Arjun's mom gave me fruit snacks when I left and I was rubbing it in Kairo's face. We walked to my house cause my ex decided she wanted to pull up to my place with the music blasting. My mom called me saying That fast tail lil girl outside my house.
Even though it was October, bits of summer still lingered in the air. The air is sticky. Light sweat coated my forehead.
"Arjun's weird," I said, as we rounded the corner.
"He isn't." Kairo nudges me. He trips on the sidewalk and I burst out laughing.
I wanted to tell him what Arjun said, but I decided not to.
You couldn't possibly watch a person and tell they like someone, could you?
Zariah was leaning on her Tesla when we walked up. I could smell her stank-ass attitude.
"Hey." I tried to be casual with it.
"So you looked in your fucking closet, huh?"
I rolled my eyes. "Why the fuck are you here?"
"For my goddamn hoodie, nigga."
Oh, she mad, mad.
"Maybe you should give her back her hoodie," Kairo said.
"I don't have it!" It was the truth. "Kairo does."
"Wait what?" He pushed me.
"Okay, so I lent it to Kairo, and he never gave it back."
"You never lent me anything."
"The pink Barbie hoodie."
"Oh."
"Oh," Zariah said. "Oh, my ass! I want my shit."
Kairo and I looked at each other.
"I gave it back to Noah tho."
Zariah screams. My neighbor outside looks at us telling us to quiet down, but Zariah screams even louder in his direction.
He shakes his head and goes back to watering his grass. I wished he would have sprayed her ass.
"Okay, I'll go look inside my closet now." I punched Kario in the arm.
I hear the clink clanking of her heels. She was following us. I spun around so fast that I ended up bumping into Kairo; he pushed me forward, and I put my hand out, stopping her in her tracks.
"And where the fuck are you going?" I raised a thick brow.
"With you two."
"Um no," I said pointing at her car. "You stay here."
She slapped my hand out her face, marching past us up the stone path to my house. Kairo laughed and I gave him a dirty look.
My mom was sitting in the living room when we walked in. She craned her neck making a face as soon as she saw my ex-girlfriend.
"Noah." my mom said.
"She is just picking up something."
I pushed Zariah up the stairs. I hear Kairo asking my mom how she was and she says something like "I'll be good once Miss Thing leaves."
The three of us were in my room. Kairo sat at my desk chair, playing with my red Power Ranger action figure. I'm digging through my closet looking for that damn hoodie. Nothing pink.
"So," Zariah said. "You're still friends with him?"
What the hell does that mean? I pushed hangers out of the way looking towards the back of the closet.
"He's my homie."
"Mmm." It's the attitude she gives him that makes me want to cuss her out.
I couldn't find her hoodie but I found her false eyelash—just one.
"Here," I said holding the lash out to her.
She looks at the lash, then at me. "Noah, I'm about to punch your fucking ass in the chest."
"The hoodie isn't here so."
"Kairo?" she said.
"I def remember giving it back to Noah."
The veins on her neck popped out. I covered her mouth before she could scream. She's giving me a death glare. If she wanted to, she could rip my head off. I pushed her down on my bed and slowly removed my hand from her mouth, telling her if she screamed, I was knocking her ass out with a pillow.
"Okay, No you didn't," I said, whipping around to face Kairo.
He's chewing on his bottom lip, leaning over in the chair to stare at my ex-girlfriend before looking up at me.
"Yeah, I did. Because you wanted it back, said something about giving it away to Goodwill."
This fucker. I faked like I was punching him, each blow nothing but air. Yeah okay, now I remember. Goodwill.
I plastered on a fake smile, turning back to my ex. She's up from the bed and In my face.
"You owe me another fucking hoodie."
"And you owe me another fucking heart, but do you see me complaining, Z?" I flopped down on my bed, taking a fruit snack from my pocket and opening it; popping some in my mouth.
She's nothing but a rich girl with too much time on her fucking hands. Because like who cares about a hoodie? Like she could buy a million Barbie Hoodies. Damn.
Zariah rolled her neck. Crossing her arms in front of her. "I'm not leaving."
"Um, what the fuck does that mean?"
"It means I am not leaving until I get my hoodie."
Okay, now I'm glad she broke my heart. Like she was a killjoy to be with. She never liked Kairo. Never liked my mom. Never liked anything important to me. If I wasn't all about her, there was a problem.
