Never Let Go - Page 3
We made it to the Crescent Hill about forty minutes ago. The minute me, Mo, her boyfriend Duke, Hazel, and my best friend Naoki showed up heads turned and this time, eyes landed on me. For the same reason my families jaws dropped when they saw me. I looked different. In a head turning, jaw dropping way. Although I wasn’t shy, all of the attention made me nervous. I didn’t like it.
“Hell yeah!” Duke excitedly exclaimed. “I’ve been waiting for them fools to pull up all day.”
Mahogany sighed. “Please don’t lose all of your money to those Baptiste brothers today, Duke.”
Duke grinned. “I won’t.”
He was here. Made it about five minutes ago. I knew he was here before any of them noticed. I felt how close he was before I heard the rumble of the engines to their 1970 Grand Chevelle’s.
“Mmhmm,” She rolled her eyes and turned her attention to me. Eyeing me up and down with concern, she passed my cup back. “Here, try it now,” she said, after adding more juice to the cup of kodva (vodka) she made me the minute we settled in.
Naoki climbed down from the hood of her Nissan Optima. “Are you going to go up the hill with me to watch them play later?” she asked.
I shrugged and ran my hand over the back of my neck. “I don’t know, Nay. Maybe, I need to think about it,” I said with an uneasy giggle. Giggling… I did that when I was nervous. When he was close, I was always nervous.
She sucked her teeth. “Why not, Si? Please.I don’t want to look stupid just standing there with all of them.”
I leaned my head over to the side. “Now you know you’re too pretty to ever look stupid,” I boasted, to stroke her ego, so she’d leave me the hell alone.
“Si,” She pouted and placed her hands on her slim hips. “Come on, sis.”
“Don’t press her,” Mahogany butted in. She briefly locked eyes with me before she went back to fixing herself a drink. “Sienna don’t want to go, she don’t have to go. Boys are easy for you, ain’t they?”
Naoki was the only friend I had. To call her a friend would be an understatement, honestly. She was more like a sister. We grew up in the same zone and went to all of the same schools. We’d been inseparable since birth, first grade.
Naoki narrowed her eyes at Mahogany. “I was not trying to force her to do anything, Mo. What the hell do you mean boys are easy for me? What are you trying to say, Mahogany?”
Mahogany sighed and turned her cup up to her lips. “Naoki, I’m not trying to say anything. I just think you should take it easy…”
I tuned their bickering out and looked over my shoulder into the crowd. The crowd he stood in. The crowd he stood out in, rather. God, he looked good. My eyes immediately caught his, as if they were trained to find him. And not because he was breathtakingly handsome. Not because he had dark skin that seemed to glisten like diamonds whenever sunlight hit him. Not because he had long, eyelashes and hooded dark brown, almost black, dreamy eyes, and full lips. Jahad was very, very attractive but I wasn’t attracted to him because he was handsome. I was attracted to him because I was attracted to him. Magnetically. Energetically. I couldn’t help it.
Crescent Hill was packed with people, but we paid them no mind. He stood at the very top of the hill, looking down at me. And I stared right back up, at him. That didn’t happen often. I usually looked away. I was always the one who ran in the opposite direction whenever he would gain on me. It happened often. More than often, actually. Every time we were around each other. For a while, I wondered if he felt what I felt but after a couple of years of this, I stopped wondering because I knew he felt it. Otherwise, what would explain this?
He held me captive. My eyes stayed trapped, stuck in his mysterious, tantalizing, dark browns. Time… sound… and life… it did that thing. That thing its always done whenever my eyes got trapped swimming inside of his for too long. Things slowed down and the people around us? Everyone waiting for stars to shoot across the red, blue, and greens that covered our sky every day? They did what they always did when our eyes met.
They faded away.
The sound of my heart beating was loud in my ears. I could hear every breath I took. It was so loud. The only thing I could hear. Today… I was stuck longer than I’d ever been. I didn’t know how long we stood there, connected like that, with the wind blowing in my hair, and the sun against his dark glistening skin, inviting me. Pulling me.
“Sienna!” I flinched at the sound of my name being called.
Turning around, I met the smiling face of the girl from the eatery I stopped at after school whenever I had the money to.
“I can’t believe you’re here!” She exclaimed before throwing her arms around me.
“Hey Leighton,” I spoke, brushing her wild, golden hair out of my face.
Leighton was cool. I could call her a friend, I guess. So, in a sense, I didn’t just have Naoki. I had Leighton too. She started working at the eatery a couple of years ago. When she started, I immediately took a liking to her. And she took a liking to me too. Sometimes, if it wasn’t too crowded, I’d sit on the stools, study, eat and talk with her. She’d help me with my homework, tell me stories about university and art. I’d listen, with bright-eyes, in sheer admiration. To me, Leighton was amazing. Amazing with a big heart, and a smile that could light up a whole room. She was too big for the eatery. Too big for this place. Sometimes, I felt like she knew it too. I caught her gaze drifting off a few times, while she talked about art and school like here was the last place she wanted to be.
She pulled away and looked at me. “You look so pretty. Where are your seeyers? You decided to use the falsies? You’re wearing those shorts girl!”
I bashfully smiled and looked away, my eyes briefly finding his. As always. This time, however, I didn’t get stuck. I quickly looked back to Leighton with a sigh and placed a piece of hair behind my ear.
Leighton looked over in his direction. “Here we go,” she sang.
“What?” I asked.
“You two,” she said with a light smile. “I wonder if anyone else notices it,” She whispered, with her head slightly cocked to the side, looking up with mystery. She took a deep breath and looked back at me. “Whenever he would come into the eatery, you’d leave. Like… every single time. At first, I didn’t notice it. Thought nothing of it, actually. You’ve always been quirky and quiet so, I figured you were shy.” She giggled and gave me a little grin. “But then,” she wiggled her eyebrows at me. “I stopped paying attention to you, and I started to pay attention to him. He never took his eyes off you. Ever. His attention was always on you. So much that, if there was a time that he’d come in, and you were heading out, I’d stand back and just… watch. Lean back against the coolers and just watch him watch you until he couldn’t watch you anymore. Literally. Until you’d turn the corner onto Gilbert Ct. I didn’t watch just for the sake of watching. I watched because that was all I could do. Taking his order? Yeah right. I tried that once. The first day you ran off I stood at the register, asking if I could help him. Attempting to get his attention but..” She shrugged and looked over at him. “It was like he couldn’t hear me. Like…watching you took away his senses… well… all but one. Sight.” She looked at me. “Is it like that for you too?”