“I can’t wait until our birthday weekend,” Denise expressed as she slow grind he men’s rings display case.
“Girl what do you have on your agenda,” I said laughing and looking around to make sure no one could see her. I was born 10*20*95 and she was born 10*19*92. Ever since we met our freshman year we’ve been inseparable.
It was the first day of the second quarter of my freshman year and I had just moved from Atlanta with my adoptive parent. I was going through this ‘I don’t give a fuck’ stage and for the most part, you could read it on my face. Out of a crowd of girls and varsity jocks, comes the smallest yet loudest voice I had ever heard. This 5’1 white girl comes up behind me from out of the crowd. I just knew that voice didn’t come from that chick. I thought to myself. “$4.82,” the Lunch Lady said pissed she had to fill in for someone on her requested day off. I paid with a crispy 20 dollar bill and moved to the side.
“5.86,” she said to the white girl.
“Damn, Imma dollar short,” she said reaching into her pockets and even taking of her right Jordan to look in her shoe.
“Put something back,” the Lunch Lady said to her.
“Come on Jess let me slide you know I’m good for it.” White girl said as if it was a usual thing for her to be short and chickee poo to let her slide and pay her later. The Lunch Lady looked at me then looked back at white girl and with the most mean and devilish look yelled, “Put something back!”
I believe if I wasn’t new and the rest of the cafeteria had not heard what the Lunch Lady said to her maybe things would have happened differently. White girl looked around and saw all the faces of the cafeteria staring back at her expecting the unexpected. She looked at me then looked back at the Lunch Lady; something changed about the little loud outspoken white girl. For a minute I thought she was black.
“Who the fuck do you think you raisin’ yo voice at? Bitch I hop my little ass over this counter and make a real fuckin’ woman outta you.” White girl ranted as she slowly scrunched up her khakis near her thighs preparing to leap. Damn I thought.
“You little midget bitch I have my daughters come down here rand fuck you up for bein’ disrespectful.” The Lunch Lady said still trying to demand respect from the midget bitch; I mean white girl.
“Whoa, look, here’s the dollar she owe all this aint necessary.” I said as I tried to defuse the situation.
White girl blurted out, “Good lookin’ but this broke down 7 kids havin’ by 6 different baby daddies; food stamp sellin’ to support yo weed habit; keep jumper cables and a extra battery for yo hoopty rollin’; president of summer’s eve fan club smelling like rotten crab cakes ass hoe. Wanna talk ‘bout respect Bitch dats the first lesson of my life. In order to get respect you got give and I wish you would call a couple of yo raggedy beastly lookin’ kids to come see me.”
Damn I thought I thought.
“You aint got shit to do wit dis.” Lunch Lady snapped at me as if I was the one who just spilled her beans. Before I could even respond white girl jumped to my defense like I’ve known her for years.
“Broke hoe don’t come at her like that. I bet yo other name is dimples on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays huh? Yo ‘other’ boss wanted to make sure yo name was appropriate for the cellulite that takes up 85% of yo body…” The whole cafeteria laughed. Realizing she had an audience white girl continued, “…. This bitch so desperate she accept chuck e. cheese tokens for bjs so her youngin’ can experience the good life…” Her audience laughed even louder as tears ran down her face while she texted rapidly on her phone, “…Dis bitch so loose her last 2 be outside pointin’ at dudes talkin’ ‘bout ‘Bingo key lock no cross count, that’s my daddy’.” At that every moment I was weak and by the way she snapped at me for no reason I really didn’t care about her feelings. I gave dap to little white girl who was about 4 inches shorter than I was.
I had long jet black hair like my favorite singer Aaliyah. I grew it out just because of her. I stood about 5’5 with caramel skin and light brown eyes. I always wore baggy clothes because to be 11 I had hips tits and ass that fit the description of a grown ass women. Never did like that type of attention so I kept my shit tucked. Just as I got the full enjoyment of my laughs 7 ridiculously large beastly looking females appeared out of nowhere and looked at Lunch Lady who all of a sudden stopped crying.
