Love Has No Labels (BWWM) ✔

Chapter 9: A Square Girl

A Week Later

Austin looked outside the window as he and Gerald were on their way to clock out of schedule at their warehouse, as they always do. The argument that he and Angie had on the subway was still etched in his mind. He was still at a loss of words at what happened. He thought that Angie was sure to love him. But he was proven wrong, where Angie blatantly denied their apparent love for each other; because of the simple fact that he was white. Austin was so badly shaken that he had to turn back to smoking to calm his nerves and ease the pain that Angie caused him. Plus, he couldn't eat, sleep, or even smile anymore.

He wished this wasn't over between them, and Angie always loved him. Austin almost thought that was her prudish, snobby mother that made Angie act like this towards him. But Angie was a grown woman. She can't let herself be subject to her mother's orders. It's almost like her mother pays her bills.

Still feeling dejected, Austin took out a cigarette. Just as he was about to light it up, Gerald snatched the cigarette from his fingers and tossed it out.

"Gerald, what the hell!" Austin exclaimed, exasperated.

"Oh, no, sir. You ain't lighting up no cigarette up in this van," Gerald retorted. "Plus, I hadn't seen you smoke in a month, you were doing good."

Austin hung his head down, fighting back tears.

"Aw, come on, kid, what's been the matter with you these past few days?" Gerald asked.

He paused for a moment. "She ain't call for you no more?" he continued, referring to Angie.

Austin shook his head no. Tears were threatening to form now.

"You love her, don't you? Oh, I've been there before, don't worry."

"It's not even that... we can't be together because I'm white," Austin said, his voice broken.

"Oh, that's some bullshit," Gerald groaned.

"But it's true!" Austin argued. "I could see it by the look on her face when I asked her when we fought in the train station."

"You guys had it out on each other?"

"Yeah, 'Cause she kept avoiding me ever since the morning after the attack, and I wanted to know why."

"You stayed the night?"

"She wanted me to stay because she was still shaken up, and that morning when we woke up late, her mom was banging at the door like a madwoman, and she was all 'what's he doing here', and I left," Austin explained. "I almost think that her mom might be the one that's causing Angie to act like this."

"She is," Gerald simply said.

"What?" Austin replied.

"Oh, yes, without a shadow of a doubt, it's her bougie momma," Gerald said, nodding knowingly.

"And how would you know that?"

"Remember when we went to her house to fix that pipe that was closed wrong? She didn't even bother to acknowledge that it was you who solved the problem, as well as closing it up the right way. She didn't even look at you."

"Oh, my God, you're right," Austin whispered, eyes widening in shock and realization.

"Mm-hmm," Gerald agreed.

"But I always thought she did that because I was eighteen and in training."

"Same time as when we fixed those nasty pipes in Harlem, and that black man was worshipping you for knowing what was wrong, you were still in training then, and you don't look like no nineteen-year-old boy to me."