𝖏𝖚𝖐𝖊 𝖏𝖆𝖒
❝ 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐆𝐎 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒 ❞
𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟔

𝐍𝐀𝐎𝐌𝐈 Beaumont shimmied out of her large, fur coat and pushed it underneath her bum. It was February and Winter had come rushing in through South Side, Chicago at full speed. Blowing into her cold, cupped hands, she sat close to Reggie Coleman, her boyfriend of now eleven months and they had become the newly-crowned, "most-likely-to-tie-the-knot" couple of the Junior grade. He instinctively wrapped an arm around her and she gently smiled.

James harmonized angelically, as Azryah terribly sang the words to 'Rain' by SWV. They swayed back and forth in unison from across the table, creating entertainment for their friends that were all just trying to manage their hunger. After a long day at school, and the usual, unusual train journey—with Moreau having his routinely conversation with the local crackhead—the crew were ready for a large plate of Rollacity's soul food cuisine.

Renee begun to sing as well, sounding a whole lot better than everyone else. Despite her timid demeanor, Renee Taylor had a strong set of windpipes. If not for being so devoted to Business Studies, she would've gladly taken up becoming a successful singer. On off days, she would be encouraged to take center stage at Rollacity to perform; obviously she was against it most times, but her friends never let her hear the last of it all.

Letting her take the lead, Azryah became a backup dancer, imitating rain showering down on her. Naomi and Reggie laughed at the stupidity of it all. "What does SWV even stand for?" Naomi questioned, once the song had reached its end.

"It stands for somethin'?" Amari pulled a face, as he counted the spare change he had left for his train ticket after putting aside money for food.

"Of course it does," Naomi chided, "Or they wouldn't have abbreviated it, idiot." Amari frowned and threw her a middle finger, she stuck her tongue out at him.

"SWV? Uh..." Reggie bit his lip, as he scratched his unkempt dreads. "Singers with..."

"...Vaginas?" James suggested genuinely, causing an eruption of laughter from the girls. "What? It makes sense, man, step off!" he huffed.

"Well, Ren is definitely Coko, and me and Nae are Taj and Leelee," Azryah smiled.

"Yeah, 'cause your voice would murk all of Snow White's fuckin' pigeons." Reggie insulted, once Azryah reacted, he grinned mischievously, as Naomi laughed.

"You got a lotta mouth for someone named 'Reginald', my nigga. Why do you always gotta come for me?" James gasped wildly, making Azryahs's stern expression falter into hysteria.

"'Cause you always asking for it, you dread-head," he said, quickly riling her up.

"Aight, you played ya' self on this one. Your dreads be having you lookin' like a whole hobo, dawg." she fired back, the others fueled it with sound effects. Reggie sat up and cleared his throat, initiating a roast battle right there around the purple table.

"Tell me how I'm always asking for it, bruh, 'cause you really asking to get clapped." Azryah ferociously clapped her hands together as she glared at him at the center of the booth.

"Come fight me then, I wanna see you try, Ry, you lil' ass midget." Reggie pressured. In retaliation, she politely tapped Naomi to move out of the way before she lunged across from her seating to take a playful swing at him. Reggie caught her hand, just as she grabbed onto a clump of his short, twist-out dreads. With him yelping in pain and her refusing to let go, it was left to Naomi in the middle to split them up.

Once separated, Azryah mean-mugged Reggie. "You better watch your mouth over there, Reg, when you ready to tussle for real, holla back." she threatened, and he threw back an intimidating glare.

"You two are so childish sometimes," Naomi rolled her eyes. It was almost habitual for Reggie and Azryah to get into some sort of fight, all stemming from the fact that she was older than him by only a few days and she liked to hold that over his head. Since growing knowledge of that fact, the two had been known to get into unnecessary fights—but that was simply because that was how they bonded.

"He's the only child here, you big, motherfuckin' baby," she whined in his face.

"Aight, after we eat, we finna tussle, you talkin' too much." Reggie rolled his eyes with his warning.

As separate conversations soon ensued—with Naomi commenting on how she couldn't wrap her head around where the argument even came from, while James hummed to the next song playing as he played Snake on his cellphone—Renee and Amari sat in an awkward silence.

