F•R•I•E•N•D•S

Chapter 8:

Ziggy
February 20
1:15 pm

"You lookin beautiful babygirl" my momma smiled while she gave me a small smile, fixing the jacket she wore

"Thank you" I replied, just looking at her from the other side of the table, coming to visit her at my grandma's, her mom's house where she's been living under my grandmas care since they say she's not mentally able to take care of herself.

On top of that, my grandma also informed me when I showed up that she had to go to rehab, just recently getting out because she became addicted to some pain relievers she were taking

"How's school going?" She asked and I shrugged

"It's good. I'm just ready for graduation"

"Graduation... 3 more months and my baby will be a high school graduate" she smiled again "you looked into any colleges yet"

"I put in some applications all over. Nothing major"

"What's your first choice?"

"I'm... not sure" I lied knowing California was my first option, but I chose to keep this conversation to a minimum because anything could possibly trigger her mood to change and next thing I know she's going off on me

"What about spelman? That's a good school"

"I put in one there. If I get accepted it'll be one I look at"

" you should. And I can probably see you more often because you'll have more free time"

"Yeah. I'm sorry about that"

"Dont be sorry zakia. I'm the parent. It's not your obligation to keep up with me. But just know, I'm tryina get better so I can do better as a parent, even if you are grown now"

I shook my head "I'm 18 ma"

"In the laws eyes you grown. But remember you still my babygirl, and I love you. No matter how crazy I am"

"Ma, you not crazy"

"Let the world tell it I am" she rested her hand on the table "look at me. I'm pathetic babygirl. I let what happened to your daddy break me to the point to where I wasn't even mentally sane enough to take care of you. And it hurts, and I want you to know I'm sooooo sorry"

"Ma, it's all good. I'm good" I plainly said cause honestly, her apologizing for the same shit over and over everytime I come see her gets old. What happened has already happened and I keep telling her it's okay. Plus this week has already been a trying week for me so I really didn't wanna come this weekend to see her but my grandma said she begged to get me to come see her

"Zakia, you hungry babygirl?" My grandma asked as she walked into the kitchen

"No ma'am. I ate before I came over here"

"You sure?" She asked and I nodded

"Alright.. how's school going? You still dating that boy? The cute one you brought with you last time."

"Geo is not my boyfriend. That's my best friend"

"Boyfriend, best friend.. sounds the same to me"

I playfully rolled my eyes and my momma laughed

"I don't know why y'all not dating yet. Even a blind man can see y'all like each other"

"We're perfectly fine as friends"

"Well don't think about bringing no other boys around here because everytime you do ima keep saying I don't like em cause they ain't Geo"

I laughed at my grandma while she went into the fridge then looked at my momma again