“I’m cool, dying is a part of living, it’s the only thing in life that we are promised.”
That shit was deep and very true, but she still felt bad for him, she couldn’t imagine losing either of her parents.
The rest of the night was perfect, they made it back to the city and drove from one end of Lakeshore Drive to the next. The music blasted with the windows down, she laid her head on the door and closed her eyes as her hair blew in the wind. For the first time ever, she felt alive, free, and visible. She couldn’t lie, nothing about Duke was like she heard, he was the perfect gentlemen, almost too perfect. And perfect was something she never trusted…not until that night.
She kept grabbing her phone checking the time: 10:14 PM…10:33 PM…10:47 PM. Her chest tightened a little each time she looked at the screen. Duke noticed and looked over at her.
“Your pops strict, huh?”
Diamond sighed before nodding, “More like serious. I have to be home by eleven.”
“PM?”
Her heart crushed inside her chest, the last thing she wanted him to think was that she was a little girl.
“Yeah, I promised him.”
Duke leaned back after pulling up to a red light, “Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Respect your pop.”
His words hit deeper than she wanted them to.
“I can probably chill until 12.”
“I don’t want you to get no whooping,” he joked but she didn’t smile.
“Please, Duke, ok.”
“My bad,” he threw his hands up while laughing.
About thirty minutes later they were back in the hood, pulling up to a court way building. She was hesitant, but he talked her out the car. She followed him as fiends ran up to him, asking for product, but he brushed them off and kept walking.
“You cool?” he asked, putting the key in the door.
She hesitated before nodding her head, her stomach was in knots and her palms were sweating. Her father’s voice echoed in her head with every step she took.Eleven o’clock.She pushed his words to the far back of her mind and followed Duke inside. His apartment wasn’t fancy, but it was clean, very clean.
Duke stretched out on the couch and pulled a pre-rolled blunt from behind his ear.
“Come sit down, I ain’t gon’ bite.”
“I’m not worried about you or your bite,” she shot back, making her way over to him.
He stared at her while taking a long pull and inhaling the smoke through his nose. He shifted and made room for her in front of him. As soon as she sat down, he held the blunt in her direction and she quickly declined. Diamond would sell it a million times over, but smoking it wasn’t an option. She and her sisters made a vow to never smoke anything that could possibly have them end up like their mother.
Duke was a whole vibe, they laughed, talked, joked, even argued playfully about which music artists were overrated. Time didn’t in exist in that moment, and for the first time she was letting her hair down. She was craving someone who looked at her like she wasn’t hard, broken, poor, or responsible. Shewanted what Duke was giving her. And if that meant missing curfew for an hour or two then so be it.
The sun hittingher face felt wrong, it was too warm, too bright, and too damn early. Diamond sat straight up on Duke’s couch, her heart was thundering.
“Duke,” she said, rocking his body as he snored a little and shifted, still asleep.
Diamond grabbed her phone and damn near died. Eighteen missed calls, sixteen voicemails, and a million text messages from Kayla. Another message from her sister came through while she was holding the phone.
Kayla: Bitch, get out of that house! We on our way to Duke’s house and Daddy is furious! I had to tell him where you were because I was scared that Duke had hogtied you and killed you!
Diamond’s blood ran cold, she felt like she was going to throw up. She started shaking Duke until he finally woke up.
“I have to go!”
“What’s wrong?” He sat up, confused.
