Coming of Age

5

"I dare you to kiss Raven."Aisha leaned back against her bed and started laughing.

Joelle started giggling and looked at her friend. "Is that okay with you?"

"Nah man. Y'all buggin'"Raven laughed and sat her cup down.

"It's just a kiss. Come on, Rae."Joelle smiled and got closer to her. Before Raven could protest, Joelle leaned in and put her lips on hers.

When Joelle pulled back to stop the kiss, Raven held on and continued to kiss her.

Finally, they pulled back and started smiling at each other.

"Now you cant say you haven't kissed anyone."Joelle smiled and sat back in her spot against the wall.

The whole room became silent and they all just bursted out laughing. Joelle grabbed her cup and drank what she had left in it. "I don't know about you two, but I'm tired."Joelle shrugged.

"You bitches are boring, goto bed."Aisha hit Joelle with a pillow. "I'll be back. I'm going to take a shower."Aisha stood up and walked out of the room.

After she left, things became awkward between Joelle and Raven. Neither of them said anything.

"What's wrong?"Joelle broke the silence and sat next to her. "You didn't wanna kiss me? I'm sorry."Joelle sighed.

"No it's not that. It just that— Raven got silence and kissed Joelle again. "Your lips are soft."Raven chuckled.

"Uhh...Thank you."Joelle laughed awkwardly. They became silent again and just looked at each other. "Ima go put this cups go up."

Joelle picked up all three of their cups and took them to the kitchen. Kissing raven made her feel weird. Not only because they were friends, but because she liked it. She had never liked a girl before and she never kissed one.

Joelle wasn't sure if she liked because she had never kissed anyone or if she liked it because she was gay.

Joelle walked back in the room and sat across from Raven. "Can I ask you a question?"Joelle brought her knees to her chest.

"Go ahead."Raven looked down at her Game Boy. She took that thing every where with her and she was always playing it.

"How do you know that you like girls? You never liked a boy before?"Joelle stared at her, waiting for her to answer.

"No. I've just always liked this one girl. I never thought about a boy...ever. Just her."Raven sighed and sat her game boy down for a few seconds. After making some quick eye contact with Joelle she picked it up and started playing it again.

"Is it somebody I know?"Joelle asked her.

"You know her, but I'm not telling you who it is. So don't ask."Raven was nonchalant on the outside, but in the inside she was panicking.

"Why?"Joelle whined. "You tell me everything."

"Because, I know you. You're going to start acting weird around her. So I'm not telling you."Raven shrugged her shoulders and continued to play her game.

Joelle gasped and started to say something until Aisha walked in. She quickly stopped talking and put her head on her hands.

"Uhuh. You bitches acting weird."Aisha scrunched up her face and laid down in her bed.

Raven and Joelle start giggling causing Aisha to get irritated. "Goto sleep."

They all went to sleep in Aisha's bed.

Monday morning, they all met at Aisha's house to walk to school together like they always did.

"I am not tryna' goto school today. I'm sleepy."Joelle dragged behind her friends.

"Nobody told your ass to stay up all night making them damn tapes. If I didn't come and tell you to goto sleep, you'd still probably be up right now."Raven walked with her hands in her pocket. "While we on the subject, where my tape?"

"I have it. I was gonna give it to you."Joelle rolled her eyes and reached for her backpack. She slowly pulled her zipper across to the other side to open the front pouch of her bag. She pulled out the tape and handed it to Raven.

"Wanna listen to it while we wait? I got my Walkman."Joelle held it up for Raven to see.

"Not now. I wanna hear it loud on my stereo. We could listen to it together after school."Raven looked in Aisha's vanity mirror to fix her hair. "Aisha! Hurry up so we could get breakfast. Damn, we going to school not fashion week."Raven yelled hat through her restroom door.

Aisha opened the door and walked into her bedroom. "First of all, beauty takes time sweet heart. Don't rush me. I'm done anyway."Aisha rolled her eyes and picked up her back pack off of the floor.

She grabbed everything she needed and they stated their walk to school.  They stopped by Emerald's to get some quick breakfast and sat down in the courtyard to eat before class starts.

"We going back to Emerald's after school today?"Aisha crossed her legs under the table and and bit her sausage biscuit.

"I have detention."Joelle rolled her eyes. "I need to stop skipping."

"No, you need to stop getting caught."Aisha joked. "Maybe since you don't like Kesean anymore, you won't get caught nomore."

"I don't even want to talk about that."Joelle fake yawned.

"I can wait for you, if you want. I know you don't like to walk alone."Raven sipped her orange juice.

"It's okay. You don't have to. I don't want you to stay a whole extra hour after school to wait on me. I'll just come to your house later."Joelle gathered her trash and threw it out.

The bell rang and they got up from their table and started to walk down the hallway. They eventually when their separate ways. Aisha had History, Joelle had Chemistry and Raven had English but most likely she wasn't going.

When Joelle walked into her class she could feel people staring at her, like they were just talking about her. She sat down at her table with het group and put her head down. Joelle hated attention, she hated when people stared at her. 

Her teacher, Mr.Simpson went on to called the attendance, but Joelle wasn't paying attention and missed her name. "Joelle Johnson. Are you here?"

"Don't you mean, Hoelle?"A girl in the back of her class snickered.

"What did you say?"Joelle whipped her head around to the back of her.

"I said your momma shoulda named you HOELLE , cuz you a hoe."The girl repeated herself so that Joelle could hear her better.

"Bitch, your momma is hoe. You wanna call me another one to my face, so I can pop you in your eye?"Joelle stood up.

"Don't try to be funny. We all know you can't fight. Just because you hang with tough bitches don't make you tough. I'll break ya neck."She bucked at Joelle.

"You don't know me. Just because you've never seen me get out of character doesn't mean I can't, if it's really all that you can meet me after-school."Joelle turned around in her seat.

"Cut it out you two, before I send you both to you he principal."Mr.Simpson intervened.

Joelle shot her the middle finger and turned around to open her notebook. "What was that about?"Joelle asked her lab partner, Mercedes.

Mercedes squinted her eyes at Joelle and pooped her gum in her mouth. "You don't know?"

"Obviously not if I just asked you, Mercedes."Joelle smacked her lips.

"Oh you ain't got to get smart."Mercedes rolled her eyes and continued to chew her gum. "Anyways, word around school is that you fucked Kesean at Cynthia's party, Friday. After he fucked Aisha."Mercedes threw her braids over her shoulder.

"What?"Joelle raised an eyebrow.

"Mmhm."Mercedes made a stank face and shook her head. "I knew better though, cuz you my girl and you ain't no hoe."

Joelle angrily grabbed her things and marched out of the classroom. Mr.Simpson called after her, but she wasn't listening. She was headed to the third floor.

She had a bone to pick with Kesean AND Aisha.