The next week passes without much communication between them outside of them sitting near each other in class and talking about surface stuff. It felt emotionless and distant and by that weekend everyone heads home for the Christmas holiday. While home during the Christmas break Jairus tries to keep himself busy doing things with his family so that he won’t think about the situation he had just left at school. But during the times he is just sitting around at home he always falls deep into his thoughts and acts more reserved than usual and Bernice notices. She asks him a few times that week leading to Christmas if everything is okay, but he never opens up to her. So, she asks Tammy to talk to him and make sure he is okay. She knows they have a special bond that is different from a mother and son and that he will normally talk to Tammy about things he may not be comfortable sharing with his mother. Jairus is spending a lot of time at his Aunt Theresa’s home playing with Tammy’s son Marlon, so she is sure she’ll have the opportunity to talk to him and agrees.
Tammy doesn’t expect that her best opportunity to talk to Jairus won’t come until the evening of Christmas after their family has eaten dinner and are sitting around together. They are all in the living room watching television and Jairus tries to quietly slide into another room to watch something else alone. Marlon sees him walking out of the room and starts to follow, unbeknownst to Jairus. Tammy sees her son walking out of the room and slowly follows behind him. Marlon enters the room where Jairus now sits on the edge of a bed with the basketball game turned on and walks up to Jairus wanting to play like they normally do. The holiday has Jairus feeling emotional and as he grabs Marlon’s outreached hand to play, he thinks of what could have been and his eyes start to get glossy as he smiles at his nephew. Just then Tammy walks into the room calling for Marlon and sees the look on Jairus' face. “Jerry, what’s going on? What’s wrong?” He denies anything is wrong and tries to play it off saying, “I’m good. It’s just something dusty in here messing with my allergies.” Tammy knows better than that and doesn’t let it go.
“Young, you have ji’e been moping around since you’ve been home. Tell me what’s up. I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on.”
Jairus knows that it’s not helping him to just fester in his thoughts and he and Tammy have a history of always being there for each other. He was the shoulder she cried on when she lost her father, she introduced him to Tania after his first high school relationship ended and he wasn’t happy being single. He was the first person she told that she was pregnant at the end of their senior year of high school, and he stood with her when she broke the news to their family. So, he tells her everything. From how he met Lisa to the current state of limbo they find themselves in.
Without him even saying how he is considering handling the situation Tammy already knows where her cousin’s head is. She knows how badly he longs for fatherhood and why. She tries to crack a joke to lighten the mood first by saying “Young, you always trying to fight somebody talking about you’re protective. You almost got my man messed up with that shit.” They both get a laugh from the comment. She then gets serious. “Jairus, I know you. You are always trying to do what you think is the right thing. It’s one of the best things about you. But sometimes you have to choose between the right thing to do and what’s best for you. Unfortunately, it’s not always the same thing. Lisa did what she had to do to protect herself. And honestly, I can’t blame her because this shit is hard. But at some point, you are going to have to stop worrying about everyone else and actually protect yourself. You don’t owe it to anyone to be miserable.”
Jairus is shocked at the response. He doesn’t expect her to sound like she is telling him to leave Lisa. He tells her he will think about what she is saying, and she grabs Marlon and leaves him alone to watch his game. The rest of his time at home is spent doing just that. Giving serious thought to how he feels and about his emotional connection with Lisa. A week and a half later he and Duc are on the road again back to Atlanta having those long road trip conversations. This time with a focus on relationships as they are both in weird places.
As the next semester starts there is a huge buzz around campus about how good the basketball teams are this season. Shante is living up to expectations and in her very first year has clearly taken the team to another level beyond what they had seen in recent history. She is truly a star and although female sports can be overshadowed a lot of the time, she has brought an excitement with her that extends to the local area residents of Atlanta who watched her play all through high school, as well. The girls’ team is undefeated and there’s no reason to think they will slow down any time soon. Mike continues to try and support everyone’s games and the girls have one as soon as the semester starts that everyone comes out for, against one of the school rivals. Ovaughn has continued to work with Shante and tries to continually get the boys team to support the female team. Kennedy and the track team do the same in support of their teammate. Duc isn’t missing any opportunities to pass out fliers or build on his connection with the athletes at school. Chris is always around, and Carlos never wants to miss a big event. At this point Jairus wants to spend some time in group settings with Lisa so he makes sure she and her friends come out to the game once he talks to her back at school. Attending sporting events is a big thing for their group of friends because they are so connected to them, and it is somewhat of a bonding ritual for the group at times. It still starts off feeling very distant to her since he’s still avoiding being alone with her to start the semester.
