SALUBRIOUS

SB44

Dakota Smith

11:54 pm - April 18th 2024

Staying up late was something Dakota was already in the habit of doing, so now that there was only a few minutes away, she had no problem staying up to meet her new age. These days, she was starting to spend a lot of time in front of her computer again. Dakota snacked on some barbecue potato chips, that she had laid on a piece of napkin that she placed in arms reach on her desk.

Lately, she'd been putting her degree to use and found herself coding the mock-up of a social media app. Her idea was something along the lines of MySpace, but much more girly with the same 2000s feel. For the past few days, Dakota spent countless of hours at her computer just letting her creative juices flow. Her love for compsci reignited a flame after she coded a complete design for her computer, in hopes of it urging her to start using her desktop again and luckily, it worked.

Dakota looked to the side to see her phone ringing, she freed her hand from her mouse and picked up her phone. "Happy Birthday!" Paris exclaimed, making Dakota smile as she looked at the top of her computer screen. The clock was only a few seconds into being 12, officially ringing in Dakota's 24th birthday. "Thank you." Dakota replied.

"Cmon, bitch. You know the tradition. FaceTime me so we can take the first birthday shot together." Paris spoke. The best friends had the tradition in place way before they were even legal to drink. No matter if they were right by each other's sides or not, they always took a celebratory shot together a couple minutes into their birthdays. Dakota got up from her desk chair and walked over to her kitchen. She wasn't big on shots, which explained why her bottle of Patron was still mostly full.

"I'm going patron—what you got?" Dakota quizzed as she poured a single shot into her Jamaica shot glass. Paris appeared back into the from with a shot glass in one hand and bottle of Casamigos Reposado in the other. "Okay—bad bitches love reposado, drinkin out the bottle. Or what whatever Rod Wave said." Dakota joked, causing them both to laugh.

"Cheers, to the girls weekend." Paris recited a line from one of her favorite shoes as they virtually clinked shot glasses before throwing their shots back. "Cheers, bitch." Dakota jokingly recited the next line, making them share another laugh.

"Two for good luck?" Paris challenged, Dakota immediately made up her face and shook her head no as she chased her shot with a bit of apple juice. "Girl, no. Too many shots a have me fuck around and start crying bout Nas." She replied with a slight chuckle. Though a chuckle escaped her lips, she was serious. Going from seeing and speaking to someone everyday to no contact cold turkey was hard.

"Fuck him—it's your day. We can go back to being sad tomorrow, but today is all about Dakota." Paris replied, Dakota weakly smiled. Her phone vibrated, causing her to quickly reach for it. Truthfully, Dakota was awaiting a happy birthday message from Nas, hoping that it would inflame some type of conversation between them.

Dakota missed him bad. So bad that she'd go back to the old voice messages that he sent and listen to them whenever she was missing his voice. Looking at a message from a happy birthday text from her brother wasn't exactly what she was looking for, but she was still grateful. She replied to the message before sitting her phone back on her counter.

"You right." Dakota replied while walking back over to her desk. She sat down and began to softly twist side to side in the office chair. "You know Chanson brother gon' be there." Paris announced. Dakota kissed her teeth before letting out a chuckle.

"Look at him in this picture." Paris instructed. Her nails sounded against her iPhone screen, indicating that she was either scrolling or texting. Seconds later, a picture came to Dakota's phone. She jokingly rolled her eyes as she clicked on the message to open up their thread. "Bitch—you finna get blocked." Dakota voiced, causing them both to erupt into laughter.