It was initially hidden by the earlier ruckus, but it was now quite clear to see. "Aight. Y'all need to talk to each other, you guys are making me uncomfortable." Azryah announced, being the first one to notice, breaking the thick glacier of tension; the two in question glanced at one another from across the table before diverting their gazes. Azryah rolled her eyes. "We all know y'all broke up so,"

The table instantly fell silent. James, who thrived on instigating such tense moments, whistled obnoxiously, drawing everyone's eyes to him. "There ain't nothing wrong, Ry," Amari sighed, pulling out his new Motorola and aimlessly tapping through his few contacts.

"As if," Renee scoffed, slouching into the seat. Her content expression from a few minutes ago had dissolved within seconds. She crossed her arms stubbornly. "He's caring 'bout everything under the sun, but me."

"Focusing on school don't mean I'on care 'bout you, you're whack." he grumbled.

"Oh, shi—" James hissed, Reggie jabbed him with his foot under to table.

"There ain't nothing wrong." Amari repeated firmly, his face holding no expression, as he kept his eyes on Azryah to stop himself from looking at Renee.

Nonchalance was a trait that Amari, the "academic addict", was despised for, always seeming like he never cared enough about anything but his grades. Sitting with a 3.7 GPA and aspirations of a prosperous career in Law along his path, he seemed very comfortable with people thinking he cared about nothing else—his relationships being one of them.

The sixteen year old succeeded at making Renee feel as though he couldn't give her the time of day. As he tapped away at his RAZR, her thoughts solidified: he was an asshole.

"Aight, we just got here, and y'all are already being hella uptight." Reggie sucked his teeth, "Just go find Shontelle, Jay, I'm fuckin' hungry."

"Ain't no damn slave of yours, nigga," James tutted, as he slipped out of the booth. He called over Shontelle and she came through with a notepad to take down everyone's orders, once they'd dropped their payment into the pouch of her waist apron.

The table was quiet and uncomfortable, everyone was now focused on their phones and keeping their eyes averted elsewhere whilst waiting and eating. The rest of the crew didn't really know exactly how the Anderson and Taylor breakup spurred; though, with the elephant that had plonked itself on the table while eating a slice of tension pie, it was safe to say that it wasn't the nicest.

Plates were cleared and burps were released. Naomi pulled a face at James, the loudest culprit, who grinned proudly at the end of the booth.

"So, we gon' fight?" Azryah spoke up, she rolled her fists jokingly.

"No doubt, let's go." Naomi and Renee stood up for Azryah and Reggie to climb out. They grabbed their jackets and zipped themselves up.

"Can I come with y'all?" Amari quickly spoke up, Renee discreetly furrowed her brows and then rolled her eyes, as Azryah lifted her brow, "y'all need a referee, fight's gotta be fair."

"Oh, yeah, true shit." She ushered him over and tried to throw her arm across his shoulders but failed terribly due to being so vertically challenged.

James rearranged the used plates and the stood up, "I'ma go help Shontelle wash these up. Ry, you better win against the Rastaman." he grinned, she nodded reassuringly to him and he walked off to the kitchen.

"I'm going to skate, wanna join me, Ren?" Naomi asked, Renee gave her an uneasy look before she looked back at Amari, who was seeming to avoid her eyes.

"Actually I wanted to speak to Mars..." she quietly said, and his gaze shot up.

"If y'all needa chat, you can stay Mars, we don't even really need—" Reggie started.

"Nah, y'all need a ref." he asserted. Reggie slowly nodded, spotting the look of distraught on Renee's face as the three of them began to walk to the exit. Naomi watched them go and then glanced down at Renee, rigid in her seat.

It felt as though it was another example getting added onto the list, another example of how Amari didn't care about her in the slightest. She didn't know what she was doing wrong, she was kind to him, helpful, she gave him all the attention she could offer, but still he lacked the reciprocity. She had grades to be worrying about as well, and she was able to manage both, so it wasn't fair that he was treating her in such a way just because of school work.

Renee Taylor was the reserved type, she never really liked to speak and was seen as the quietest in the crew. She certainly had a big personality, but didn't like to overdo it. The one that knew that the most was Amari Anderson. It was certainly true that Amari liked to be a straight A student and was adamant on achieving his career goal of a becoming a successful lawyer in South Side.