Just like Shante, Ovaughn’s season is also going well. The boys’ team isn’t undefeated, but they are within a couple of games of first place in the division with plenty of time to catch up. More importantly to the group is how well of a season Ovaughn is having with his first season as a starter. Kennedy, Shante and the fellas couldn’t be prouder of him. He’s the second leading scorer and second in assists on the team. He’s also continued to prove himself as a clutch player when things are close at the end of games, being heralded as a great decision maker by the coaches. The team's chemistry is growing game by game and they make a point to go out to eat to celebrate each win, followed by partying if it falls on the weekend. Ovaughn still has a habit of cutting out early if he has something to do with the fellas or Kennedy though. He’s experiencing everything he hoped for when putting in all that work to get onto the team. His friends are also doing all they can to support his games and start off the season in numbers because the boys' team is the biggest sporting event on campus this time of the year.
For Duc it seems like his business is growing and getting better right along with the basketball teams. He’s learning more and more of the party promotion game from Malik and growing the audience for Chaotic Harmony more every week gaining the trust of more of the band members who are beginning to consider having him manage them as well and not just Riley. The only thing not going as he would like is his love life. He still has to check himself at times because he was never looking for a relationship, but he continues to find himself longing for the attention of Samantha. So rather than just putting himself in situations where he will be around her and hoping for something he starts to press the issue a bit more. He begins to make a point to compliment her more and to even ask her to casually go eat when the opportunity arises. He still has apprehensions about her ethnicity, but he reasons in his mind that it would be just friends hanging out to mentally get past it. She is still not very open to it, seemingly making a point to keep a safe distance between them. The situation with Riley is exactly the opposite now. She is back to flirting with him regularly, but it feels very benign in nature. It’s as if she decided the rule they made was out the window after their conversation about Samantha. She wasn’t aggressive but she didn’t believe the “don’t mix business with pleasure” stance was real for him anymore so why was she going to act differently than she wanted. Especially since she knew he was not willing to mess up their business together.
This became the regular mode of operations for all the fellas as the first month of the semester passes. Mike has now reached 21 and everyone starts to congregate more and more at Duc’s apartment on the weekend now that he can buy alcohol. Mike even has a key to the apartment that Duc got for the fellas so they can get in if they want when he is working late nights at a party. One of them generally picks up Jairus since he doesn’t have a car. Jairus spends a lot of time there avoiding his issues. For Ovaughn’s last game of the month the fellas are intending to attend the game and go back to the apartment and chill with friends. They are trying to be lowkey after partying the last couple of weeks and Duc has to work at a club and won’t be off until late anyway.
The majority of the group attends the game at 7 o’clock that night with Duc planning to leave early. Mike is supposed to let everyone into the apartment that evening until he gets home. However, during the game Lisa pulls Jairus to the side. “What do y’all have planned after the game tonight?”
“Nothing much. We’re just going to hangout at Duc’s spot.”
“Can you come over tonight? I was hoping we could really talk about…us.”
A random “can we talk” is not typically something anybody wants to hear but with the state of their relationship he knows it has to happen eventually. He can’t avoid it forever and this doesn’t feel like a fed-up woman. It feels more like someone who is sad and wants to save things between them. So, he agrees. He tells the fellas what is up. They already feel short-handed because Carlos didn’t show up for the game and they don’t know if he will come through Duc’s apartment tonight either. Mike jokes that he isn’t going to sit around pouring his soul out to Chris all night. Once the game is over, they walk down to the court to congratulate Ovaughn on the good game and Jairus then tells him about his plans changing as well. Ovaughn is already going to be a late arrival now with the team going out to eat for their normal ritual after a victory. With this being a Saturday night and Kennedy already having plans with her girls he is now considering going out to party with his teammates. The fellas understand and he says he will try to come through afterwards around the time Duc will likely arrive.
After talking to his friends, Ovaughn hurries back to the locker room and finds a celebration waiting as the coach is giving him the game ball for his performance that night. He enjoys the brief celebration, showers and finds out where the team is going to eat dinner. Acting like he is in a rush he is one of the first players to leave the gym after the home game. As he heads across campus, he calls Kennedy to see if she has left to go out with her friends yet.
“Hey babe. What’s up?”
“Did y’all head out yet?”
He could almost hear her smile through the phone. “Are you outside of my dorm yet?”
Now he is smiling from ear to ear. “Am I that obvious?”
“That’s why I love you babe. I’ll be down in a second.”
