Page 14 of Senior

Moving on was laughable.

How do you move on from the person you loved since you were a chap? I remembered the first time I saw her… like really saw her. It was a hot ass summer day and my father had Blake and I on the block, working our way up the ladder. At that point, I was fifteen and my brother was seventeen.

Pops decided that summer was the perfect time to put us to work. There I was making a sale when I saw her strolling up the block looking good enough to have my fifteen-year-old hormones raging.

She was dressed in a pair of bell bottoms, a graphic tee, and a pair of Nike Roadrunners. Her hair was in fashioned in two big puff balls and silver hoops dangled from her ears. Headphones covered those same ears and a cassette player was in her hand.

Fellas on the block turned their heads as she walked past, ignoring them all. Some were my age; some were too damn grown to be looking at her like that.

“Who that?” I asked, nudging Blake as she got closer.

“Nigga, I don’t know. I ain’t ever seen her before.”

“Ain’t she fine?”

“Hell yeah.”

I punched him in the arm. “Watch your mouth when you talking about my girl.”

He frowned. “You just asked me if she was fine.”

“It was rhetorical question, nigga.”

He waved me off. “Whatever.”

“Shhh! Here she comes.”

She walked past us, our gazes meeting for a moment before she looked straight ahead. I was grinning from ear to ear.

“I’ll be right back,” I said as she headed to the corner store.

A quick jog later, I was walking inside. I gave a head nod to Mr. Marco, a longtime friend of my pops. He kept an eye on us to make sure we were straight.

“Don’t come in here starting no shit, Stanley,” he warned as I followed behind the beauty from outside.

“I don’t ever start shit,” I countered, grinning.

I wandered onto the chip aisle where she was perusing the selection of flavors. When she saw me, she gave a light smile and went back to what she was doing. As I neared her, I saw just how fucking beautiful she really was. Like, drop dead gorgeous. I knew exactly what I wanted to say until I got right in front of her. All of a sudden, my mouth went dry and I went mute.

She looked up at me with a blank stare. When I didn’t say anything, she frowned and pulled her headphones aside.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

I blinked rapidly and cleared my throat. “Uh… nah. Not really. I uh… I just wanted to introduce myself. I ain’t seen you around here before.”

“Oh. Well, hey.”

She went back to look through the chips.

“So what’s your name, beautiful?” I tried.

“Not interested.”

She grabbed a bag of chips and brushed past me to go the cooler.

“I don’t mean any disrespect,” I said, following her.

“None taken.”