"Who are we waiting on?" The question lingered in the air again as it was asked for the who knows time today, in the last five to ten minutes.
With no one answering, the question carried into the wind only to return soon.
Joe could be heard suckling his teeth as he removed his phone from his ear. A frustrated look and grunt left his mouth, and he tried again dialing the same number repeatedly.
The group of friends sat quietly as they watched, seeing when they would get going with their afternoon activities but not wanting to leave their friend behind or making any madder than he already was,
"Joe?!" a soft voice called his name, catching the group's attention before the namesake could. As she approached, she was crying, one hand balled up, wiping her eyes as she moved towards Joe.
He stood quickly, holding her close, his baby girl, his soft baby. The group followed the two siblings as they walked away from the school grounds and onto the afternoon festivities, whatever those might be.
~
Joe looked up at the group of his friends as they entered the corner store. He stood outside holding his soft baby against his torso, rubbing her upper arm as she continued crying, crying harder even.
"You want anything?" he felt her head shake, followed by a quick "no." Joe didn't know why she was crying, but he wanted to find out why.
The door dinged, and Joe could slip into the store unnoticed by her. He was going to get him and her some stuff. But he had to do so quickly, though.
"You wanna go sit down?" She looked up after she had just finished drying her face. She didn't notice someone else was with her.
She didn't know if she should, but she was tired of standing in the same spot and crying. Her face moisturizer was coming off, and she didn't have any in her book bag to put on.
The two sat across the street on a small flight of steps. "Oh, oh look, look at the nigga right there." The man tried to joke about people, "That's not nice, Ben."
When she said that Ben stopped and began eating from his bag of snacks, he had, "Um, I have an extra one of these. You want it?" he offered to her, but when he looked her way, she was looking forward across the street.
"It's not too late. We can go together. I'll buy you the store if your heart desires." He prepositions.
She pushed on the door, which was pulled open on the opposite side. Joe saw that his friends were stopped at the doorway, so he glanced over their heads and quickly paid for his stuff when he noticed she was walking through the store, the group following behind her.
