Bunny

10

We could hear the music playing from downstairs as Isaiah's family partied.

"ISAIAH JAMES!" Pam shouted.

"James?" I snickered.
"Shut up."
"You aren't gonna go down there?" I asked.
"Fuck no." he replied.
"Why not?"
"That's my mother's side of the family."
"And?"
"And I don't like them."
"Why?"
"They abandoned my mom once she got pregnant with me when she was 18 but then wanted to act like nothin' happened when she hit the lottery. So for a year and a half, maybe, she's been pretendin' like everything's fine and lettin' those gold diggers crawl back into her life. I don't even know why she brought them here."

There was knocking on the door.

"WHAT?!" Isaiah shouted.
"Zaya..." called a little voice.

"Okay, maybe there is one of them that I like." he fixed.

I watched as he got out of the bed and threw on a shirt before opening the door.

"Zaya!!" The voice shouted enthusiastically.
"Hey, munchkin." he said to the small child he'd picked up and held in his arms.
"Guess what!" she exclaimed and held Isaiah's cheeks in her tiny hands.
"What?!" he asked as if he was thoroughly intrigued by what she had to say.
"Yesterday, me and mommy went to the beach, okay?"
He chuckled. "Okay..."
"And when I got there...guess what."
I held down my laugh as she said guess what for the second time.
"What?" he asked again.
"I found a starfish!" she yelled excitedly.
"A starfish?!"
"Yea! And it was pink!"
"Woooww..."
"Yea, but...mommy wouldn't let me take it home because she said it had...um...um...it had to stay in the beach so that it could be happy."
"Aww..."
"Yea..." she said as she messed with his shirt.

This was one of the cutest interactions I've ever seen.

I think she read my thoughts because her head picked back up and she looked at me.

She gasped.

"Zaya!" she said in shock.
"What?!" he said the same way.
"There's a girl in your room." she whispered very loudly.
Isaiah looked at me. "Yes, there is." he replied and looked back at her.
"Is she your girlfriend?" Children are terrible at whispering.
"No, munchkin."
"She's pretty." Terrible at whispering again.
"She is, isn't she?"
She nodded.

"Is there somewhere you're supposed to be?" Isaiah asked her.
"I had to tell you the starfish story!"
"Thank you so much for telling me. It made my day so much better."
"Mine too!"
He put her down. "Go find your mom now, okay?"
"Okay! I'll come back when mama says it's time to go because you have to tell me bye, okay?"
"Okay, munchkin."
"Okay! Bye, lady!" she told me before running off.

Isaiah closed his door.

He came back to the bed and sat down.

"She's very cute." I stated. "Baby cousin?"
"Yea."

"Can I ask you more questions?"
"Go ahead. Ain't shit else to do." he stated.

"Your friend said you have a gun. Is that true?"

He went into his nightstand and pulled out a black pistol.
"Yea." he replied.
I stared at it with wide eyes.

He pointed it at me and I flinched.

"Relax, it's not loaded. I wouldn't do that shit." he said.
He put it back but my heart was still racing as I pressed my hand against my chest.

"You know what I noticed?" he began.
"Hm?" I said, still trying to gather myself.
"You don't ever talk about your friends."
"The opportunity never came."
"You got any?"
I shook my head.
"You lyin'?"
"Why would I lie about that?" I asked him.
"I don't know. You just look like you'd have friends. You don't even have friends from school?"
"No. I didn't have friends then either. I don't typically talk to people. Also, I'm not really that interesting..."
"You're interesting." he argued. He reached for the blunt from earlier then began lighting it again.
"You don't have to lie to me. I know you're just talking to me because you refuse to go down there."
"I'm not lyin'. I also got no problem with silence. I can sit in silence for hours. If I ain't wanna talk to you, I wouldn't be talkin' to you. You're not boring. And somethin' about you is sexy to me." he said and took a hit.

My eyes widened and I looked at anything but him as I brought my knees up and covered myself behind my legs.
I heard him begin to laugh.

"Nobody ever told you that before?" he asked.
"No...I don't talk to anyone."
"You never had a dude tell you?"
"No, Isaiah, I don't talk to many people." I snickered as I had to reiterate it again.
"Come here."
"Why..."
"I gotta tell you somethin'." he said and took another hit of his blunt.
I leaned in a bit.
He used his fingers to gesture for me to get closer.

I put my legs down and sat on my knees to scoot closer. I didn't understand why I needed to do this if we were the only ones in here and they played such loud music downstairs. He could've yelled it and they still probably wouldn't have heard.

He chuckled as he looked at me and took a hit.

"Are you gonna tell me?" I asked in annoyance.
"You not close enough." he snickered.
If I got any closer I'd be between his legs. He sat with one of them bent and holding his arm up and the other was stretched out regularly.

I sat back.

"Why can't you tell me from right here?" I asked as I looked at his lap.

"Because I wanna tell you from over here." he said and blew out more smoke.

I took a deep breath and crawled closer on my hands and knees. I was now between his legs.
I stayed there and hoped he'd hurry up.
I didn't look at him while he continued staring at me and smoking. I looked to the side as if his bedroom walls were interesting.
He chuckled. "You alright?" he asked as he exhaled.
"Yea..."
"I like that you shy."
I didn't respond.
"I think that's sexy too..." felt like a whisper against my neck.
My head shot back to look at him and my nose almost bumped into his. We were only an inch apart. He was smiling as I looked at him this closely. His eyes looked at my lips as his perfect teeth softly bit his bottom lip.

The door began to open.