Egypt Hoskins
August 20
4:40 pm
"If I have a daughter, her name gone be Madison. I've always been obsessed with that name for some reason Akira told me as she flopped back on her large bed and opened the pack of chocolate chip cookies she walked into her room with. Meanwhile I laid across one end on my stomach
"The hell made you think of that?"
"Because I was thinking of baby names when my period came late this month. A bitch almost had a heart attack"
"I can't witchu" I laughed "I hope you out here using protection"
"Trust me I am. My parents and brother would kill me if I pop up pregnant"
"You damn right so yo ass better still be a virgin" Christian cursed as he walked into the room
"Whatever Christian. Why you in our conversation anyways?"
"Cause I'm grown as fuck. And don't play lil girl" he pointed at Akira then looked at me "you too"
"Ima virgin so.." I shrugged and Christian looked as if he didn't believe me
"All I know is I better no hear shit bout y'all fuckin round at that school and I ain playin"
Akira rolled her eyes "bye Christian"
"Keep playin wimme"
Akira mocked him as he pulled his car keys out of his pocket "Egypt I'm bout to head out. You ready?"
Being that he was my ride home I nodded and got off of the bed
"You just gotta ruin a good conversation huh?" Kira asked Christian
"Nah I came in at the right time. Come on" he motioned for me to follow him. I grabbed my bookbag and looked at Akira
"I'll text you later"
"Okay. Then I can tell you about one of Christian friends that won't stay out my dms"
"Yeah getchu and that nigga fucked up" he mumbled while leaving the room. I shook my head and followed him out of the room.
As I exited the house behind Christian I looked around just like I do any other time. Even though their house was a one story house it was large and spacious. The walls were a nicely painted cream color, their hardwood floors shined, nice clean furniture, even real plants standing around in certain corners of the house in nice large vases.
"Ma! We bout to head out" Christian yelled as we walked past the kitchen
"Egypt you leaving already?" She asked, walking out of the kitchen with a bowl full of lettuce in her arm
"Yes ma'am. My momma's at work and I gotta go get my brothers and sister from the neighbors so I can cook dinner"
"Cook? No. Come here" she walked back into the kitchen
"Just come to the car when she done. That lady bout to run her mouth bout another 10 minutes" Christian told me before walking out of the house and I went into the kitchen where she was.
She sat the bowl down and went over to the pantry that was on the other side of the large kitchen.
"So how's school so far?"
"It's okay"
"Just okay?" She closed the pantry door with a couple of large tupperware bowls in her hand. "You sound just like Akira. Y'all must have the same classes again"
"All but one. I'm in English with the seniors"
"Ahhh smart girl. I wish you'd talk your friend into actually applying herself cause she won't listen to me. Apparently I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to her" she told me with a laugh while stuffing food into the tupperware
" I told her she gotta do better. I'll help her study more this year"
"Lord know I don't know what she would do without you as a friend"
"I tell her the exact same thing too Mrs Angie" I joked and she laughed
"Listen, we were gonna surprise them with a trip to the beach next weekend before it gets cold and of course we wanted to take you but we gotta make sure it's okay with your mom"
"Okay, ill ask her"
"Okay then" she smiled and started putting lids on the food, grabbed a plastic bag and put them inside tying it up before giving it to me
"Thank you. You didn't have to do this"
"I'm looking out for y'all the same way Courtney would look out for Akira and Christian" she referred to my momma by her first name "you just make sure you keep your head in those books and promise me you'll continue to look after your friend 'round there cause lord knows.."
"You know I got Akira"
"I know you do. And that's why you're my favorite"
"I tried to tell Akira that but she don't listen"
Mrs Angie laughed and I held onto the bottom of the bag to keep the stuff from falling over
"You go ahead before Christian get impatient and leave you here. And tell him to be home before 10"
"Yes ma'am. And thank you again"
"You're welcome babygirl" she gave me a hug and I walked out of the kitchen, leaving the house. I hurried over to Christian's Honda Accord that was running in the large driveway of the yard and hopped into the passenger seat
"I told you I stopped fuckin with that girl last wee-....hello?" He looked at his phone and sighed, shaking his head and sat the phone on his lap before looking at me while I closed the door
"Told you her ass was gone start talkin"
"It's not that bad. I like talking to Mrs Angie"
Christian backed out of the driveway quickly and sped off "well you stay here and talk to her ass all the time. That way she leave us alone"
I laughed and looked out the window, resting my hand on top of the plastic bag that contained the tupperware of food. Thinking about what their mom told me, I looked at Christian again
"Oh. And she said be home by 10"
He kissed his teeth "Ten? She trippin"
"Wow"
"What?" He glanced over at me. I just shook my head
"Nothing"
Christian kept his eyes on me for a little bit then looked at the road again "you did that paper that's due Monday?"
"Yeah. I wrote mine yesterday when he gave us the rubric. It ain't even hard"
"That's cause you like writing and shit"
"Actually I don't." I muttered while keeping my eyes out of the window, staring at all of the nice houses that we passed to leave their neighborhood. "I just do what I gotta do to make sure I can get into a nice college and get outta here"
"Whatchu wanna go to college for? Whatchu wanna major in?"
"I don't know. I'm really thinking hard about being a psychologist but at the same time I was starting to look into being a social worker or something. I just wanna help out people like me"
"Whatchu mean people like you? Ain shit wrong witchu"
"You say that because y'all ain't assholes like everybody else at that school. To everybody else I'm just broke ass Egypt that can't afford shit but one ply toilet tissue from the dollar store... and speaking of" I pulled out my phone from my pocket and started to text my momma reminding her to pick up some more tissue because we were down to the last two rolls
"You know money don't mean shit right?"