Now in a situation like that you would have thought that one would realize the danger and stop laughing., Nope not white girl and Lyric. The whole cafeteria was quiet. You could hear a pin drop. I thought about what white girl said about Lunch Lady’s kids in the beginning and it made me laugh even harder.
“Awe well well well, if it isn’t fat Alice and her garbage pals.” White girl taunted as if she was begging for an ass whooping. White girl new Lunch Lady was a stripper and had a pimp and worked 3 days out the week at her ‘other’ job. WG also new that she had 7 kids and the youngest 2 had no dads; how she knew this at the time I didn’t know. WG even knew that one of her daughters went to the school because she had her in her Math class. But what WG didn’t know is that LL started having babies EARLY.
By the time LL was 36 she a 2 seniors in high school, a junior, sophomore, and freshman in high school, a 2nd grader and a kid in preschool. Plus she had 2 nieces that all went to the same High school. WG also didn’t know that LL would’ve graduated from UT that past summer with honors and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, but had to drop out because she ran out of financial aid.
“Oh y’all think this shit funny?” ‘Alice’ said with tears in her eyes as she slowly approached WG and me. Before I could respond, LL yelled out “Don’t worry ‘bout the black girl get that white bitch and show her what it feels like to really get her ass whooped.”
All the attention was off of me and on WG. All 9 sets of eyes; hell, even I was looking at her because I wondered if she had a trick up her sleeve or something. The whole time this stare down took place, the lunch room was quiet as fuck.
I’m an observing person. I can see shit before it happens in any given situation. The shit felt like we was in slow mo. Let me paint the picture. You got the Beastly looking bitches to your right, LL behind the counter, still full with pride. She just knew that her babies was gone make her proud. Then you got WG and me to your left. WG was faced head on with Team Beastly and my back was turned towards LL I wasn’t worried about her old ass.
WG was ready to go rounds with these broads at the same time. I could see it in her eyes. As she was sizing them up, she mad e little noises with her mouth. The rest of the people in the cafeteria moved further away from what looked like World War III about to take place like they already knew what WG was capable of. The whole time WG had a conniving grin on her face as if she had everything under control. Next thing ZI knew WG shouted the most retarded shit that I had ever heard someone throw the first punch over. I don’t even think ‘Alice’ heard what WG said, “You fat Reese pieces cover you in baby oil and slip n slide on Garbage bags in the back yard playing’.” Before WG could get the word ‘yard’ out ‘Alice’ lunged at her with all of her might. WG moved out the way at the last minute and tripped ‘Alice’. She fell to the ground on all four.
“Don’t get up that’s yo only warning.” WG taunted. You could tell by her body language that Alice was pissed, she was furious. As soon as ‘Alice’ got to her knees WG took it to her face. Straight little fist of fire to ‘Alice’ eyes. ‘Alice’ didn’t know what hit her. She swung back profusely but really didn’t land any punches. ‘Alice’ did the worst thing anyone could do while in fight- she put her head down. WG really got her then. She got creative and started doing tybo kicks to ‘Alice’ side and smacked her in sequence while singing ‘I’m too legit too legit to quit’. I don’t think she knew I could hear her but I did.
I was shocked. I stood there with my mouth open while this 5’1 about 120 lbs. white chick whooped the shit out of this 5’7 170 lbs. black chick. I snapped out of it when WG got serious and slammed ‘Alice’ to the ground by her hair. I looked at the remaining 6 girls who stared in amazement as their sister and cousin got her ass whooped. I guess LL snapped out of it too shortly after I did because loudly behind me she yelled, “What they fuck y’all waitin’ on help treasure.”
