Beyoncé Giselle Knowles
Summer of 1999
Beyoncé remembers the summer where everything went South. Literally. She remembers the tears that were shed, the constant glances and chatter, the fear that was intertwined with every individual in the small poor town of Lakewood.
She remembers the exact day; and the night before.
Beyoncé stared down at her summer reading homework with pure annoyance laced upon her features. She never understood the point of it, she could read. That was obvious. Why did she have to prove it every summer before she went back to school?
She was currently seated on her bed, but she fell back to take a much needed break. She did start senior year in just a week. She knew she definitely should have started this summer reading project when it was assigned. On the last day of junior year.
She just wanted to enjoy her summer. She sighed—but she could tell that there was a flicker in the corner of her eye. She sat up and looked through her white curtains and saw the flicker again after about 4 seconds.
4 seconds.
Beyoncé knew what that meant. She grinned, and sat up—she grabbed her flashlight from her desk that was ruined with crayons and color pencils. She then ran to her window, almost tripping on her clothes but managing to stay up as she grabbed a chair and sat at her window.
She flickered back, waiting a specific amount of time between each flick. She smiled as the flickers were returned.
"What are you doing?" Was flashed to her and she responded, "talking to my favorite dummy." She spoke in morse code, she snickered and then her eyes grew wide with excitement.
She grinned when she saw an angry Onika, with her hands on her hips. She flickered her own flashlight. "I'm not just some dummy!" She had said and Beyoncé snickered. She flickered back, "Yeah, you're my favorite one."
Onika clearly had scoffed, she then opened her window and whisper yelled. "I hate you!" She said and Beyoncé opened her window as well. She had heard it, she just wanted to tease Onika. "I love you too!" She sang and Onika fake gagged.
The two have been bestfriends since diapers, their families loved each other—they were long term bestfriends so it only made sense for their children to be as well. Beyoncé has known Onika since she could even form a coherent thought.
Onika lived right next to Beyoncé, they used to use a tree to climb into each other's room but ever since a certain incident involving Onika breaking her leg—they weren't allowed to anymore. And the tree was cut down.
Onika looked beyoncé up and down with playful disgust before smiling—she couldn't keep up her facade for long. She looked like she was about to say something before Beyoncé heard a faint thud on Onikas side. She looked past Onika—well she tried her best to. She mainly just saw her door and her pink devoted room.
Onika lightly gripped the window before looking back at Beyoncé, she quickly used her flashlight to send. "I love you." Before shutting her window and closing her curtains. Beyoncé was a bit confused, she assumed someone had caught her awake because she saw another silhouette in her room.
And then the lights were suddenly off.
Beyoncé frowned, she didn't get to say it back. More often than not, their late night conversations have been cut off short by someone entering Onikas room so late. Maybe her laughing was a bit too loud lately.
