Teenage Fever

You Down?

Crash!

I shot up, sweating, heart racing. What the fuck was that? I look around and see Damario's head poking from the kitchen, looking directly at me.

"Sorry about that, young blood. These pots and pans just attacked me."

I chuckle and give my head a shake.

"Who are you calling a young blood, though?"

He laughs and goes back into the kitchen.

"You, nigga!" He shouts.

I let it go, but I guess the nigga needs reminding that I'm 5 months older than him. I fall back on the pillow and exhale. My life came crashing back on me. A whole almost two year relationship down the drain because of Jackie. Thinking about her reminds me of my phone. I pull it out, wait for it to come on and sure enough...

"Damn!"
"Yeeeeoooowwwww?" Damario automatically responds.

I ignore him and go through everything I missed. Jackie called and texted me a ridiculous amount of times. I really sat up when I noticed missed calls from mom and Derek.

Damario comes out with a plate of eggs, grits and bacon. I look up at him briefly still distracted.

"Good looking out."

I thought about calling my mom first. Jackie probably cried to her all last night.

"What's up? What happened?"

I look back up at Damario and he was staring down at me with his head tilted.

"I had my phone turned off, got all these messages and phone calls. I'm about to make a call."

I stood up, put on Damario's slides and went out the door. I don't know why I needed privacy from Damario to call mom, I was just feeling all over the place; wasn't really even taking notice of every move I made.

"Leslie?"
"Hey Ma, sorry I missed your call—"
"What is going on?"
I pulled the phone away from my mouth to let out a low groan.
"Jackie and I broke up."
"Did you hurt that girl?"
"What?" I practically yelled.
I tried to calm down because I was in the hallway; Damario had neighbors.
"Ma, did Jackie tell you that?"
Was she really saying foul shit about me now?
"No, but the girl was hysterical. I tried to get her to calm down. It was so painful... you didn't—"
"Ma! No! I don't mean to yell at you but..." I sighed heavily, tilting my head to look up at the old looking yellow ceiling lights.
I realized I didn't want to get into telling her about Jackie cheating on me.
"Whatever it is, hon, I'm sure it can be worked out. Just talk to Jackie and hear her out. She sounded really upset. I'm not sure who's at fault or what is happening but you two are grown enough to talk things out."
"Ma, I don't want to talk to her right now."
I could hear her sigh.
"Leslie, you can't run from your problems. I'm sure you and her would feel better with talking it out."
"That may be, but not right now."
She stayed quiet for some time.
"You make sure to get around to making a trip down here soon so we can all talk, you, me, your father and Derek. He says she called him too so he's concerned as well."
"I understand. I'll work on arranging that."
"Okay, I'll let you go for now but remember what I said. I love you, Les."
"Love you too."

That was enough talking for me today. I wasn't going to bother hitting Derek up right now and talking to Jackie wasn't even an option.

I walked back into the apartment and first noticed the food getting cold. Then I noticed Damario on the couch, his food finished, but sipping on a champagne flute. This nigga.

"What is that?" I chuckled.
He smacked his lips and 'aaahhed'.
"A mimosa. I made you one."
I now noticed it by my plate. I walked closer to the couch.
"I didn't know you were an alcoholic, D, is there something you want to tell me?"
He sucked his teeth.
"Nigga, don't get shit fucked up, I ain't even going hard like that."
I finally plop down on the couch.
"I'm just fucking with you."
He stares at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you going to tell me now what the fuck's going on?"
He rolls his neck at me.
"Jackie called my moms."
"Of course she did."
He looked away.
"I don't know what was said but she acting more hurt than me, like she the victim."
"That's not cool. Almost got your mom worried for her sake, right?"
He shakes his head.
"Females be running a good game."
Wasn't like Jackie to be pulling shit like this. Now she really showing her true colors, fucked up it took 2 years.
"Listen, man, today's laundry day. You tryna tag along?"

What else did I have to do on a Saturday?

"Ahhhh, fresh morning air," Damario said happily as he carried his laundry basket to his old dump of a car. It looked like a early 2000s Honda Civic.
"I see you judging a nigga."
"Nah, that's all you, fits you perfectly."
"What you tryna say, now?"
I laughed.
"Man, just open this door."

"Us light skin niggas can't be getting too dirty," Damario said as he threw his curly hair into a top bun.
I chuckled from the passenger seat.
"You mean to do laundry?"
"Fuck you, nigga, this some mean work. See, you've only been in Section 1 for two weeks—"
"Four months."
"Same thing. You see some shit in Section 1, we might walk in there and there be a dead body on the floor."
I couldn't help but laugh.
"You think I'm playing."
"It can't be worse than Section 2."
He gave me a deeply confused face, eyes squinting, eyebrows pushed together, lips upturned.
"I don't even want to go there."
"Literally," I finished for him.

We walked in and surprise surprise, no dead bodies.
"Maybe next week," Damario says under his breath.

The place was actually clean and smelled good. Damario got to work moving his clothes this way and that. I took a seat by the window watching traffic. I got comfortable but my mind was still all over the place. I felt this was a good time to hit Derek up.

"What's going on, little bro?"

Derek was my older brother, he was a whole 30. He was living good in Section 3; nice house, beautiful wife and kids. I was trying to have that life.

"Ugggghhhh. You probably heard the most from Ma and Jackie."
I heard him suck his teeth.
"Two sides to a story but I'm sure yours is more truthful."
"What did Jackie even tell you? I don't understand why she's so upset."
"I'm not really sure what's going on. She just called me crying, asking me if I knew where you were. Wanting me to tell you she was sorry. Telling me everything but what happened."
"I caught her cheating on me, Derek. Like, all out, they were in my bed and everything."
"Fuuuuuuck," he sighed.
He went silent.
"Yeah, I'm not talking to her, I'm done with her."
I happen to look over to the other side of the laundromat and saw a group of black girls ogling me. I'm pretty used to it.
"I understand. Hey, you talk to her when you're ready to. If you want to talk about it some more give me a call this evening. I'm about to head out with Sasha and the girls."
"Okay, give them my love."
"Alright."

We said our byes and hung up. All of a sudden I could hear everything as if the laundromat was on mute while I was on the phone.

"He is fine, girl!" One girl said too loud. It was one of the girls from the group that was watching me. Some of them were staring hard like I was a plate of fried chicken.

Out of nowhere some random guy ran in as if he was running from the police.
"Not again, Tyrone!" An old man yelled who I believe was the owner.

I paid it no mind when I happened to look back at Damario and seen that he was talking to somebody. They started to move my way while talking.

"Ayo, Les, this my man KJ."
I gave him a head nod and he returned the gesture.
"D was telling me that you new around here," he said in a deep voice.
I leaned forward while looking up at them.
"Yeah, only been here a couple of months."
KJ looked back at Damario.
"Why don't you throw a little get together?"
He looked back at me.
"To get you acquainted with some people, since you new to the neighborhood."
Damario stood there nodding his head, hands shoved in pockets.
"Sounds like a reason to party," Damario commented.
"You down?" He asked me.