Normani Kordei Hamilton.
I brought my phone up closer to my face and squinted my eyes as my barely parted lips spoke the words of the terribly written text I had received not too long ago. "Big problems..." I ran my tongue over my lips as I tried to decipher the next line. "Came out?" I question, raising my eyebrows, but the ending of the next sentence causes my eyes to become three times bigger than their original size. "Kicked out?" I ask loudly.
"Wait. Blondie kicked you out?"
My body reacts first, my bones nearly jumping out of my skin before my emotions are alerted, and out of frustration, my body reacts again as I push the shorter woman away. "What the hell? My lungs nearly jumped out of my chest!" I whine as I decide to go into the break room, seeing as the hallway wasn't such a good idea when it came to privacy.
It's quite windy today, the curtains flapping and flopping about all over the place making it quite evident, but the sun is out too, shining over certain objects, making them reflect the light cross between the orange and yellowish colour. One of these objects being a very neutral-looking Tinashe, her fingers moving against her phone screen at a furious speed.
"Answer my question Mami, is Blondie kicking you out?"
This causes the tapping of nails against the screen to stop, and a concerned expression to grow. "Wait." the woman, clad in a denim one piece jumps up from the couch. "Dinah is kicking you out?"
I open my mouth to respond, but instead of hearing my own voice, I hear Kehlani's.
"Because listen, if that is the case." She says, referring to her colleagues second hand assumption, "I will personally take you in. I mean, my apartment isn't big and all, but it could house the both of us. You know what I'm saying?" She asks, but again, before I can answer her question, she's off rambling again. "Plus, I will not hesitate to kick her giraffe like ass. She may be tall, and I may be small. But I was raised on the streets, you hear me?"
The statement obviously seemed to attract Tinashe's attention as she looked on at her colleague in distaste. "I know your Mama." She reminds the mixed woman. "And not once do I recall you living, let alone being raised, on the streets."
"Why did you have to do that?" Kehlani frowns, throwing her hands up. "I was just trying to-"
"-Okay, hold on, hold on." I cut their conversation short. "First of all, Lani." I address the dark haired woman. "It's pretty sweet that you would take me in and fight for me, but it won't be necessary." I inform her. "Because secondly." I put emphasis on the next few words. "Dinah isn't kicking me out. So calm down."
"She isn't?" Kehlani asks, the creases on her smooth forehead showing her confusion, but they smooth out when I shake my head no. "So then what was that all about?" She asks, jabbing her thumb towards the hallway.
"I honestly don't know." I look down at my phone, trying to make sense of the obviously rushed text. "Arin sent me this text a few minutes ago, but I can't make sense of what he's saying." I admit with a frown.
"So why don't you just call him?" Tinashe suggests.
My eyes fall on the wall clock, and I pull my bottom lip between my teeth, trying to solve an internal battle of conflict. But my curious side finally reigns over my professional side, and in no less than two minutes, I find myself basking in the sun, listening to the dialer tone as I wait for my best friend to pick up the phone.
I sigh in relief when there's a barely audible click, and I hear his voice.
"Hello?"
"Hi." I greet him as I always do. "What the hell happened?" I ask, closing the sliding door to allow myself some privacy.
