90s Love

Chapter 12

My insecurity and jealousy quickly faded. Q and I seemed to be getting closer, and I never caught him hanging out with other females again. The girl from the hallway I learned was Bianca, a new girl from Long Beach who he shared a class with. When I casually brought up the topic of him befriending girls, he had smoothly told me I was the only one, and he liked it like that. That's all he had to say for me to breathe a little easier.

The next thing everyone was buzzing about in school was the concert that was going down on the other side of the city. It was open to everyone 15 and up, and the tickets were sold out in a week. Rocky snagged us some, and we were all more than excited to have a "grown" Friday night.

We were lucky our parents even agreed to let us go. The only thing that sealed the deal for my parents was the fact that Calvin was gonna be there.

I stared at myself in the mirror, fixing my hair, and making last-minute tweaks to my outfit. Grabbing my purse, I made sure my keys and pager were inside before walking out of my room.

I was met with my parents sat on the couch watching the news."Bye Mama. Bye Daddy."

Daddy's face scrunched up as he took in my outfit. "That's what you're wearing?" 

"I don't look nice?" I questioned, smoothing out my skirt.

"Yes, you do." Mama insisted with a smile. "Daddy's just being Daddy."

"Calvin leave already?" I asked them.

"Yeah, just a while ago. Tyree picked him up," Mama replied.

"Okay. I'll see you later." I spoke. "Love you."

"You got your pager don't you?" Daddy asked.

"Yes," I confirmed.

He wasn't done. "Don't be out there acting crazy Janae you're only 16."

"I know. I promise I'll be home before 12."

"Before 12?"

"It's a concert, it could run overtime." I explained. "I'll be safe. Love you."

"Love you." They chorused and I just fixed my bag on my arm before walking out of the house rushing across the street to get Nicki.

"You look nice." I complimented as she stepped outside.

"Thanks. You do too." She replied, the two of us starting to walk towards Raquel's where we would get our ride to the venue.

"Yo, everybody and their Mama are going to this concert it's gonna be so dope." I beamed not able to hold in my excitement.

"I know right." Nicki agreed. "We've been waiting on this for a month. And everyone's talking about the after-party the club is hosting after. We gotta check it out. They said all you gotta do is show your ticket to the show and you're in."

"I told my parents I'd be home by 12. Maybe we'll be able to go."

"Yeah, hopefully, the show's supposed to be over by 10:30, but you know how shit around here gets."

"It gets live!" I shouted, cupping my hands around my lips, the two of us sharing a laugh. Our enthusiasm for the night caused us to pick up our pace, continuing to talk about our hopes for the evening.

Once we got on Rocky's street, we heard music and chatter, two cars parked in front of Rocky's home. Nate and Andre were our designated drivers for the event. While Nicki got into Nate's passenger's seat, Will opened the backdoor of Andre's car waving me to get inside where she and Rocky sat.

"Hey, y'all." I greeted as I shut the car door behind me.

"Hey, Janae." Vanessa, Andre's girlfriend, turned in her seat to send me a polite smile.