Kennedy comes down all dressed up and ready to go out. Ovaughn is in awe of how good she is looking that night. He jokes that he needs to take her upstairs to “mess her outfit up” so she won’t forget what she has to come home to. They laugh a couple of times and share a few deep embraces then part ways with a romantic kiss and sharing an I love you with one another. Ovaughn then heads directly to his car in the parking lot closest to his dorm room and heads out to meet his team. The team was at a local pizza spot that they loved to frequent after victories. In the midst of all the joking, laughing, and eating they decide on the spot they are going to party and to Ovaughn’s surprise they choose the very party that Duc is working that evening. The party is at a spot that is newly renovated and renamed as a club in a large strip mall in the city. Unlike Jazzy Belles, this spot is completely intended to be a club trying to take advantage of the large parking lot like one you would find at a Walmart or Target with all the concrete base light poles throughout.
Ovaughn and the team arrive and pleasantly surprise Duc who had no idea they would be there. He doesn’t let that stop him from getting the bartender to hook them up with a round of drinks, on the house. Duc also gets the team into the VIP access area that is set up that evening trying to make sure they have the best experience celebrating their victory, but more importantly to him he is celebrating one of his best friends. The night goes great for all until, after a couple of hours, a couple of guys start a commotion on the dance floor. From a distance the fight seems to be over a girl, but they can’t really tell and don’t want to find out. Unfortunately, the situation changes the mood of the evening as things seem to get serious at one point. Some of the team members decide to leave and a lot of the people in the club feel the same mood change. It is after midnight at this point and Ovaughn decides it is probably best for him to leave as a crowd is starting to leave as well, even though the offenders have been kicked out.
As he walks down the parking lot to his car, which is strategically near the end of most of the parked cars, Ovaughn hears some yelling he can’t make out starting up again across the parking lot. The crowd now outside the club starts to move a bit faster as people make it to their cars and so does Ovaughn. But just before he reaches his car Ovaughn hears a few more shouts followed by gunshots exploding into the air. He doesn’t know where they are coming from or where they are aiming the shots. All he knows is everyone starts running and he needs to get out of there immediately. He hops into his car and starts the ignition as he hears a couple more shots ring out. He slams his foot on the gas steering around other cars trying to escape and starts across the parking lot towards the bottleneck exit. Suddenly his car is hit by another car trying to speed away, hitting his car in the front driver side like an L shape. The impact of the hit slams his head against the driver's window, splintering the glass, and then snaps his neck and head back the other way as his hand loses control of the wheel with his foot still on the pedal. His car speeds into one of the concrete light pole bases in the middle of the parking lot, destroying the front of his car and causing his airbags to deploy.
14
“What Planet Is He From”
The phone rings to wake up a young girl in a dorm room by herself. It’s early and she has to get up for her first day of work in the work study program she is assigned to as a part of her scholarship program. Generally, a university as renowned as this one prefers scholarship students to focus completely on studies and not work at all. But she’s different. Not just because she’s a black girl on full scholarship at a predominantly white institution. Not even because she graduated high school a year early and was the salutatorian of her class. No, she’s different because she is young and has the focus and drive of someone who’s more experienced. Someone who knows better than to waste a great opportunity. Which is why after completing her freshman year of pre-med biology she decided to add a double major in business finance. She worked with her parents during her second semester to get the university to allow her to take summer courses so she can still graduate in four years with two degrees. This first summer she will be doing multiple jobs on campus while she is taking her courses. They pay for additional summer classes every year maintaining her monthly stipend and she works for the university during those summer programs when they are short staffed.
When she eventually answers the phone that morning she hears the voice of her mother, Miriam, making sure she is awake and getting ready for her first day of work that starts in about an hour. The call was no surprise because she had asked her family to call her as this was her first job ever and she didn’t want to mess anything up, especially with so much to lose. Her mother gave her some strong words of encouragement and prayed with her for a successful first day and entire summer. She then finished the conversation with her daughter saying something she always said to her. “God blessed you. I just have to love you, Niecey.” Like many black families at that time, they find their strength through their faith, and never shy away from letting people know it. Niecey is a product of that environment and follows their lead in operating as a devout Christian although at the age of 17 she is intrigued by what the world has to offer just as much.