All at once they tried to bum rush WG exactly at the spot where the massacre took place. Before ‘Thing 1’ and ‘Thing 2’ could reach WG, I tripped ‘Thing 1’ and knocked ‘Thing 2’ straight in the jaw. Them broads looked like two anorexic niggas with 2 month quick weave and some fuzzy cheap ass kinky twist. 1 down- easy, ‘Thing 2’ out for the count. As I quickly turned and stumped ‘Thing 1’’ s back WG was finally approached by ‘Gooney Goo Goo’ and ‘Biggie Falls’.
‘Biggie Falls’ was a freshman 5’6 200lbs and was clumsy as hell. She was a nice person at heart but fell so much that she rarely found reasons to be nice. She had short hair and it wasn’t by choice. She had a caramel skin complexion, dark brown eyes and talked really fast. “WG watch out for ‘Biggie Falls behind you.’ I yelled as I tried to warn my newly bought friend. At the time I didn’t even know that ‘Biggie’ was clumsy. She turned around and kicked ‘Biggie’ in the stomach and ‘Gooney Goo Goo’ in the crotch. ‘Gooney’ but fell to the ground. White girl then grasped ‘Gooney’ right cheek and began to punch the taste out of her mouth literally. I was amazed. Then ‘Biggie’ bum up rushed WG off of ‘Gooney’ and literally set her fat ass on WG and started to punch her in the face. Left, right, left, right the whole time her fat ass rocking.
Overly kicking ‘Thing 1’, I lost track of thought and that’s when I tried to go run to WG aid. Out the blue the fucking little rascals come running up and one hit me with a nice blow to my right cheek, and a jab to my ribs. It knocked the wind out of me.
“Look at this lil’ bitch,” Buckwheat said, “think she can hang wit the big dogs huh.”
‘Buckwheat’ had dreads that touched her shoulders. I guess she was trying to be creative or different because she had some dreads neon green, pink, yellow and orange. Out of all the beastlies ‘Buckwheat’ was the only one who really looked decent. Or shall I say presentable. It was something about her that made me not want to fight her. Last time I got that feeling it was when I was about to fight Jay. Instead of fighting her I felt as if I should protect her because she was important. “I don’t want to fight you.” I said as calmly as I could. “Fuck that.” ‘Big foot’ yelled as she ran up on me and snuck a punch to the left eye. I was getting pissed. ‘Biggie’ was still on WG, not really hitting her but just fucking with her. Then this big foot bitch; a freshman who wore a size 12 in women just really put me on edge. ‘Big foot’ was short skinny and had humongous feet. She had pretty black hair and had a dark chocolate skin complexion.
Then out the blue ‘Buckwheat’ said something I bet to this day she wish she never said, “Who taught you how to fight you pussy ass mama.” I could have given her the benefit of the doubt. She didn’t know that my mother died giving birth to me. I blacked out. When I came to I was handcuffed to a metal railing next to the principal’s office with WG next to me. “Damn Mama, you a beast.” WG said as she reached for my hand. I accepted, “Yeah, you not so bad yourself.”
“What happened?” I asked confused
“Well, all I can say is that we won. I’m Denise but everybody calls me KitKat.” Denise said.
“I’m Lyric but you can call me Lyric.” I replied as I tried to be funny. Not knowing the extent of the damage we caused; I sat back and basked in my glory. 11 year-old freshman whooped the asses of 4 big beastly looking broads. I was so happy. Especially since I just spent a buck and made a friend, a loyal friend at that. All the joy and happiness went away when I say LL walk out of the principal’s office crying like somebody just died.
