Still Waters

Chapter 27

Oddly enough, the further apart Kenney and I seemed to grow, the closer Shayna and I became. I was sitting in the living room with her later that same evening watching Oprah when the phone rang.

She hadn't picked it up two seconds before she started screaming "Shut up! Quick Tash! Turn on MTV!"

I didn't know what the heck could be important enough to tear her away from the show that she breathed and swore by, but vague clarity came when we flipped the channel to some random dude doing the historical breakdown of - for some redonkulous reason four - characteristics of hip hop culture. I, personally, have always said that once the extreme over-analysis of hip hop became common practice, it was all downhill from there.

But let Drama tell it...

Must be Drama on the phone, I thought to myself. "Shayna, what the heck is this?" I asked, loud enough for Drama's silly ass to hear me over the phone, the extra loud TV and Shayna's groupie screams. Then I leaned in a little closer. "Hey, isn't that...dude from the first Real World? Wow..." I chuckled at Drama's apparent hidden love affair with what would soon become known as reality TV, and then squinted at the writing below. "What? Tell me that doesn't say Hip-Hop Historian." I rolled my eyes at the thought. We'd never be able to shut Drama up now that he had proven to us once and for all that there actually was such a thing.

"I told you it was a real profession!" I could hear him shouting into the phone. "That's all me, baby! All me!"

Shayna just kept saying, "I knew it! I knew it Rob. I knew you'd make it big, baby. I never doubted you for a second." She sat back into the couch and started grinning all starry-eyed into the television. "I can't wait to see you up there..."

I tuned them out after that. By then I was such a hater on anyone who was actually in a good relationship that it didn't even occur to me to ask her when they had started calling each other "baby." Or even when they had transcended their friendlationship from "maybe someday" to joined at the hip.

After they finally stopped sweatin' each other through the phone, why, oh why, did Collin spend the rest of that night calling me whining about how I needed to still believe in him, and how I couldn't give up on him yet because he promised he was going to get it right this time?

What. The hell. Ever!

That's just what I said to him, too. "Whatever." Before I hung up in his tired, pitiful, nauseating face.

Right on point, Kenney called like ten minutes after I slammed the phone down and cracked the receiver. I had to take the call in the kitchen.

"Waddup, darlin'? Why you sound mad?"

"Oh...nothing. I'm just pissed I broke my phone."

He chuckled. "Interesting..."

"Hey, I'm glad you called," I said quickly, changing the subject. "I never said thank you for the ride."

Kenney sighed dramatically. "It's about time your ungrateful behind thanked me for something."

"Shut up Bud." I pulled a green Popsicle out of the freezer.

"So...what's up?" he asked, vaguely.

It was weird how now Kenney, who once upon a time I could never get to shut up, rarely had anything to say when and if he did call.