BELIEVE {BxB}

EIGHTEEN

Maurice

Illinois

"This burger good as hell. They had to put some crack in this," I say with a mouthful, impressed about how good the food is or maybe I'm just hungry.

"I can tell, you smacking all in my ear." Well, I'm obviously hungry as hell, nigga.

We was a few miles away from the burger stand we stopped at. An abandoned park was nearby, so we stopped and sat at a picnic table. We still have to keep our heads low tho so that we are safe.

It's na' nearing Halloween, and the weather temperature is dropping more as the days go by.

"You a lil fat ass," he said, grabbing some napkins to wipe my face off. "Act like you haven't ate in days, and you've been sleeping in good in all these hotel rooms we been booking lately."

"So? Problem?"

He shook his head as he stole some fries from outta my box.

It was still the afternoon, going into the evening. We're almost getting closer to our destination so we really don't need to be making that many stops.

Once all the food was gone, we gathered up our trash and began to walk back to the car-that was befo' I saw some swings on the playground. My ass got excited as I pulled Angel by his hand with him tryin' to put up an argument.

He sat next to me on the otha' swing. "You made me scrape my knee from pushing me too hard on these one time," I frowned.

"It was the second grade."

"Doesn't matta', I still got the scar."

He laughed from the memory. Sometimes I think a lot about how my ass flew off those swings. Our legs rocked back and forth as we attempted to move the swings.

A butterfly fluttered it's colorful wings near us. I didn't think nothing of it until more butterflies came ova'.

"Where these shits coming from?" Angel complained.

"They're not shits, Angel. You don't like butterflies?"

"They're okay, I just don't want them all around me and shit." I watched as he attempted to swat at some.

I softly grabbed his hand. "Quit swatting at them. Just watch..."

So, that's what we did. Hard to think that every choice lead us to this moment. I say it's fa' good luck, so imma continue to think that.

We finally left from the playground afta' about fifteen minutes and returned to our car. Time to make the rest of this trip count.

The sun begins to set in the distance as we drove hours on end.

• • • • • • • • • • •

I jolted awake when I heard the car door slam shut. I looked right ova' at a pissed off Angel who looked very unhappy. "Angel..."

"Go back to sleep, Maurice."

"Tell me what's wrong."

He shook his head as he continued to stare out the window. I wanted to kno' why we even stopped in the first place anyway. My attention went to look around my surroundings. It's dark and the car's headlights is on low beam. Just a few feet away, I saw a pay phone.

Without looking at him, I asked, "You called someone didn't you?"

Angel sighed heavily at my words.

Suddenly, he pushed his seat back and told me to get onto his lap. I removed my seatbelt and climbed into his lap. Both his hands went to grip my ass as I stared into his dark, brown eyes.