"That's what people with money say" I chuckled and Christian sighed
"Forreal Egypt. So what? We live in two different type of houses, come from two different background... what that gotta do with shit? That don't make us no better than you. You'on got the most expensive clothes in the world but you know how to style the hell outta whatchu got. You one of the smartest girls I know, you gotta kind ass heart, you stay outta drama and you naturally beautiful as hell. Don't look at whatchu ain got, be thankful for whatchu have cause all the money in the world can't buy none of that"
I smiled at Christian "thank you"
"Don't thank me. You needed to hear it from somebody that genuinely meant it"
I looked back out of the window and saw we were no longer in the nice neighborhood. I watched the scenes continue to change during the rest of the ride until we made it to my neighborhood.
"You can drop me off right here" I pointed to one of our neighbors, Mrs Gee's house. Christian pulled into her yard and when he stopped the car I took my seatbelt off
"Thank you for the ride"
"No problem.. just remember what I told you, Ight"
I nodded while opening the door "I will. I'll see you Monday"
I got out of the car holding onto the bag right and closed the door. Christian waited for me to go up to the door before leaving and I knocked on the door. Not too long afterwards the door swung open and Mrs Gee opened the door with a smile.
"Egypt. Hey babygirl"
"Hey Mrs Gee. I came to get my brothers and sister"
She pulled me into a hug and let me inside
"Come on in here. The kids in in the living room with Tremaine playing on that game"
I followed her down the hall to the living room. Mrs Gee was tremaine's grandma and she was one of the sweetest ladies in the neighborhood. She didn't work so she would always watch anybody's kids if they needed her to and boy did that lady cook some good food.
Unlike Akira's house, theirs wasn't as big but it was a nice size for just the two of them and the inside was decorated nicely but you could tell an older person decorated. The little black figurines all over the place, the painting of the last supper on the wall, long draped curtains, dim lighting and the scent of warm linen candle wax melts in the air.
I looked at the picture on the wall of tremaine from his elementary school days, laughing a little and Mrs Gee looked back at me
"You always get a kick outta that picture huh"
"He was so cute"
"Tell me about it. Now my grandsons all grown up and in two years he'll be off to college on a basketball scholarship" she sighed "lord knows I know his momma would be proud of him right now"
"Yes she would be" I assured her
It was no secret around the neighborhood that tremaine's momma was in jail serving 25 to life with no parole for killing her ex husband when Tremaine was 8. She tried to plead self defense but the jury didn't buy it so now she gone so Tremaine has lived with his grandma every since
As we walked into the living room I saw tremaine teaching Sean how to play the game with Evan
"Ahhh y'all cheated!" Evan yelled and Sean started to laugh at Evan
"Good game" tremaine chuckled and slapped hands with Sean
"Alright you boys. Y'all sister came to get y'all"
"Thank god" Nevaeh breathed while standing up and grabbed her bookbag "I'm tired of being the only girl in here"
Mrs Gee laughed and so did Tremaine. He then looked over at me
"I was lookin for you on the bus"
"I rode home with Akira"
"Mannn I don't wanna go" Evan groaned while dragging his bookbag before putting it on his back and Sean grabbed his as well
"Trey go walk with them and make sure they get home safe"
He stood up and I can't lie, when I realized he had on a pair of grey sweats I took a look
"Egypt" Neveah called my name and I looked at her
"Huh"
"I asked what was in the bag" she pointed to the bag I carried. I looked down at it then looked at her realizing that I zoned out
"Oh, food"
"Mrs Angie sent us some food? Ouuu that lady can cook"
Tremaine laughed and I shook my head
"I'll be back grandma"
"Okay. Y'all be careful"
"We will. And thank you Mrs Gee" I told her before following Tremaine out of the house. Sean, Evan and Nevaeh walked ahead of us as we headed toward our house which was only a couple of houses down
"I'm surprised you didn't go to the game tonight"
Tremaine shook his head "Ain nobody going to that shit. I ain paying 7 dollars just to watch them lose. I'll go to the next one"
I laughed a little and he looked at me, grabbing the bag with the food out of my hand and carried it for me "why you ain went?"
"I don't really do football so you won't catch me at the games. I'll probably be at Akira's house every Friday"
"Oh. What about basketball? You gone come see me play?"
"Ion know. I'll think about it"
Tremaine made a face "you'll think about it? Damn that's how you do me?"
"Be lucky I said I'll think about it" I told him with a laugh and he playfully pushed me a little
"Whatchu gettin into tomorrow?"
"I don't know. I'll probably be cleaning up the house and watching them if my momma end up picking up another shift" I pointed ahead of me at my sibling
"And if she don't, whatchu gone do?"
"I'll probably chill outside for the day"
"That's it?"
"Yeah. I don't really have nothing else to do"
"What about yo best friend? You ain gone be with her?"
"I don't know. It depends on if I have a ride you know? Her parents work on weekends too and her brothers gone from sun up to sun down so it usually depends on my momma"
"Well shit, if you home tomorrow I'll slide through and keep you company for a lil bit before I gotta go train"
"For basketball?"
He nodded as we walked into my yard.
"Just let me know though. You got my number?"
"No" I unlocked my phone and handed it to him. While he put his number in Nevaeh walked back over to me
"Can I get the key"
I reached in the side of my bookbag and grabbed the lanyard with the house key on it and gave it to her. After she took off to the door where my brothers waited Tremaine gave me my phone back
"Like I said just hit me up and lemme know if you gone be busy"
I grabbed the bag with the food and smiled "I will... and thank you for walking us home"
"No problem. I'll catch you later"
"Okay"
As he turned to head back home I started to walk towards my house, looking back at him for a second and smiled again