"Damn, you'll get your hoodie. See, I am going to Amazon now." I showed her my phone.
She lets out a laugh that makes Kairo Jump. She shakes her head, her purple and blue box braids moving with her. "Nah, that shit was from Gucci."
I looked around at Kairo. "Gucci, she says."
"It was Gucci." He said.
"Kairo, don't say another fucking word."
He shrugs and pretends he wasn't here.
"Okay, I'll get you another hoodie." Yeah, I was blocking her after she left.
"You better."
"And if I don't?"
"My brothers will kick your ass."
"Ooooooh I'm so fucking scared of your punk ass brothers, Z." I shake in mock fear.
"Okay, I'll FaceTime them now and you can say it." She pulled out her phone.
I jumped up from my bed and snatched her phone. "Yo, chill you'll get your hoodie."
Zariah's perfect red heart-shaped lips pulled into a smile when she snatched her phone back.
There was a point when I dated her I thought she had the prettiest smile in the world. I would draw her lips on anything. Greasy napkins, Burger King receipts, Sticky notes, and pages in my notebook.
I walked her outside to her car. She leans against the driver's side door.
"How you been?" she asked.
This was the first time she had asked me how I had been since the breakup. It took me the whole summer to try and pretend my heart wasn't ripped out by some fox woman who loved eating male organs with sweet and sour sauce.
I honestly loved her. We weren't the best match but there was something there that we held on to until she decided I wasn't enough for her.
"Let's not do this. Just leave." I gently pushed her out of the way and opened the car door for her.
She doesn't say a word as she gets in her car and drives off.
Kairo was lying in my bed when I walked into my room. He's on his phone doing something.
"I'm fucked." I said, sinking into my desk chair with my arms falling to the side.
"That Gucci Barbie hoodie wasn't a cheap one from what I'm seeing."
"What happened to you not saying another word?"
Kario laughed. "I'm just saying."
"So that Sonni girl. You two got something going on?" I just needed to change the subject.
Kairo looks up from the phone at me and then goes back to it. "Just friends."
"Like how we're just friends?"
It always made me jealous how Kairo would call other people his friends. Like dude, I'm the only person made for you. We're made for each other.
"Yeah," he said nonchalantly.
I twist the chair a little. "So Arjun is a friend too?"
"Yeah."
"So I mean nothing to you?"
Kairo looks at me like bro, really?
"You're my day one and always will be." he smiled.
"Still Arjun is weird. I don't like him."
"He isn't. Once we hang out more he'll grow on you."
Ew.
"No, thank you," I said. "I'm just fine with you."
And maybe I'm selfish for saying this, but I didn't want to share Kairo with other people.
Even when we did hang out within these other friend groups, I always had this claim over Kairo. And I think those other kids knew that because that's when the gay jokes started; that's when Kairo and I looked a little too comfortable and a little too close to each other to just be anything but friends. We only did what friends do.
We would laugh off the jokes. Or sometimes even make fun of ourselves to somehow mitigate the impact of it all.
Kairo is like my older brother, so he would protect me from the bullshit when it hit a little too hard. He got into a fight with a boy in the friend group over me. He would never tell me how it happened or what was said. With a bloody nose and a busted lip, Kairo only smiled and said, "I can't let people talk shit about my boy."
My room shimmers with the blue hour sky. Time didn't exist, not when Kairo had me in a headlock forcing me to watch something called hentai.
"Why do they make those faces?"
"You'll make them too if someone was fucking your shit like that."
I punched him in the side and he rolled off my bed laughing. I was done with his ass for the day. He had to go.
Kairo makes a kissy face. He hugs me. "I feel like you hate me sometimes."
"I do. Now move around man."
"I better get going anyway."
He pulled away from me, pinching my face. "Walk me to the door?"
I pushed him out of my room, and down the stairs. My mom yells at Kairo, "Bye Son!"
He pulled me out of my house and closed the door. We walked to the end of my street where the stop sign was. The street light shaded us a dingy dry orange.
"Goodnight, Noah."
He locks his pinky with mine. I squint my eyes at him trying to find something.
Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. I moved in closer.
His blue eyes oddly remind me of drinking cold water after you chewed spearmint gum.
He leans away. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to find something." Another step closer.
"Find what?"
I took a step back, looking away from him. "Shit, nothing. Text me when you make it home."
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