Ready or Not

19.

Valencia

I woke up to the sounds of chatter and yelling downstairs. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, checking my phone. 1:45pm. Chris had sent me a good morning text saying that his mom woke him early that morning to go run errands with her so he had hung up to not wake me. But that didn't stop him from messaging me 3 other times telling me to wake up because he was bored.

I shook my head laughing and threw my legs over the edge of the bed, standing up to make my way to my bathroom. I brushed my teeth then washed my face.

I can't believe I'm just now waking up. But I must admit it was the best sleep I'd had in months.

I walked back over to my bag and dug out a simple yet cute outfit to put on. I settled on some Nike tights and a Nike shirt that I knotted at my side. After getting dressed and fluffing my bedhead curls I made my way downstairs.

"Yeah she needs to wake up anyways. Go on up there and get her." I heard my mom say.

Then I seen a figure turn towards the stairs making my eyes widen. I jumped off the last two steps and leaped into her arms.

"Valencia!!" She yelled.

I held on tight to her. "Nalani!" I screamed. I missed my favorite cousin sooo much. She was like my twin separated at birth the way we were always together on the same page, not to mention our birthdays were 2 days apart.

"I miss you so much cuzzo. You done went all West Coast on me and forgot all about little ol us back here." She said with a fake pout.

I sucked my teeth and playfully rolled my eyes. "Now you know I can't forget about my LaLa! We have so much to catch up on though!"

"We really do. Let's walk up to our spot at the park." She said as she made her way to the door.

I headed back upstairs and threw on some shoes and grabbed my phone and zoomed back down the stairs past my mom and auntie.

—–

We sat on the bleachers at the old basketball court chatting about everything over the past 3 months. She caught me up with the neighborhood's events and I told her everything about me being an AKA now including my lovelife.

"He sounds like a good guy and based on the picture on your wallpaper, he's fine and yall look good together." She said while tapping my phone causing me to smile.

"It's starting to finally get a little chilly out here." I said as I watched the boys play on the court.

"Have you talked to Miesha?" My cousin asked. I shook my head no and kept watching them play. "Chad?" she asked.

I looked at her like she was crazy and stood up. "Hell naw I ain't talked to his ass, I'm hungry though. Let's head back to the house." I said as I was going down the bleacher steps.

"Ayo watch out!' I heard a voice yell then I saw a ball flying my way.

I screamed out and fell back, landing on my butt on a bleacher seat.

"Lenci you okay?!" Lani ran down and helped me up as I nodded. She snapped her neck over. "Goddamn BJ! You tryna kill my fucking cousin or something?!" She yelled at the guy running over.