03| Chapter Three
2015, January | Harlem, New York
After my brief pep talk with Leah, I decided to attend class.
I studied at a small college not too far from my apartment. It was a nice college, don't get me wrong, but I never felt as if I "fitted in". A lot of the people there were somewhat depressed because they wanted to go to NYU, or Princeton, or SCAD or whatever prestige college that they had their mind set on. What made them come to Harlem Tech boggled my mind. I didn't even want to be here, but in high school, name brand colleges was something I just didn't pay attention to. I just wanted to get in somewhere, graduate with my bachelor's in biology. I didn't know if that was good enough to get me teaching Biology in a classroom, but I could only hope it was. I wanted to teach almost as much as I wanted to breathe.
So I suppose me skipping class myself and not putting education as my priority was a mistake.
I attempted to pay attention in class. I kept my eyes foreward and took notes. Even though my phone was buzzing heavily in my purse just next to me, I didn't check it, not even once. And after the forty five minute class was over, I realized just why I didn't want to be here in the first place.
My teacher was terrible.
The forty five minutes was spent with him reading directly from the book and then ocassionaly writing flimsy words on the board that he labeled as "Important." If that was how you were suppose to teach than I believe I've been witnessing it wrong the whole time. I watched as everyone left the class. I was the last person in here, not because I wanted to ask him any questions, but because I had plenty of make up work that needed to be turned it.
I stood up from the desk and grabbed the important papers before paper clipping them together.
The teacher, Proffessor Storm, eyed me with a questioning look on his face. He was curious to where I have been for the past few days. But it was against his role to question. I only answered what I wanted to which was a benefit. I placed the four worksheets on his desk and sent him a small smile. He paused, looked at me, and then gestured for me to take a seat. I did, hesitantly. He looked over the papers one by one and grade each one of them. It was a tedious task I must admit for he continued to flip from page to page on the answer sheet, and then on my paper.
"Don't they have an electronic grader?" I questioned.
Professor Storm, who was only about thirty, laughed.
"We do, but when I was in college, they told us grading by hand shows dedication." He responded. I nodded. I wouldn't be that kind of teacher. This was a waste of time that he could be using to do something more productive.
"I was sick." I blurted out.
Not because I wanted him to know why I was out, but because the silence was killing me and I needed something to say. The professor nodded, not even caring to ask me about more details. In return, he simply stated, "The flu is going around." I was glad that he believed me. He wasn't too bad, I'd admit that. Though his teaching sucked, his one on one personality made up for it. Maybe if he'd put that same charisma that he's giving me now into teaching, the whole class would benefit heavily. But who was I to tell him how to teach a class? He clearly had a degree and I didn't.
Professor Storm finished soon after and wrote down the grades of the four papers I turned in today. They were all pretty good, except an eighty on an essay I wrote. That wasn't surprising. I wasn't too good on essays, but when it came to writing in general, I was pretty good at that. Professor Storm sent one toothy smile my way before turning towards the computer. I got up from the seat and exited the classroom. I wanted to feel proud of myself, but instead I felt as if I wasted a good two hours of my time. Especially now that I was checking my text messages and seeing that Quentin, Joey, Rakim and Leah were going out to the movies soon. I sent them all a quick text telling them to wait for me before heading back outside.
Cassie, who was still staying in our apartment (Joey's orders) was nice enough to let me use her car. Even if she did have it, Joey would be at her throat if he even saw her venture towards it. I suppose she knew better as well. She was still fairly weak and putting herself behind the wheel was asking for trouble. I spotted her car immediately, a BMW which she always seemed to have decked out in a different interior everyday. I could only assume Jamal paid for it for as of right now, Cassie was just interning with a real estate agent in downtown New York. She doesn't get paid for that.
I began heading towards the car that was parked across the street.
I felt stupid for parking there, but then again, when I first arrived, all the parking spaces were taking.
"Excuse me! Isis!" called a voice.
I turned in the direction to see a tall male. He was white, but he had blonde dreads that hung down to his waist. He had tattoos covering his body and from what my eyes could see, he didn't have an untouched part of his body. He looked somewhat awkward running towards me, especially since his legs were so long. He looked somewhat like a grasshopper to me and I tried to present myself from laughing. But I was more confused on how he knew my name. I don't think I'd be able to forget someone like him.
"Yes?" I questioned, my face going into it's confused state.
He sent a smile in my direction showing a top and bottom pair of gold grills. The bottoms, however had fangs that glared intensely from the Sun that was hitting it.
"Yeah, I heard you bought Girl Scout Cookies from Samantha? She just left the parking lot but she told me to give these to you." He stated shoving the green box of Samoas in my hand. I handed them back. "I think you have the wrong person, I never ordered any Samoas. I wish though." I chuckled. "Well, are you Isis Idebe?" He questioned. I nodded, raising my eyebrow at him. "Well Samantha mentioned your name." He stated. He began walking away. "I don't know anything, but maybe you should talk to her."
