The corners of his lips quirked into a half smile.
“That’s cute, but that smart ass mouth is going to get you in a world of trouble with me,” he all but whispered with a smirk playing at the corners of his lips before walking over to the door after Paul.
The sad look in Stenton’s eyes told me he wanted to stay with me just as much as I wanted him to. It took me a minute to come down. I could still feel the heat from his touch. Could still smell the aroma of his cologne. I collapsed against the wall and fell on my haunches. When I landed, a sharp pinch of my skin had me hopping to my feet. I reached around to my back to assess what caused the alarming nip. I felt crisp paper and pulled it out to find all types of bills; Benjamins, Grants, Hamiltons and Washingtons folded. I went back and sure enough, there were more. I quickly counted over twenty four hundred dollars.
When did…? How?
Then I heard a chirp from inside the cell phone box. I scrambled to the table and opened it. There was notification of a text. I slid the bar and found a message from “Ni?a’s Lover”.
That’s all I had on me.
He knew I’d found it.
You didn’t have to do this. I collapsed my woozy head on the table. All of a sudden, I felt exhausted by all of this.
Yes, I did. Call me...day or night!
I stayed there in the library for at least another two hours. I spent much of it trying to get Stenton out of my head. I couldn’t. I was now in a realm with which I had no experience. I felt things for him that made no sense to me cognitively, but my heart—and body—was so easily and naturally inclined to the idea of him. I needed help sorting through my feelings and could only think of one person with whom I could trust this crazed elation. Just at that thought, my stomach growled. I packed up my things and headed to New Brunswick.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Momma, when did you know you were in love with Daddy?”
I sat at the small kitchen table that I’d spent countless hours of study at, watching her work at a comforting pace as she cooked.
“What was that?” Ruth rudely interjected as she came busting through the kitchen.
I rolled my eyes. “I asked Momma when did she know she was in love.”
“Why don’t you ask me that question? I may be the youngest, but we all know I got the most experience of the two of us. I’ll school you on that.” She grabbed a soda from the fridge and swung her small body into the seat across from me.
“Because I’ll get the Bonnie and Clyde version of illegal infatuation.” I plucked a brow, warning her to back off.
“It’s more than you’ll ever have, always got that face stuck in a book.”
“Better a book than a mug shot,” I quickly returned.
“All right now,” my mother’s voice carried without being too high an octave. “We’re not going to start this fighting. Our family is going through enough as it is.”
Just then, Ruth’s phone rang. She answered it with the biggest and most mischievous smile that I wanted to gag at the sight of. The trouble my family had been experiencing had begun because of Ruth and her affinity for thugs. Almost a year ago, Ruth was arrested with her boyfriend when he had been pulled over for bad papers on his car. That minor infraction wasn’t the biggest find that night. No. The biggest was the drugs they found in the vehicle. Although they found small amounts of cocaine on his person, she was with him and caught the same charge. My parents had to hire a good lawyer—one they technically couldn’t afford—to beat the charges. Unfortunately, they used monies that should have been paid on their mortgage and car for her representation. They’d been underwater ever since.