Race Relations

Call me when you want a serious guy

Leila had spent the day with friends. It seemed so long since the whole group had been together. They had all went out to a small bistro in lower Manhattan and chatted with each other about the updates of their lives. She only hadn’t seen them for a weekend and she felt completely lost on the new activities that her friends were leading. She had wanted to not talk about the relationship with Nathaniel and wanted it to grow before she could even call it that. Therefore, she made the decision on clamping her lips firm about, well, whatever he was to her. She guessed that they were now dating. But in order to have kept that privilege, the first thing she should have done was to keep everything from Thomas. Because before she had the chance to stop him, she heard him say, “Have Ms. Leila here told you guys about her new boo?” which cause a synchronized gasp among the girls.. “Yes child, she had one hell of a weekend” he continued.

“Thomas! ...Thank you for the announcement and don’t listen to him, I do not have a boo”

“Do too!”

“Thomas!”

                Melina looked at Leila with her dark green eyes suspiciously, her long locks falling into her face. “Mientes!” she yelled in her native tongue. Melina always had the tendency to switch from both languages, especially when she became excited. The Spanish would just slid its way out. “Ay Leila, you’re such a  bad liar... Quien es? Who is he?”

“I’m not lying. He is not my boo that’s all.”

“Ah bueno, then what is he? A lover; Friends with benefits, who is he?” Melina pestered. And Leila made sure to give Thomas the deathly stare which made him flinch. Leila didn’t know what to say, what Nathaniel was, again, she guessed they were now dating, but they had not even specified that at the least.

“Guys” her blond haired friend Laura interrupted, “Leave her alone, “maybe they don’t have a title yet and she’s taking it slow, stop listening to Tom who is a drama queen and exaggerates everything”

Thomas gasped and placed his right hand on his chest and said “Me?” shocked at Laura’s accusation and Laura chuckled.

“Yes you,”

“Ay Laura” Melina said, her accent think and full of curiosity, “Be quiet. The question is, do we know him”

“Of course you do!” Thomas yelled.

“Thomas!” Leila yelled at him.

“Who is he?” She continued,

“A friend,”

“Okay, we your friends. You tell us who is new ‘friend’” 

“Melina, you can’t be serious,” Leila said as she laughed nervously. She didn’t want to claim something that wasn’t yet hers. What if it didn’t work out?

“Oh Si, muy serious. Spill!”

Throwing her head back and defeat, Leila admits. “It’s Nathaniel”

“Que?” Melina yelled... “The one con el fiancé.

“He’s not engaged, she’s just some crazy bitch… but he put her back in her place... Now can we move on! Amy, what have you been doing lately?”

                                   _____________________________

“What’s up with you” Mike asked Nathaniel. He had knocked only minutes prior and Nathaniel gladly open the door and he had not been subject to the routine wait.

Nathaniel laughed when his cousin looked at him in a disgusting manner, “What do you mean?”