And just like that, the Grasshopper hopped away.
I sent a weird look towards him then glanced back at the box.
I suppose a few Samoas won't hurt...
I began walking towards the car. I would have to hide these well. Joey always complained about me not having anything sweet inside the house and if he got a hold of these, they would be gone before I even got to taste a bite of them. I hopped into Cassie's car and buckled up. I started the engine and turned up the radio in minutes before tossing the box of Samoas on the seat next to me. There was a rustle in the bag that sounded nothing like cookies. I rose an eyebrow. I picked up the box again, shaking it and hearing that familiar rustle once more.
I sniffed the box and even weighted it but still, nothing resembled Girl Scout Cookies.
Curiosity biting at my shoulder, I tore the flab of the green box. As I suspected, it wasn't any cookies, but just a few papers that were folded neatly into fourths. I dumped the contents on the seat picking up the first paper that I spotted.
It was a picture of a tattoo. It was placed on the person's upper arm. I could remember this quote from anywhere but I couldn't help but reading it aloud:
You can tell who someone is by their significant other.
The body that the tattoo belonged to resemble Camille's, the same girl who use to be my bestfriend. The same girl who told me that Reid was no good and that I should leave him. But how did anyone other than myself know about this? Joey didn't know, and neither did Leah. How could anybody even know?
I continued flipping through the papers.
It seemed to just be address that were near where I lived in Compton. There were pictures of stacks and stacks of cash along with drugs, weapons, and other people. The people that were pictured didn't look familiar to me at all. But I had a feeling that they knew me, or at least knew someone that I was close to. I threw that paper to the floor and picked up one of the few papers that was left. I unfolded one of them and nearly gasped at the sight of it. It was a phone number followed by a text, a text that Reid sent me almost two years ago. Underneath the text was a picture of Reid and I. It was taken outside of school, I knew that for sure, but how did they get this? Reid had told his friend to take the picture on Reid's phone, and I was the only one who he ever told his password to.
Something was up, and I didn't like it one bit.
How could Samantha know anything about Reid and I?
Come to think of it, did I even know a Samantha?
I wanted to rip the pages up and throw them into a furnace or something, but these were memories. Memories that I didn't have access to. Maybe if I kept them, I could find some clues about it and figure out who these people were.
Or maybe I was only keeping them in hopes of finding Reid.
I took a deep breath.
I couldn't think about all of this right now.
I folded all the papers up neatly before placing them back in the box. I would look at those later, maybe at night when everyone was sleeping and I had nothing better to do. As of right now, I needed to just clear my mind and meet up with my friends before they left me. I sped off in the distance before I could change my mind.
▀▀▀
The movie we watched was absolute shit.
It wasn't at a normal movie theatre, but a rural one that played old western movies every Wednesday. It wasn't a Wednesday, in fact, it was a Monday and we thought it would be nice to check out the sixties movies that showed tonight. Leah had closed her eyes and we spun her around and which ever movie her finger landed on, we were to watch it.
It was a classic called "Gypsy" except it wasn't the Gypsy that I had watched tons of times before. It was a knock off version that had explicit song and sex scenes that didn't make me feel aroused at all. The characters weren't developed either and I believe I had forgotten who exactly was the protagonist of the movie. All in all, it was horrible. And because we chose Leah to be the one to choose the movie this time, we thought it would be fit to blame her. Even though technically, she didn't choose it, we did for we had spun her.
"Look, it's not like I'm the one who chose it." Leah emphasized for the fifth time in the past three minutes that we've been out of the movie theatre. Quentin shot her a look. "Shit, your finger chose the movie. That means that you chose it." Quentin continued. Deja, who today decided it would be her turn to be the great girlfriend, placed an assuring hand on his shoulder. Quentin, who in the first place wasn't even seriously mad, sent a loving look in her direction before they continued to eat each others face. Leah rolled her eyes. Rakim laughed at the scene, typically because he knew that both Leah and I didn't like Deja already. Seeing her make out with someone who we knew before they even started dated (they've only been dating for three months) was annoying. Especially since she really didn't care about him.
"Now I'm hungry." Joey stated.
He had been quiet for a bit, but Joey always had a quiet moment every once in a while. I paid no attention to it. Rakim raised his fist in the air.
"Hell yeah. Let's go to Red Rooster." Rakim exclaimed.
We all groaned. Red Rooster's had to be Rakim's favorite place to eat. Whenever we were out together, Rakim wanted us to eat there. It didn't matter what time of the day it was. It didn't help that the restaurant served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There was no way for us to get out of his trap.
"How about no." I stated, rolling my eyes.
