Both ladies slid into the booth first, leaving Terrell and I sitting across from one another on the end. There was an awkward silence until Terrell decided to break it.
“So, how do you like it at Westwood?”
Sam gazed at me, wondering if I was gonna be nice or not. Noting that I had her attention, I shrugged at Terrell’s question. “Fine, I guess. The classes are pretty easy so far.”
Terrell nodded.
There was a brief lull in conversation while I convinced myself to keep talking to this guy. “What’s your major?” was the first question that came to mind.
“I’m pre-med. You?”
“Business and Communication.”
Terrell perked up. “Same as my baby.” He turned to Maisha and smiled at her.
“How long have you two been together?” Sam asked.
“Three years,” Maisha replied flatly.
“Oh, ok. How’d you guys meet?” Sam added. Maisha stared at her for a second like she didn’t know how to answer the question.
“Danielle, Terrell’s sister.” When she finished her statement, she turned to look at him.
“That’s cool so you two knew each other for a while before you hooked up,” Sam replied.
“Yeah, for most of our lives actually,” Maisha stated.
The awkward silence returned, so Terrell seized the opportunity to get me talking about myself again.
“You play ball, man?” He asked.
“Yeah.”
“Football?”
“Sometimes, but mostly basketball,” I replied.
“Oh, ok. We’ll have to get together on the court sometime. You’ll be here for good in January, right?” He asked.
“Yeah, as soon as school starts back up after Winter Break.”
“That’s cool. I know you can’t wait to be here with Sam. It’s not easy being away from your girl, but the time’s gonna pass before you know it. Maisha and I were like that for a whole year. We weren’t as far apart as you two, but we may as well have been; we never got to see each other. I started at Charleston a year before she did, so I can definitely relate.”
“It’s harder than I thought it would be and it’s only been a few weeks,” I commented.
“Yeah, but Sam’s a good girl so you don’t have anything to worry about. I can tell by looking at you that you love her. As long as the love’s intact, you’ll make it.” He smiled at me reassuringly just as Sam squeezed my hand under the table.
The waitress came to get our orders. As soon as she left us, a middle-age Asian couple was seated at a table not too far from ours. The wife hadn’t taken her eyes off of us yet, which usually meant that whatever onlooker had spotted Sam and me together, didn’t like what they saw. Whispering whatever ignorant comment she shared with her husband prompted him to glance in our direction. Confirming my suspicions that they’d take issue with our relationship, the woman shot me a look of disgust. When I smirked at the endless stream of bigotry that seems to be the life source of our planet, Terrell followed my gaze just as the woman turned to whisper to her husband again.
“What’d I miss?” Terrell asked. Sam and Maisha perked up, too.
I gestured toward the couple. “Just the usual,” was my only answer. Sam knew right away what was going on. Terrell and Maisha figured it out shortly thereafter when the woman leveled her hateful glare on us once again.
“Y’all get that a lot?” Maisha asked.
Sam waved the couple off nonchalantly. “Often enough that it doesn’t even really faze us anymore.
Maisha shook her head. “I hate people like that.”
So did I – especially the ones like my dad who have no right to look down on anybody. Before I could get mad thinking about him, I pushed the thought aside.
“It’s cool that y’all just let it die for lack of attention,” Terrell commented, briefly glancing back at our disapproving audience. “I don’t know if I could let it go that easily.”