proud?" He asked and I automatically began to feel guilty.
I'd been doing the complete opposite of what he asked me to do.
"Yeah.." I trailed off, lying.
"That's good, baby sis."
"So for being good, I got a surprise for you." He said and I lit up.
"What? What is it?" I asked excited.
"FaceTime me." He said and I did.
As he answered he held up a receipt for a plane ticket and I almost lost it.
"Is that for me?" I asked excitedly and he nodded, smiling.
"Yeah. I'm gon' fly you out this weekend and we gon' have some fun. Aight? Let you see my new place and take you shopping, whatever you want to do." He went on and I was filled with joy.
I'd missed Smoke extremely bad since he's been gone now I was about to be stress-free and spending time with him for a full weekend.
"Okay, I cant wait." I smiled.
"I already told ma, so pack your stuff tonight and I'm gon' send you your ticket to your email." He said and I nodded.
"Okay."
"Aight, I'm gon' call you later. Eat your food." He said and I nodded.
"Okay, love you."
"Love you too."
After school
"You coming over with P today?" Kojo asked and I nodded, texting Reap to see if we were seeing each other tonight.
"Aight. Are you going home first or you want to just go straight to my crib?" He went on and I tuned him out as I focused on the messages that I was sending.
"Hello.." I heard him say but I didn't respond as I focused on sending the water emoji.
Before I knew it, my phone was being taken out of my hand and thrown onto the car's floor.
"Excuse you." I furrowed my eyebrows, looking at him as if he was crazy.
"I'm fucking talking to you and you're ignoring me. This shit don't run on conversation." He said referring to his car and the gas he was wasting waiting for me to answer his question.
"Okay but you don't have to throw my phone." I said calmly, rolling my eyes as I picked it up.
I was used to his attitude now so I wasn't even mad. That was his personality and it was no use in even getting upset. He was a reckless person just like my brothers.
"Aight. I apologize but are you going home or what?"
"No. I'm going straight to your house." I told him and he nodded, pulling off.
We weren't too far from our block but Kojo decided to stop for food so that added an extra 10 minutes.
"Want something?" He asked as we pulled up to Chic-Fil-A's drive-thru.
"Uh, yeah. Just a number two." I told him, texting on my phone and he nodded.
I listened as he order all the food and then pulled to the next window. He then paid and went to window number two and waited for our food.
In the mist of that, his phone buzzed in the cup holder and I looked down at it.
"Your phone's ringing." I told him and he nodded, grabbing the bags of food before giving them to me to hold.
He then pulled away from the drive-thru and grabbed his phone.
Holding his phone to his ear, he drove with one hand as I dug into the bags to find my food.
"Yeah, Holly." He sighed as I stuffed a fry into my mouth.
"Yeah, I guess. I ain't doing shit so.." He went on as I stuffed more fries into my mouth.
"Aight." He said, removing the phone from his ear and putting it back into the cup holder.
"You better be eating your fries and not mine." He warned as I smiled sneakily, grabbing another fry from a bag that wasn't mine and shoving it into my mouth.
"I am, shut up." I giggled.
*
Later in the day
"How many dolls do you have, Penelope?" I asked her while I put two ponytails in her long silky hair.
"A lot." She giggled as I shook my head.
I'd been playing with Penelope all day. At this point, I think Ms. Sarah was just using me as free baby sitting services. She'd left about an hour ago to go grocery shopping and then to the hair salon, leaving Kojo and I with Penelope.
"Y'all too loud." Kojo said as he watched basketball on the TV.
"The cavs are ass anyway." I looked up at him, rolling my eyes as Penelope giggled.
"Watch your mouth." He defended.
"Ok. The cavs are hot garbage, is that better?" I went on and he shot me a deadly glare and I smiled innocently.
"Tired of your ass." I heard him mumble and I turned my lip up.
Penelope looked back at me with a smile on her face.
"I'm going to punch your brother, P." I whispered to her.
"Fight. Fight. Fight." She chanted as I smiled, standing to my feet.
"You want me to beat him up?" I asked her, just trying to entertain her and she nodded.
"Beat him up. Beat him up." She chanted.
"You better go ahead, Penelope. I keep telling you, I'll hurt your little ass." He scoffed as I walked up to him while he sat on the couch.
I looked back at P who was still chanting, waiting for me to beat him up.
Testing my luck, I punched him in his arm softly and he glared at me.
"She's gon' get you hurt." He warned as I hit him again, harder this time.
"Why you want to play with me, Penelope?" He asked and I laughed, hitting him another time.
"Do it again." He dared me, standing to his feet and towering over me.
I bit my bottom lip nervously as I hit him again in the arm before I took off running.
"Fight. Fight. Fight." Penelope chanted as I laughed, running away from him.
Though I was running fast, the living room was small so he caught up to me in no time because I didn't have any where else to run.
Tackling me to the floor as I laughed, he couldn't help but to laugh himself.
"Shit ain't funny." He smirked, looking down at me as I smiled.
We looked into each other's eyes as I admired his soft greenish-brown ones. No words were spoken as he leaned in and kissed my lips softly.
Penelope then stopped chanting as her mouth made the shape of an O.
Realizing what just happened, we quickly pulled away from each other. I pushed my hair behind my ear as we stood to our feet. I tucked my lips as Kojo sat back down on the couch as if nothing happened.
An awkward silence filled the room as I sat on the the other end of the couch slowly. Penelope then came over and jumped into my lap.
A knock then came to the door, startling me as I looked over to Kojo who finally took his focus off of the game and went to see who it was.
Penelope hopped off of my lap to follow him as I recollected my self.
You just kissed Kojo. I thought to myself.
