Jiliana and Aisha were sitting down at a bench at the park. Jiliana was eating one of her ice cream sandwiches she took with her from her house.
“Uhh, for some reason this ice cream sandwich doesn’t taste like it did back in the house.” She said.
“Maybe because you had that since McKennezie’s birthday party.” Aisha replied.
“D*mn, I miss her so much.”
“Me too. Um, let’s talk about something else.”
“Kay. Um, I got something I’ve been wanting to tell you.” Jiliana smirked while wiping her hands on a paper towel to get the ice cream off her hands.
“What?” Aisha replied.
“Before we left Game N’ Busters, Quayvon asked me to get back with him.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“You said yes?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, I see you.”
Jiliana saw Aisha texting Taysom, then she started to get some thoughts in her head. “So, you interested in anyone?” Jiliana had a slick smile on her face… like she always does.
“I don’t know.” Aisha went to her gallery.
“You don’t know?”
“Yeah…"
“So, you don’t know if you like Taysom?”
Aisha blushed briefly. “Uh, girl, I don’t like Taysom like that.”
“Sure.”
“For real, I don’t.”
“Okay, well he likes you, though.”
Aisha did like Taysom, but she knew if she told Jiliana she'd just tell everyone. Aisha likes Jiliana, but Aisha knows that she runs her mouth a lot.
At the library:
Taysom and Quayvon were on the computer trying to print out a schedule for the winter wonder dance coming up.
“So, how's your mama doing?” Taysom asked.
“She aight. I’m finna start selling my drawings.”
“That’s good. I’ve been wondering when you were going to start selling them.”
Taysom got up to go get the prints. Quayvon went on his phone, when he saw a girl from their school walking past him.
“Ayo, Cadalamaye, what’s up?”
She turned around and saw Quayvon. “Ion even know, to be honest.” She replied.
“Oh, okay. Aye, umm, sorry about your brother.”
“Yeah, whatever… thanks.” Cadalamaye walked away towards her sister.
Taysom took all the papers from the printer. One sheet fell down to the floor, he went to pick it up and saw a different paper on the floor. It was Jahonna’s gone missing paper, during the time they were looking for her…. hoping that she was still alive. Taysom remembers that day like it was yesterday. Each one of them, standing right here in this exact library. Jiliana and Aisha were sitting over to the computers, right where Quayvon is now. They were typing up the gone missing sheets. Keivana was with McKennezie organizing the papers. Quayvon and Taysom were well, near the printers. This was like August 10th all over again.
August 10, 2021:
“I’m so scared, y’all.” said McKennezie as they were all sitting and standing near the computers.
“Yeah, we just saw her a week ago.” Aisha added.
“She won’t pick up her phone, her dad’s car hasn’t been at their house, they probably ran away.” Jiliana thought, stuffing two chips in her mouth.
“Whatever it is, I just hope she’s safe.” Taysom, clicked the print button on the computer.
“Same.” Keivana replied.
Present time:
Taysom picked up his document and the missing sheet. He cut off the missing part from the paper and threw it in the trash. He folded the rest of the paper with Jahonna’s face printed on it. He put it in his pants pocket. He didn’t have this picture of Jahonna, only McKennezie did, but she too is…. gone. He thought he could use this photo and edit it into the Yearbook. It hurts just thinking about two friends he lost in one year. Taysom had a thing for the multiverse, he thought maybe-somewhere, in an alternate universe, Jahonna and McKennezie are still alive, and they are right here with him and Quayvon printing out planning documents. If only that universe is the one he's in.
Taysom walked back over to Quayvon.
“Was that Cadalamaye you were talking to?” Taysom asked, placing the stacked papers on the table.
“Yeah.”
“She good?”
“She said she was… she’s probably lying. I’d be lying too, if I had a pregnant 16 year old sister and a dead brother who was killed by my sister’s boyfriend. Actually I’d be pissed.”
“Yeah, this school year’s pretty f*cked up. Why sophomore year, though?”
“I don’t know, to be honest. Probably just trying to straighten us up for junior and senior year.”
“I thought those were the easiest ones?”
“Yeah, but then if you tryna go to college you get pressure on how you’re going to do that. Which I don’t understand, you had 9th, 10th, 11th, to think about all of that.”
“I’m pretty much in the same shoes, I’m just using 9th, 10th, and a little bit of 11th to live the rest of my amateur life, before my mature stage."
“N*gga, the time you hit highschool, your entire amateur hood is done. Your balls have dropped and now you gotta take off your responsibilities.”
“Not mine-I mean my amateur hood… my balls have been dropped- I… let’s just go.”
“Yeah…”
“I hope nobody heard me.”
YOU ARE READING
Jayst's The Yearbook
Teen FictionA group of friends, sophomore year, hits a tragic turn when one of their friends dies. As the year goes on these friends try to stick together and live on, no matter how dark it gets.