To be frank, she was a little embarrassed, not wanting to raise her eyes to Naomi who was staring at her with the upmost pity.

"You okay?" she asked gently.

"Yeah. It's whatever." Renee brushed it off. "Let's go skate." she thinly smiled. She avoided eye contact at all costs, afraid that it'd break the glassy sheet of tears over her eyes. The two girls tied on their blades and joined the synchronized skaters.

Meanwhile, Azryah squared up to Reggie, who scoffed and pulled out a blunt. "Ain't nobody fighting, too cold for that shit." He leaned against the wall and took out his lighter. Azryah eagerly bounced around him, as he drew in his first puff.

Amari uncomfortably kicked at the sidewalk, not really knowing what to do with himself, as his hands begun to get cold. In actuality, he'd joined them just so that he wouldn't be left with Renee (but that was made obvious enough).

Azryah blew out her smoke and sighed happily, turning to pass it to Amari who quickly declined. She took another hit and then passed it back to Reggie, who groaned, "Ry, you got all your gloss on the end of it." he tutted.

"Oops? Whatchu want me to do?" she sarcastically retorted, turning her attention to Amari before Reginald could voice his rebuttal. "What's goin' on with the two of you, Mars, it's obviously somethin'?"

"You got outta there real motherfuckin' quick, like you had to take a fat, chimichanga shit." Reggie scoffed. Nothing but looks of confusion and disgust met him, chuckling softly at his own joke. "That was good, stop lookin' at me like that." he shooed them, as he took another hit.

Azryah rolled her eyes, "Anyways, yeah, answer the question. Y'all were together for nine months, and that whole time you wasn't giving her no attention?"

"She just wants so much from me and I'm not sure how to do that...? I'on know, man," he huffed. Azryah's brows furrowed. She put her hood on to cover her cold ears, before she sighed.

"And you ain't told her that?" she quizzed. Amari shrugged.

"Mars," Reggie sighed, "she's your boo, if you got a problem, you gotta tell her. Well, was your boo." Azryah nodded in agreement. Her situation with James wasn't any better but she was glad that the attention wasn't on them for once.

"I know that. But, I just wanna focus on school."

"You can't do both?" Azryah questioned. He shook his head.

"Then you gotta tell her. Avoiding Ren is gonna make her think you think she stinks or somethin'." Reggie advised. Azryah grunted at Reggie's unnecessary comparisons.

"He's right." she affirmed. Amari sighed, walking in a circle. In all honesty, he didn't want it all because he didn't know what to do, how to show her the right type of affection, make her feel special like she was. It wasn't that he didn't care about her, he did, a lot more than he can even handle. He was crumbling, stressing and feeling as though he wasn't any good for her.

It was irrational, he knew that. He'd analyzed it all a few times over beforehand and he knew he was stressing his sixteen year old self out for nothing. He was a kid, worried about relationships? It was normal for him to not be able to be as emotionally available for someone else when he was barely there for himself.

School was most important right now, that was what his mom told him, and he knew that she was right. Being the successor of his older brother's parental pressure (since Darren decided to go against their plans for him), it was no surprise that it was the only thing he was desperately striving for. He wanted to be a lawyer, it was his dream, but was cutting everything else off for it the smartest idea?

He heaved, witnessing his breath freeze instantly ahead of him, he turned to his friends, "Let me get a hit."

🎆
𝖏𝖚𝖐𝖊 𝖏𝖆𝖒
❝ 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐆𝐋𝐃𝐍 𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 ❞

𝗽𝘀𝗮: 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳! 𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝗻, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳, 𝘀𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝘀, 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁, 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁! 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿, 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗼𝗱! 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗺𝘆 𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 "𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝗲" 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝘀. 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲! 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗮 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗺, 𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗱𝗱𝗮.
𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗶 𝗶𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱, 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸. :)
𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁.
𝗶 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗱, 𝘄𝗼𝘄...

𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗼, 𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱!

𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗦𝗪𝗩?

𝘄𝗵𝗼'𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗿&𝗯 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆?

𝗲𝘅𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿𝘀!
𝘃𝗼𝘁𝗲 & 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘀!
~𝐠𝐥𝐝𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐬.