Season Of Love (gxg) | ✍︎︎

1. The Beginning.

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| SEASON OF LOVE |
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Saturday Night.
19 December 2009.

Riverlin, Michigan.

Noelle doesn't usually get out much. She spends her days in school, her evenings in with her family, and her weekends in her father's church. In her seventeen years of life, she's never done anything she wasn't supposed to. So to say she was uncomfortable sitting on a couch in the middle of a house party she didn't even want to go to in the first place was an understatement.

The music was loud, the smell of weed was louder, she had a headache from pulling her locs up into a tight bun, and she had a slight attitude because she had accidentally stepped in a mixture of mud and snow when she got out of the car, messing up her brand new UGG boots.

"You having a good time?" Her friend's cousin, Dwayne, leaned in close to her ear so she'd be able to hear him over the loud music.

"Not at all," Noelle didn't see the point in lying. He asked her a question, and she answered it truthfully.

She was at a friend's house. Well, the friend of a friend, who is the cousin of her best friend. And as far as her parents were concerned, she was spending the night at Hope's house, which is where she wished she actually was.

"You not 'een tryna have fun," Dwayne said as he offered her a hit of his blunt.

"No thank you," she shook her head.

"You always act this innocent? You telling me the whole preacher's daughter thing ain't just some cover?"

Noelle didn't respond to him. She just stared ahead, locking eyes with her best friend, Hope, as she walked through a crowd of people with two cups in her hand.

And even though it was 33°F outside, Hope was wearing a short black skirt, matching black knee high boots, and a cropped red sweater. Noelle knew she was cold. Dwayne knew she was cold. Hope knew she was cold, but would never admit it. She's always been the type of girl to put fashion above sensibility or comfort.

Even as a senior in high school, Hope cares more about how she looks than her own grades. And that's something she will never out grow.

"You can't hear me or sumn?" Dwayne said to Noelle when she never responded to his question.

"Dwayne, leave her alone," Hope shoved herself in between both her cousin and her friend as she took a seat on the couch.

"I'm just asking her some questions. Known Noelle for years but don't know shit about her cause she always acting like she too good or sumn."

That's not the reason he barely knows her though. They live on opposite sides of the city and go to different schools. There's not a lot of times when they really interact with each other.

"Because she is too good for you," Hope teased. "Everyone is too good for you."

Hope handed Noelle one of the solo cups and used her now free hand to reach for Dwayne's blunt. He didn't protest, so Hope took a long drag from it before handing it back.

"What if my parents find out that I'm here?" Noelle asked as she stared down at the clear liquid inside of the red solo cup she was holding. And by its very pungent odor, she could tell it wasn't water. Not in the slightest.

"They won't find out," Hope said after taking her own cup to the head, downing the entire thing in only two gulps. "My parents were already sleeping when we left. And they wouldn't wake up even if a tornado hit."