NINETEEN

Chapter 1 - They Meet

I sat on the hood of his Lexus; a cigarette hanging from my busted, bloody lip and not a single thought swimming through my mind.

It's scary, that kind of quietness inside your own head. So silent it's deafening.

The low grumblings of laughter trapped inside a smoker's chest vibrated next to me. I looked over to see he was smiling wide; beautiful pearl white teeth glowing under the light of the moon. Soon I was laughing too. Both of us sitting on the hood of his car laughing like lunatics under a full moon.

I thought back to just minutes ago when all hell broke loose and I was standing right in the middle of it.

    An hour earlier...

    "Here comes crazy," Shelly said lowly, letting out a breath.

    I followed her eyes to him. He was moving through the crowd, stopping only once to speak to someone who called out to him. His round, brown eyes bouncing all over the crowd of faces until they found me. His lips parted into a wide smile showing off his best feature. It was the contrast between his cotton white teeth and the deep, darkness of his skin that made it look like art to me. From this distance you couldn't see it, but there was the smallest gap between his two front teeth. You'd probably miss it if you didn't know to look for it, but I found myself staring at it every time his lips parted.

    "Wassup, Baby?" He called out when he made it to us. 

    "What's up Yoshi?" I smiled because his was infectious. You couldn't see Yoshi smiling and not smile back.

    "Came through to save your night." He smiled and licked his bottom lip, something I knew he did out of habit. 

    "Is Luke here?" Shelly asked while sliding her phone into the back pocket of her jeans.

    "Yeah, I left him outside by the pool." Yoshi gestured behind him in the direction he'd just come from.

    Shelly went to move, but hesitated. She looked from Yoshi to me and then turned to me, placing a hand on my arm.

    "Stay out of trouble please." She warned jokingly before she shuffling through the crowd of people in the direction of the pool.

    I wasn't much for parties, but Shelly complained that we were wasting the best years of our lives working and binge watching Netflix, so I came with her. Ebony, a girl we'd all gone to high school with, threw this house party for old times sake. Most people had gone off to college and with summer starting it was a good time to get everyone together again. In all honestly, the night had been just about as fun as folding towels. I was just as happy to see Yoshi as I'm sure Shelly was to see Luke.

    I looked over at him. His eyes low, but moving all over the room, never settling in one place too long. If I knew Yoshi, and I did, I knew he was looking for trouble. He'd been that way since the day we met.

    Even then he had the smoothest brown skin. A wife beater fit tightly against his thirteen-year-old chest and khaki uniform pants hung loosely on his hips. Back then I was all long limbs and hair. I had never had a perm and hadn't yet been hit with the pre-teen hormones that made girls care about their appearance so I kept my long, thick hair pulled back into a puffy ponytail all the time.

I could never forget the hunger I felt that day. There was a literal aching in my belly as I lay in bed drinking cup after cup of water hoping it would ease the intense craving I felt. It was a hunger strong enough to force me four miles up the road to Birdie's Corner Store on foot. Yoshi was the first person I saw. He was leaning on the counter watching a boxing match on a small TV the owner had hanging just above the register. Yoshi looked my way briefly when I came in, my face a sweaty mess from the long walk in the summer heat.