"We got each other, that's all that matters."
***
Aaliyah Ohakim has gone through the past 2 years of college being unnoticed and she plans to keep it that way while entering her junior year. Never having been in a relationship, she is insistent on...
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"Jola! Come set this outside!" Her mother yelled and Aaliyah heavily rolled her eyes. She jogged up the steps of their deck and entered the busy kitchen where her mother and multiple aunties were pushing out more trays of food for the busy day.
While it was still October, the weather had blessed them with a frightening warm day outside, which of course called for the last cookout of the season that had to be hosted at their house. Aaliyah had been running around all day, whether it be making grocery store runs, last minute cleaning, setting up the food, or taking care of her baby sister she was tired and already ready to go home to her apartment.
Lourdes, Nala, and Gianna were invited of course, and they were enjoying watching Aaliyah suffer as she ran around like a mad woman. She'd been up since 8 am when her mother called her and woke her out of her sleep demanding she drive halfway across town to pick up jollof rice from one of her mom's church friends. After that, she had to drive another 20 minutes out of the way to pick up more food and trays, on top of driving back to her parent's house which was an hour away.
Aaliyah loved cookouts, but she hated ones hosted by her family. Her family was big and dysfunctional–not to mention they were African. There was always some sort of mess at any events she went to, and all it did was stress her out.
Her dad and her uncles were in the living room watching soccer and drinking, her aunties were in the kitchen with her mom, the kids were running around in the backyard and the older kids were mostly in the basement all on their phones. She'd been bouncing from section to section, not having much time to sit down and enjoy herself. Aaliyah and Davina were taking turns taking care of their baby sister Angel, and thankfully it was Davina's turn so Aaliyah had one less thing to worry about.
"Jola take this and set it down somewhere outside," Her mother snapped her fingers to get her attention and Aaliyah huffed.
"There's no more room outside,"
"Make room," Her mother waved her off, not giving her a chance to reply. Aaliyah bit her tongue and picked up the tray, beginning to carry it outside. She knew they had an extra table somewhere in the garage, but she'd have to dig for it and that would take forever. She stared at the food, contemplating just putting it on the ground before she decided to just place it on an extra chair for right now.
She knew it was close to the time they would start serving food and she hadn't even finished getting ready, so she made a quick decision to sneak upstairs to her old room before anyone could notice. She was tired of getting yelled at or bossed around by her mother while her aunties just watched and judged. Her mom had been extra snippy with her as of late and she didn't understand why.
She successfully jogged up the stairs without running into anyone and she breathed a sigh of relief when she closed her door, going to her full mirror to see how bad she looked. She was wearing light wash denim shorts with a tight white crop top and her grey new balances. Her body looked nice and her tiny waist was on display, as well as the waist beads that clung to her skin. She currently had a jet black 28-inch buss down in, that was put up in a claw clip since it kept getting in her face. Aaliyah rarely wore makeup, she mostly just wore lipgloss and sunscreen and called it a day.