Come to find out that when I had blacked out I grabbed a metal stick that was used to keep the doors closed on the lunch line and beat ‘Big foot’ with it until she was unconscious. I didn’t know what I had done. She was rushed to the hospital and put in an induced coma because she had major swelling on the brain. ‘Alice had a broken rib and jaw. ‘Thing 1’ had 2 broken ribs, 3 missing teeth and severe bruising on her back. ‘Thing 2’ had a dislocated jaw. ‘Biggie’ had bite wounds all over her legs and arms. ‘Gooney’ had a broken jaw and fractured eye socket. ‘Buckwheat’ came out without a scratch. LL was suspended from work because of her behavior and actions towards students. Her Tribe Called Beastly was suspended 10 days each. As for Denise and me we both got R.O.Y (rest of year) for the damage we caused to the other students. Even though we were defending ourselves, we didn’t even get invited back next year. We didn’t care though. Our parents cared but not us, We both did freshman year through homeschooling. And ended up at Early College High School our sophomore year regardless of their rules because we both looked excellent on paper when it came to our tests scores and grades. We’ve been each other’s right hands ever since.
When I found out that the things Denise was saying about LL was true I just had to ask her how she knew and she said, “My dad is a detective and my ma owns her own beauty shop. Last year I went to take yo daughter to work day with my dad cuz my ma was sick and found out that dicks talk just as much as pussies do. The precinct is just like the beauty shop except the shit you see and hear there is actually true. Not no he say she say shit they actually got evidence to back the shit up. She was Nancy Drewing it at a young age.
“Yo Lyric,” Denise shouted trying her best to get my attention, “Where do you be goin’ when you daze out like that?”
“What’s up,” I replied ignoring her question.
“You know yo bitch turin’ 28 in 9 days so I’m tryin’ to do something that’s out of my comfort zone.” She said as she taunted and older customer by licking her lips and fingers and rubbing them down the top part of her unbuttoned blouse.
“Stop Kit! You gone give that man a heart attack,” I said joking around, “what’s not in your comfort zone.” For a minute she couldn’t answer me. Then she looked at Miles flirting with another guy. “Maybe we could…” she started.
“Awe hell naw you want to do it to me don’t you?” I cut her off a little upset that she would bring it up again even after I whooped her ass the first time.
“I’m just saying it would be out of my comfort zone.” She strongly suggested.
“No….Hell No! and if I did I don’t think I would fuck with white chicks.” I stated letting her know if I was gay she wouldn’t have a chance with me.
“How come.” She asked.
“Because for 1: No ass, 2: Too easy, and 3: I just don’t like white bitches like that sorry. And don’t say anything about ass implants because I would rather have a soft ass instead of a hard one.” I clearly explained to her hoping it would be my last time that I would have to have this conversation with her. Denise always had a girl crush on me since we first met; I just never knew it was that serious. I knew she looked up to me even though she’s 3 years older than me but not like that though. I’ve never known Denise for messing with another female before her crush on me but you can never tell with her and her secrets.
As we were going over our birthday plans this biracial man walks in the store and literally stops time. He was in an all-black business suite with a white business shirt and black tie with a gold tie clip and gold cuff links. No piercing and any neck or facial tattoos. His eyes were hazel-green and his hair was cut short. His beard was attached to his side burns and covered half of his cheeks and came together at his mustache; thick and full but cut very low. Looking straight like a manly man Mm. “Honey dip look like the Men in Black.” Denise whispered to me in her ‘gotta get’em’ voice.
“Naw he finer than Will.” I whispered back. Looking over this man, he looked like he stepped out of GQs sexiest men under40 2020 edition. I couldn’t stop staring at him. I never stared at a man that long except when I use to stare at Jay.
Out the corner of my eyes I see Miles trying to give the signal that he was calling dibs on GQ. Usually I would let Miles have him and try his luck but I just knew that he was here for me. So I ignored Miles. “Lyric, LYRIC! I need to see you in my office for a minute.” Josh said as he signaled me to follow him into his office.
“Fuck.” I said under my breath mad because I’m gone miss this opportunity.
“Yes!” Denise said as she positioned herself so she would be the first person GQ came into contact with.
“I need you to do me a favor.” Josh asked politely like he was my BFF.
“What’s up?” I replied curiously looking out at GQ who was looking right back at me.