I stepped up, looking down the road. There were a few small diners down there, and a lot of them seemed a lot better than Red Rooster. I pointed in their direction. "Let's try one of those." I stated. Quentin, who finally stopped lip-locking with Deja averted his attention towards the lit up diners. He turned to Deja who just shrugged, continuing to pull on the hem of his shirt. She much rather be kissing him then be a part of a conversation like normal people do. I turned towards Leah and Rakim we both nodded and stated how it was okay. Joey was the only person who didn't say anything. I shot him a look.
"It's fine." He answered.
We ended up walking towards the restaurant.
The sun was hidden behind a few trees and the whole area around us looked somewhat dark and eerie. I wasn't one to believe in ghost or anything, but I wasn't scared. Leah and Deja however, clung onto the boys they were walking with. I could see why the would be scared. Rural Harlem was kind of creepy. It resembled a ghost town. In downtown Harlem, there was never a place that wasn't filled with people. Over here, not a single person was in sight. I somewhat expected a tumbleweed to roll off of a chair like in the movies, but instead, just two people, a couple I assumed, stepped out of a diner. I took my chances and lead the group over there.
The diner didn't have a name and the inside had one large bar, a few booths, a small port-a-potty in the back, and an old juke box that blasted Elvis music.
There did not seem to be any people our age there. Everyone that worked there seemed as if any moment now, they could collapse and be dead and gone. They looked like the type of people who already had a will written up.
I sent them a smile and then found a big enough booth for the six of us and we all huddled in.
None of the workers walked in our direction, they just watched us from the bar. It was hard not to be oblivious to it.
"We have to behave." Leah stated, a teasing smile appearing on her face.
"These people were born in the Civil Rights' movement, they don't fuck with black people." Leah stated. Rakim, completely ignoring the comment Leah just made, laughed out loud obnoxiously. I kicked him hard under the table, shutting him up. Finally, after giving us atleast twenty minutes of going through the menu: thrice, a waiter came to our table. She wasn't a white lady, instead a fair toned lady. She had on a similar outfit to everybody else who worked here, except hers showed a bit more cleavage than a sixty something year old should show. She had no shame as she continued to trace patterns on Joey's arm and sent a wink in Rakim's direction.
Leah, who didn't seem to like the attention Rakim was getting, rushed her order in, removing the extra time that the waiter had.
After everyone had ordered, the waiter (whose name we found out was Zara) went off to go place our order, not forgetting to blow a kiss in the young boy's direction. Both Leah and Deja scooted in towards there boys.
Joey and I just laughed.
"Cougar as fuck." Quentin muttered underneath his breath.
"She probably got vintage pussy." Rakim added. His caused him to get a few weird looks in his direction, and another kick on his shin, this time from Leah.
The food came back quicker than we'd expected.
I was glad for my stomach was grumbling. We all dug in, none of us stopping to talk to one another. It was always like this when we ate and we never found a problem with it. The food was good, I'd admit that. But it didn't cover the fact that the workers were still staring at us. Especially one in the middle. She had a hairnet on her head and thick glasses that made her eyes look like they were jumping out at us. Everytime I glanced in her direction, I turned away. I tried to focus on everybody else and not over there. Maybe I was just being paranoid after what happened at Harlem Tech. No one else seemed to be bothered by the staring, so perhaps it really was just me.
About thirty minutes later, we were all done.
We sat around and talked a bit before we decided we needed to head back to the movie theatre before it got to dark. It didn't really matter that practically no one lived in this part of town, but walking in Harlem in the middle of nowhere in the dark was a lot more dangerous than walking in downtown Harlem in the dark. We all got up out of our seat with no problems. That was until Rakim tripped over his shoe lace. In attempt to save his plain white shirt (which he claimed was from the Kanye West collection) his hand swept over the table knocking the plates on the floor. The food that was still on plates collided with the vinly planks on the floor. It was a mess, and Rakim, who did not know to do anything stared helplessly at the floor.
"Get out! Get out now!" One of the workers yelled.
I recognized her as the one with the thick glasses. She was very close to us right now. She placed a mean glare in Rakim's direction. I could tell Rakim was trying not to laugh. I didn't find anything funny. Her eyes looked even scarier up close.
Rakim pushed past her, rolling his eyes in her direction.
"Out! Now!" She continue to yell. She grabbed a hold of a broom and shook it angrily at us. I didn't know if she had the guts to actually hit us with it, but I did not want to stay to find out. Joey, who was on the same page as me, grabbed my hand as we ran out of the diner. We all kept running and running until we were back at the movie theatre. Quentin was laughing, Leah was scolding at Rakim, and Deja just seemed bored as she wrapped her hands around Quentin's waist.
"You know." Rakim began looking at all of us.
"This wouldn't have happened if we went to Red Rooster."