Niecey gets ready for work and makes her way across campus to the cafeteria for her first day of work. She is working the breakfast shift because that works best with her summer class schedule. She will also work in the bookstore on the weekends and as a teacher’s assistant some days. She arrives at the cafeteria prior to opening and they place everyone in different positions for the shift. She ends up working at one of the registers where people come up to pay for their food. A mundane position she just sits at her register until a customer comes up ready to pay or provide a valid student ID. They quickly show her how to work the manual register to collect payments from the students and staff coming to breakfast and leave her to it. The morning shift is uneventful the majority of the time but naturally being her first day she doesn’t know what to expect. She finds herself becoming bored as she waits for the cafeteria to get busy. Not long into her shift she sees a young man who catches her eye in the crowd. She thinks he’s the most attractive black guy she’s seen on campus since she started school there the previous fall. He’s a 6’1” chocolate brown brotha with broad shoulders like a football player and confidence about him that you can see from a mile away. He is clean cut and seems to dress differently than most of the guys she’s used to being around in Washington D.C. It’s a different sense of style. It’s clear he isn’t from anywhere local. She is instantly intrigued by his presence, and he eventually notices her gazing in his direction. Embarrassed when she realizes he noticed her checking him out, she gets flustered and tries to act like she has something else occupying her attention. So much so, that she doesn’t notice he is now checking her out before he goes out of sight as he walks to the food line.
When he finally gets his food and makes his way to the register, he makes a point to go in her line. She sees him approaching her line and is instantly flustered all over again looking around for something to do. He gets to the register, and they commence having one of the most awkward first conversations either of them has had before. He starts with a simple greeting.
“Hello,” he says.
“Hey.”
They stand in silence for a second with dumb grins on their faces before realizing they aren’t saying anything.
“Oh, I guess I gotta get this food.”
Niecey wants to say something more but won’t dare be the one to try to initiate anything between them, so she just looks at him with the same big grin on her face until he asks how much he owes. That question pulls her out of her daze for a moment as she tells him the price for breakfast. He thanks her and begins to walk away and wanting to say something she blurts out the first thing that came to mind. “Let me know how the food is.”
He turns back with a look of confusion as he assumes she would know since she works in the cafeteria. “Umm… okay,” he replies before walking off. She is completely embarrassed by the interaction as he walks away. Eventually she replays the entire encounter in her mind and just laughs at herself and how nervous she is hoping that she won’t cross paths with him anymore with all the people around campus. At least that’s what she tells herself even though she knows she will be spending a lot of time working in the cafeteria that summer. She even laughs about it on the phone with her older sister, Reesa, after she gets back to her room that evening.
Reesa is just over five years older than Niecey, and despite the age difference, she is still one of the closest people to her. She also happens to be one of the few people that Niecey looks up to. Not because she is more accomplished than her or has done anything academically that Niecey is trying to do. It’s more about her always looking out for her and helping her through the emotional and personal stuff in life. The stuff that has generally been more difficult for Niecey to navigate. That’s the stuff that Reesa has had to figure out at a young age and is wiser than expected for someone who just turned 23. She is also in her first year of marriage to her high school sweetheart and expecting their first child at the end of the year. Reesa has grown up fast and every decision she has made has seemed like the right one to Niecey. So naturally she looks to her for advice on all her questions about love and relationships. She has little to no experience in the area.
Reesa tells Niecey she will see the guy again and it’s not over, so she needs to have something better to talk about next time. She also tells her to just be pleasant and let him come to her. She wants to know that he wants to talk to her and not feel like he is simply entertaining someone who is throwing themselves at him. She knows her sister is right but a part of her just hopes he never pops up again so that she won’t have to address how awkward the first encounter was. She will learn quickly that won’t be the case. She assumes when she doesn’t see him at breakfast again the next couple of times she works in the cafeteria it is behind her but at the end of that week she has to do her first day as a teacher’s assistant and as the students walk into the midday course, there he is sitting front and center. Each of the students working as T.A.’s only has to do one day a week for the summer programs so she hasn’t been in this class earlier that week and has no idea he will be there. He doesn’t even notice her at first since she is sitting at the side of the classroom but when he does see her, she sees when he does a double take. It makes her smile. Maybe he has given the encounter just as much thought as she has. At least he remembers her from the other morning. And now he can see her outside of the plain uniform they make them wear to work in the cafeteria.
The class ends and the students are instructed to pick up a handout from Niecey as they exit. Just as she hopes, he makes a point of being one of the last ones to leave the class. What she doesn’t know is that he indeed has been thinking about the encounter but is just as unsure about everything. He isn’t sure what her awkward comments meant and hopes she isn’t just saying something to be nice because she doesn’t want to be bothered. Either way he is going to find out because he hasn’t stopped thinking about her big brown eyes since that first day in the cafeteria as well as how white her teeth look peaking over her full lips as she smiles at him with deep dimples on both cheeks. The image is stuck in his mind and as he approaches, she looks at him bashfully and gives him that same grin from a few days prior. He walks up reaching for the paper and simply says, “I thought the food was just okay. Not worth the price, though.”
She burst into laughter covering her mouth with her hand.