“I need you to fire Denise for me.” He said
“What awe hell naw. I’m not doing yo dirty work for you.”
“You recommended her.” He reminded me.
“For 1: she’s my best friend and for 2: I don’t even like you like that.” I ranted still checking for GQ but he was already gone. “Damn!” I said out loud.
“What.” Josh asked.
“Nothing, alright you want me to fire her I will but today is payday so after I fire her she gone have to come in here and pick up her check.” I said swiftly leaving the office.
“What? Damn I forgot about that. Do it tomorrow.” He shouted but it was too late.
“So what’s his name? What did he buy? DID he have a wedding band on?” I drilled the shit out of her.
“Damn girl for you to be asking those question makes me think that you already knew he came her for you.” Denise stated upset because she never had a chance.
“What?” I said shocked, “I don’t know anybody like that.”
“Well boo boo he knows you. Had yo whole government and everything Miss Lyric Sadé Daniels.” Denise teased as she waved a letter addressed to me in my face.
“Why didn’t you tell him I was here?” I asked pissed because GQ would have been worth the effort.
“He saw Josh pull you in the office and he said ‘although he wanted to wait for you he could not’ and he told me to give you this.” Denise finally gave me the envelope.
“I hope this mean you gone get some butt.” Denise joked trying to get more info out of me. I hope too. I thought to myself.
“Open it! Open it!” Miles floated into the conversation.
“NO Imma read it later.” I said bursting both they bubbles.
“Did you get his name?” I asked hopelessly.
“Nope sorry; I got lost in his eyes and before I knew it he was gone. But I did get a look at his cuff links and his initials are ‘JG’.” She informed me. It felt as if my heart stop beating; then started back up after I took that first breathe after I heard his initials.
“Are you ok?” Miles asked concerned because I had that look on my face. I didn’t know what to say. I was stuck. That couldn’t be him. I told myself I would never forget him- what he looked like; what he smelled like. Jason Graham was my best friend; my protector. The only person that showed me they really loved me besides my grandma. God rest her soul. So many thoughts and feeling rushed to my mind, heart, and soul- feelings of him.
“Hello.” Denise yelled in my ear. I didn’t move.
“Man just shake the shit outa her.” Miles suggested.
“WHAT!” I said annoyed.
“Do you know him or not?” Denise demanded an answer like she was my mom and just caught me in the house alone with GQ.
“I don’t know I think I might.” I falsely answered. I couldn’t shake this feeling that keep attacking me heart. I rushed to the employee only bathroom locked the door and took a seat on the floor against the wall next to the sink. The letter read:
My Angel, October 10, 2020
I cannot believe it is you. So long I’ve searched for you and came up empty handed. So many dead ends yet I still could not give up on my hopes of seeing your face again. Every night I pray to you that you would come back to me. You are the only true best friend I have ever had. Since we first met, you have always been special to me and I always felt I had to protect you and take care of you and when they took you away I felt as if I let you down. Lyric I am so sorry for not being there for you. I promised that if anything ever happened I would find you protect and take care of you. I have not forgotten and I intend to keep my promise. I know it might be a little overwhelming hearing from me after 15 years but I couldn’t stay away from you any longer. It is Time. I am staying downtown at the Wyndham Hotel suite 2100. If you would like to see me I will be here. I’m not going anyway. I’ll wait as long and patiently as I have to until I see you. Please don’t’ make me wait too long.
Love Always,
Jason Graham
P.S. Do you still love it when the trees sing??
I wanted to scream. All those feelings I had for him came rushing back to me as if I was 10 years old again. By the time I was 15 I decided that those feelings weren’t real and I buried them. Guess I was wrong and didn’t bury them deep enough. I wanted to run out the bathroom make a mad dash to the nearest exit and find my man. Then a few minutes later I came back down to reality. I folded the letter back up and put it in the envelope; slid it in my back pocket, walked lightly out of the bathroom and continued my shift.
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