Amerie

one

Amerie's POV (Uhh-mare-ee)

I placed the blunt between my lips and slowly inhaled before choking. What I thought was a small loss of air became an asthma attack and I had began choking and coughing for about 5 minutes.

To celebrate our graduation from UCLA, my friends and I decided to have a small gathering which was actually going pretty well until now.

"Yo where the fuck is her inhaler." My bestfriend Paris started patting my back. "And somebody needs to get that blunt out of her hand. I told ya'll she couldn't take it."

I took a puff of the albuterol inside my red inhaler and began to laugh.

"Let me try again. I promise I can do it." I looked around at the four other people sitting in the den of my friend Manny's small apartment and I gave a big cheesy smile.

"Bitch no, you have asthma. I'm taking you home and you're taking a nap." Paris looked at me and laughed.

Manny tapped my shoulder as a signal for me to turn around and look at him.

"Give me the blunt babygirl. You wasting the devil's lettuce." I poked my bottom lip out and passed the blunt to Manny who's real name was Caymen.

"How you gon be a full grown adult and not know how to smoke a blunt. You be inhaling whatever the fuck is in that lil red thing." Manny's brother Hakim laughed.

"Shut that shit up with yo ugly ass. She can't help it." Manny smacked Hakim in the back of his head. They were halfbrothers so they were only 4 months apart. But looking at them you would never know because they almost looked identical. Although Manny was lighter than Hakim, they had the same facial structure and a couple of the same facial expressions. However, Manny had a head full of brown 4c curls which he wore in a ponytail at the top of his head, and Hakim had black 4a curls that were cut into a temp fade.

"You know I grew up with helicopter parents. This is my first time ever seeing..." I changed my tone to a low whisper. "weed".

"Amerie you don't have to whisper. We're adults. We can do and say whatever we want. " Manny squinted at me as if he was confused.

"Y'all stupid. Come on Ri." Paris laughed and grabbed her car keys.

We said our goodbyes and hopped into her cherry red Toyota Camry 2017. Paris instantly plugged in the aux and started blasting, "Broken Clocks" by SZA. Paris thinks she's a gangster but we all know she's a sap on the inside. We've been friends since way before I can remember and I know her like the back of my hand. I can't even recall a time when she was not apart of my life.

My thoughts ended as Paris started sing-yelling along to her tunes. She turned the volume up and I started feeling the base in my chest. I reached over and turned the radio off receiving a glare in return.

"Paris this is unacceptable. You need a man." I shook my head and put my hands up in surrender.

"Girl if anything I DON'T need a nigga. I don't want these California niggas. Niggas is niggas and they gon always be niggas." Paris was still stuck on her ex,  JT, who moved on a complete year ago. They were high-school sweethearts, and they tried to continue their relationship, but it just wasn't going to work because Paris and JT went to different colleges. The couple tried to do long distance, but it turns out that JT had started a whole family by junior year. Of course Paris was heartbroken and she refused to be a side-chick so she cut him off.

"Okay first things first, stop saying nigga. Second, we're gonna find you a new man. That's our goal okay? Because this..." I drew a circle in the air with my finger. "...Is not going to work."

"What if he has a wife and 4 kids too?" She started crying alligator tears.

"Sis." I straight faced her as she wiped her face.

After a couple of minutes passed by, we pulled up to my neighborhood.

"What's the gate code?" She asked as she pulled up to the black dial pad on the fence.

"Just click the down arrow until you see Amerie Dean."

"You are so bougie." She chuckled to herself and reached out the window to hit the white arrows shown at the bottom of the dial pad. After she hit select the gate opened by itself and we began to drive through my neighborhood.

I hit the garage opener as we pulled up to my house and Paris parked in the curvy driveway. I got out the car and walked in through the now open garage, that held my white 2015 kia optima.

"Thanks shawty." I waved at her as a signal that she could leave and I shut the garage door shortly after.

I walked upstairs and undressed before crawling into my kingsize bed.

I was in for the night.

I know the first chapter was a little boring but I promise it will get better. Let me know what you think in the comments.

- MelaninBaby