Oh my god, why the fuck did I just kiss him? Wait. Why the fuck did he just kiss me? I thought.
Brushing me away from my thought, loud talking occurred as I looked up.
"I've been calling you since yesterday, you haven't been answering." A white girl with a bunch of tattoos walked in and I furrowed my eyebrows.
P ran over to me, just as confused as I was as she hopped back into my lap.
"And who the hell is this?" She furrowed her eyebrows, pointing to me once she saw me.
I raised my eyebrows, figuring that this was his girlfriend.
But he just kissed me though. I thought.
"That's P." He said simply.
I scoffed to myself, removing Penelope from my lap as I stood to my fee to leave.
"Where you goin'?" He asked.
"Home." I said simply, putting my shoes on.
"Holly, give me a minute." He told the girl and she scoffed, walking away up the stairs.
"Make it quick." She spat and I just wanted to knock her teeth out but I didn't for the sake of P.
Once I finally got my shoes on, I made my way out the front door as Kojo followed behind me, grabbing my arm.
"Hold on, P. I want to talk to you."
"There's nothing to talk about." I said, tucking my lips.
What the fuck are you jealous for? You have a boyfriend. I thought.
My mind was all over the place, I hadn't even looked at Kojo like this until now and I was already jealous, when I really shouldn't be because I have a boyfriend a few blocks away, waiting on me.
"Yes we do. We got shit to talk about and you ain't leaving until we do.." He trailed off.
"I have to go home." I said, looking at my house from afar.
My brothers were outside and I already knew I was going to have to go through it with them so I didn't feel like going through it with him too.
"Aight. Text me then."
"I don't have your number." I told him and he quickly put it in my phone.
"Alright." I sighed, walking away.
*
Kojo
"P, stay down here and play with you toys, Aight?" I told P and she nodded as she focused on the Tv.
Shaking my head, I walked up the staircase slowly, thinking about what just went down with Penelope. I didn't mean to kiss her, it just happened. But I didn't regret the shit.
I knew she was probably confused but so was I. I wasn't expecting to kiss her and I wasn't expecting Holly to pop up right after. We'd just have to talk about this shit later so I could see where her head was at with all of this.
Walking into my room, Holly sat on my bed with a scold on her face.
"Didn't know you liked black bitches." She spat and I furrowed my eyebrows.
"What did you just say?" I tilted my head.
"I said I didn't know you liked b-" She started but I cut her off, choking her roughly up against the wall.
"Say it again." I spat as she clawed at my hand but I didn't let up.
"Watch your motherfuckin' mouth." I said to her, letting her go roughly as she dropped back down onto the bed.
She breathed heavily as she looked up at me as if I was crazy but she had a thing for that racist shit and I wasn't for it.
"As a matter of fact, get out." I pointed to the door, not even in the mood to fuck her now.
"I'm sorry." She began to cry and I sighed, removing my shirt.
"I'm sorry, babe." She went on as I plopped down onto the bed.
"You need to watch what you say. Real shit." I told her and she nodded slowly as I leaned back onto the bed.
"Let me make it up to you." She told me and I nodded, letting her remove me from my sweatpants.
She took me into her mouth as I closed my eyes, sighing deeply.
"Damn." I bit my bottom lip as she did her thing.
Flashes of what went down with Penelope and I began to go through my mind and I couldn't stop thinking about her and her soft lips.
"Fuck." I grabbed her hair, thrusting my hips.
"Shit, P." I grunted, opening my eyes slowly once I realized what I said.
The sucking stopped as I sat up to look at Holly who's face was distraught.
"You're thinking about that bitch while I'm sucking your dick?" She asked and I couldn't even lie because I fucked up.
"Goodbye, Kojo." She spoke sadly as she got up and walked out of my room, wiping the sides of her mouth.
"Fuck." I cursed to myself.
*
Penelope
"Are you all packed for Chicago?" My mom asked me as I sat in my room, packing my suitcase.
"Yup." I smiled.
"Smoke said to have you bring a coat and hoodie because it's really cold there. It's nothing like LA." She said and I nodded.
"Okay." I looked up at her before she walked out.
My phone then buzzed and I looked down at it to see that it was Reap finally telling me to come over.
I smiled to myself as I quickly finished packing my bag and put it beside my room's door.
I quickly sent him a text back saying okay before I got myself ready.
I decided to take a quick shower so that I could smell fresh down there. The shower was about 20 minutes but the entire time I couldn't stop thinking about what happened with Kojo. I didn't want to think what Jakari was saying was true but I guess I did kind of like him because I didn't regret the kiss at all. It's just I'm with Reap and he obviously has a girlfriend so we both cheated which didn't sit right with me.
Sighing to myself, I dried myself off and got myself dressed in my signature all black baggy champion sweatsuit and some black Tim's. I then pushed my hair up into a messy bun before leaving out of my room.
Checking to see if the coast was clear, I made my way down the stairs and out the front door.
Killing my happiness, I quickly remembered that my brothers and their friends were outside on the steps.
"Excuse me." I said, trying to get passed.
"Move, Snacks." I pushed him as I walked passed.
"Where you goin'?" Kohan asked aggressively as he took a pull of his blunt.
"Nah, don't even worry about it." Pha told him, smirking.
"Oh yeah.." He then trailed off.
"Do you." He said and I furrowed my eyebrows.
"What?" I asked.
"Do you." He said again and I raised my eyebrows.
"Do me?" I asked confused.
"Yup." Kannon butted in and I squinted my eyes.
Snacks laughed as if something was funny but I brushed it off.
"Okay." I shrugged, walking off.
I don't know where all the sudden change of heart came from but I was happy I didn't have to fuss with them about leaving.
Maybe they're finally coming to their senses and realizing that I am a grown woman.