Breathe.

8

Nafessa Williams

I woke up with my arms around a sleeping Toni. Smiling at her, I slowly picked my arm up and headed towards my bathroom. I ran through my whole morning routine before walking back out. My eyes glanced at the clock and I saw that it was 3 pm.

Damn. I was really tired. Walking over to my dresser, I grabbed a random shirt and threw it over my head as my phone began ringing. Trying to answer before it woke Toni, I damn near flew over to my nightstand.

I answered when I saw it was my mom. "Hello?"

Walking out of my room, I stepped into the living room. "Hey Princess. You're awake. Good. Look, I just put some money in your account, but your check should be hitting today as well. It should cover you all but let me know if you or Toni need anything alright?"

"Yes ma'am. I will."

"What's the plan for today? Anything on the schedule?"

"No. I don't think so. We are just going to probably chill here or go to the movies." I replied softly.

"Oh okay. Well let me know. I have to go though, my meetings in five. Mommy loves you."

"Love you more."

"Bye bye sweetie. Call if you need something." She hung up.

"Is that really the plan?" Toni's voice made me jump.

I turned around and looked at her. "Hell no. Gil's having a party tonight. It starts at 7, you in?"

Toni hesitated. "I- I don't know. That isn't my crowd. Well really no one is my crowd. Plus, Gil and Kelly are close. Which means Janet isn't gonna be far behind. I'll pass on that."

Nodding, even though I was kind of bummed out because I wanted to go, I didn't sweat on it. "Okay, that's cool. What do you want to do then?"

"I didn't say you couldn't go. I can just go home until you're—."

"Whoa. Whoa. No." I shook my head. "It's either all or nothing. I'm not ditching you for them. If you don't want to go then I'm not going. Simple."

She nodded softly. "Okay, well then let's go."

My face furrowed. "You just said you didn't want to T."

"I know what I said. I'll go though. You really want to go, even though you won't say it, so let's go." She mumbled.

"No. It's alright. You said you aren't comfortable and I don't want—."

"I never said I wasn't comfortable. I said that wasn't my crowd. We can go. I just don't have anything to wear."

I found myself smiling. "Let's go shopping."

"And spend the cash my mom gave me for this weekend? No. I'll pass."

"Who said you had to pay?" I asked her. "I can pay."

Toni looked at me and rolled her eyes. "Now it's definitely a no. Next idea?"

"My closet could do you some justice. Come on." I grabbed her hand, and butterflies erupted into my stomach. Did she feel them? I pulled her all the way to my closet and hit the light switch. "I'm pretty sure we can't fit the same size in pants cause you're lucky enough to have more hips but I got dresses."

"Eh. Alright."

Rummaging through stuff, I found a dress and held it up. "How you feeling?"

"Nope. Why is it so small?"