I chucked my chin. “What up?”
“You drinking that cheap shit? Oh Lord. Let me get you a plate of food ‘neow’,” she joked.
I shook my head. “I already ate. I’m good.”
It was quiet for a minute, with me just watching the family, nodding to the music and her watching me. She wanted something. Although Reign and I hadn’t been together for a long time, I still knew her. Nothing about her changed. Well, she wasn’t the same person I met because losing Nova changed her but there were still things about her that were familiar.
“What up, Reign? What’s wrong?” I asked before taking another sip of my drink.
“Umm,” she hesitated. “I was thinking and—I just wanted to see if you felt like… if you had time to talk. We don’t have to. I know I’m probably the last person you want to talk to. I just feel like?—”
“We can talk, it’s cool.”
I was drained emotionally. I didn’t have it in me to be rude to her. Moms’ funeral left me exhausted. Plus, I knew today had been heavy on her too, so I played nice.
“Can we go outside?” She asked.
I nodded, finished my drink and stood up.
We maneuvered through the thick crowd, heading for the door. The little house was packed. We had family from bothsides crammed in a little three-bedroom house. It was crazy but nobody seemed to complain. Well, there was Luna, but everybody knew her and expected such so they didn’t pay her any mind.
Because the porch was packed with Orion and them shooting dice, I followed her to her car. It was up the street since the block was crowded with cars.
When we got into the car, I rested my head against the headrest and closed my eyes. She was quiet, watching me. I felt her eyes on me. Whatever she wanted she needed to hurry up and spill because my patience with her was thin as hell. While I sat there, though, something in me told me to hear her out. To be patient and to give her the grace I never gave her before. I snorted, pinched the bridge of my nose and opened my eyes, looking over at her.
“What’s wrong, Reign?”
“The funeral was something… wasn’t it?” She asked, turning to face me, her back against the car door.
“Yeah. It was something.”
“Did you think about her too?”
I nodded. “I always think about her.”
She rubbed her lips together. “Me too.”
It went quiet again. She got a little antsy and started to fumble with the keychains dangling from her key. Instead of pressing her again, I waited. Turned away, closed my eyes and decided to be patient.
It took a minute or so, but she eventually opened her mouth to talk again.
“Since ma passed away, I’ve been thinking,” she paused. “About what you said when I was there.”
“I was mad,” I reminded her.
“So? You’re you, always. Mad or not, you spoke your truth.”
I didn’t say anything because she didn’t tell a lie. I was me, always. Anger didn’t turn me into a liar, or a bad person. It brought more truth to the front. Truth I never hid. I just kept it pretty. Anger disregarded that.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, the sound of tears heavy in her tone.
I opened my eyes and looked over at her with dipped brows. “What?”
She put her hands between her legs and shrugged. “I said… I’m sorry.”
“For what, Reign?”
“For everything. For…Nova. For…the videos. For the way I showed up. Or the way I didn’t show up. I was—” she paused and shook her head. “Crescent… I might be here with you right now, butIdied the day she drowned, okay?”
