BROWN SKIN | BOOK 1

|| C H A P T E R . 9 ||

It was around the time I would graduate from school.

At the podium, a wrinkled lady with hands like worn leather  would call out every students name and pronounce the ones incorrectly without apologizing. A crisp diploma would be handed to me as I walked across the stage, tucked under my arm as I shook each administrators hand with flowery or rough grips. Cameras would flash, blinding the keen eye, but my overjoy would make up for it.

Jewelz would probably be there in tears because she's so sentimental and cried easily at the meaningless things. Dad would congratulate me over the phone and not be present to my special day, Mom would be somewhere on a plane forgetting I'm reaching adulthood, but not quite yet. I hope Beau was there too.

But the school probably wouldn't have cared if I were there or not.

So if wishing to be at graduation right now instead of work was a bad thought, so be it.

The manager's favorite, I found out happened to be a young brunette lady, Nina, who had an ebullient voice that was too over-enthusiastic about her job, happened to believe she was the head employer. To say she was a cheerleader in high school was an understatement. Her cheeriness made anyone want to throw up gray rainbows and gold glitter.

White Marbles's doors were locked for the afternoon after a long day and the workers huddled in the bosses office to discuss White Marble's first opening day. When people began to talk amongst each other and be social, I knew social gatherings weren't for me. Some of us surrounded the perimeter of the room, checking the time their phones and tapping their feet on the carpet.

I hated every second of our meeting.

"Alright tone it down, tone it down, I'm guessing no one is doing anything after work? Do some late night partying or sleeping?"

Most of said no or shook our head or like me, said nothing.

"No? Really, wow this is perf-this is great!" She clapped her hands together and rubbed them, like this was a recipe for disaster, "I was thinking about having a small 15th anniversary for White Marbles! Tonight! There will be more people than the employees in this room, I swear."

This caught everyone off guard and the White Marbles crew mumbled in a collided conversation about their after work duties or activities and I covered my hand to giggle to myself.

"Don't say you can't come! You all said you had nothing to do tonight so shut up!" She squeaked.

Connie intervened and coolly said, "I have three kids to look after Mousy Tina."

Nina gritted her teeth together and corrected, " It's Nina. Connie, Nina. And I guess I can let you off the hook because you have children."

Connie grinned, but it dropped when the guy across the room added, "I have three kids to look after too Nina." Displaying a sly wink and licking his lips till they were wet in Connie's direction and the guys near him laughed.

I leaned over to Connie, "You have kids?"

"No, I just didn't want to go. A little lie won't hurt her."

I slightly nodded, a little impressed by her persuasive tactic and dreaded the party altogether. That's the reason I liked Connie. She had this apathetic and laid-back attitude I wish I had. Telling a little lie to Nina was easy but feeling too many emotions and explanations that were indescribable was hard.

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When Nina emphasized on small, there was nothing small about it. She was right, there were more people here than some employees at the dock near the lake. Her scheduling was so last minute, it became a problem earlier, but I was surprised lots of people showed their faces.