For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and for these two, their lives have been planned down to a science.
For Wylan Olson, being yourself can be very stressful. Since she was young, her emotions have always been backwards. The e...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I ran out of the building, nearly tripping over my own shoelaces as I raced down the stairs.
"What in sweet Jesus do you think you are doing, Okari?" I asked looking back at him with a hint of amusement.
He stopped to catch his breath. "Um, I thought I was following you if it wasn't obvious enough, Olson."
"Don't sass me, sir," I retorted, chuckling at him mentally as he rolled his eyes.
"I will have you know I am the Sass Master." He grinned goofily. "Can I be a dork and say the whole, 'You're cute when you're angry,' thing or would that get me a punch in the gut?" he inquired.
"It would earn you the latter. Also, I'm not angry." I said as he shook his head.
"You clear on that one?" he asked.
"Crystal." I said and kept moving. "I already told you I'm backwards, literally." We had reached the parking lot as he raced to my side.
"I keep forgetting. Anyways, you want to explain further, or do I have to annoy you?"
He walked beside me, but his long legs allowed him to stride slowly. I, on the other hand, was taking quick, rapid steps. "Well, you're already annoying me." I confessed as he sat on the hood of the car. "Get off of my car. I don't want you anywhere near my property," I jested.
He smirked and slid off slowly as two girls in jogging tights and sports bras ran past us, eyeing him. One snapped her eyes back in the direction she was going and started running faster while the other slowed down.
Then I realized who they were. "Is that- what is she doing here?" I asked calmly.
He looked at me and shrugged, "I don't know looks like she's jogging." He kicked pebbles across the lot. It was then that Lorelei and her friend sat down on a park bench, resting and staring at us shamelessly. "Earth to Wylan, can you explain your issues with direction please?" Kwame yelled in my ear making me drop my keys.
He laughed and picked them up for me. I rolled my eyes, walking to the driver's side of the car and back to the front again when I realized he had taken a seat on my car hood again.
"I don't have issues with direction. I have emotional issues," I replied as I pushed him off the hood.
He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "Wylan, are you okay?" He asked as I gave a quick nod of the head.
"Why do you ask that?" I turned to him.
"Because that's something you should probably discuss with your doctor or psychiatrist." I rolled my eyes as he laughed.
"Do you remember how we used to sing the days of the week in Spanish class and you used to butcher the words?"
He was completely silent and then started shouting beside me. "Lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes, sábado, domingo. Lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes, sábado, domingo," he sang emphatically.
I was laughing hard as he sang out of tune. He was tapping the beat with his foot as he sang the song, and I smiled to myself.
"You are really one of a kind."
'"I'm aware," he responded. It was getting late, and I was going to have to have a great excuse to save my life if I wanted to stay out any later.
"I've got to get going." I said as I started walking towards my car door.
"Alright Cinderella, see you later," he said as I turned around and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Cinderella was white, Okari," I quipped.
"Not in the Brandy version," he replied, smirking.
This boy would surely be the death of me someday.
Law 7:
I remember one of my English teachers beat this one poem "The Road Not Taken" into my mind, and she said that it was "a life lesson of profuse importance." Apparently, he was living his life the hard way, and that he wasn't taking the easy way, paved sidewalks in this world. He was living on the edge, where there are no crosswalks or stop signs. I didn't think it was about life specifically.
I thought that poem was about people. I thought it was about those people who are diamonds in the rough. I thought he was talking about the ones they talk about in movies. The ones who always get the good boy or girl, and people cherish until the end of eternity because someone took a chance. Those people who you have fights with and it feels like you had a head on collision, but there was no warning because nobody knew that could happen on that road. Nobody had taken the time to figure it out, but now you know.
My biggest frustration people misunderstanding me, and feeling like nobody would ever understand no matter if it was in layman's terms or if it was an overly ambitious attempt at explaining my fights in life. You still wouldn't have understood would you?
That was how Kwame was for me. He was that road that nobody traveled, with a sign that read, "No trespassing." There was a dog guarding the entrance to the enigma that he was. Once you entered, there was no going back. The journey down it made me want to quit, give up even, but in the end it helped me to fall down because I could pick myself back up again. I had tried hating the road, but I realized sometimes when you fail don't try again.
Know when to stop and analyze. It's like those problems where you keep working it out and you still get the same old wrong answer. When you stop and look at the problem, you realize you wrote it down wrong. Just take a moment to see if you're seeing the right problem, and then you can solve it.
