Adolescent| Devanté Swing

chapter nine

September 28, 1983

His narrow body stood against the wall, his chest under his plain white t-shirt pressed against the cool wall as he watched the raindrops race down his window pain, his irises occasionally glanced at the blue glass saucer next to him, remainders of peach cobbler covers it. It was a day before his fourteenth birthday, approximately thirty minutes until, and he spent the previous thirty watching the race the raindrops put on for him.

It had been raining cats and dogs since the morning, which resulted in Donald spending his day inside of the house, with no type of technology whatsoever. His parents always told him and his brothers that when it would be raining, you should turn off all the lights, T.V.'s, and radios and let God do his work, which was his current activity today. He hadn't been out of his room since dinner time, his mother cooked his favorite— greens, rice, and fried chicken.

He enjoyed his peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream as his late night snack, he releases a sigh as he drowns in his boredom, he looks down into Monica's bedroom and he seen that her night light was off, he wondered what she was doing, was she thinking about him? After he apologized to her, they were slowly— but surely getting back on track, she still kept her wanted distance after finding out about Donald's continuing association with Kandice, she couldn't stand to look at the girl, but tolerated her because Donald was her friend— and she respected his wishes.

Finally deciding to bust a move, he turns away from the window and travels back to his bed, leaving the saucer behind. He knew he'd hear an ear and mouth full from his parents about leaving dishes and sweets in his bedroom, but complaints and nagging were the last of his worries. He falls back into the soft warm blankets, eyeballing the ceiling— as he did, an idea popped up in his brain, his parents said nothing about not listening to their walkman decided during the severe thunderstorm.

He shoots up from his bed and retrieves his device from under the mattress once he lifted it up, dropping it back down, he got comfortable under his heavy blanket, leaning against his pillows, he slid the headphones on his ear, pressing the play button to continue listening to whatever tape he had in from the last time, DeBarge's "All this Love" filled his ears as he pulled his journal out of his drawer.

I have some problems, and no one could seem to solve them

He flipped to a random blank page in the book, picking up his infamous yellow pencil, his mind wandered back onto Kandy, the duo had been talking on the phone almost every day and night ever since their last chat back in August, Donald was as pleased to have his lady back on his arm, whenever they would see eachother in school, they would sit with eachother at school, they would pass notes back and forth to eachother in their physical Education class, he was officially head over heels for Kandice Davis, the lady of his life.

But you found the answer, You told me to take this chance. And learn the ways of love, my baby

"K is for...Kind-Hearted. A is for—Ambutious. N is for—"

The obnoxious ringing of the phone sitting down on the nightstand paused his writing. He swiped the headphones off of his ears, leaving them to remain across his neck as he picked up the phone and pulled it to his ear once he answered it, "DeGrate's residence."

"Hmph. I'm surprised you're still up, don't we have school tomorrow?" The infamous voice that he has missed so much spoke through the phone, making his heart drop to his gut. He removed the headphones from off of his body completely and placed them on his lap as he got ahold of the telephone with a tighter grip.