Can’t wait to see you.
Love,
Lisa Kearsey
P.S. Just in case you were wondering, I got your address from the campus directory at school.
Jairus folds the letter up and puts it in his dresser drawer. He then grabs a sheet of paper and begins to write a reply to Lisa’s letter. Just as he begins to write, his cousin Russell comes into his room and asks him to ride to the Mall with him. Jairus agrees. They leave along with Damaris and Tammy and head for the mall. On the way there Jairus tells his sister and cousins about the letter. They are his siblings, so he tells them about almost everything. Russell laughs and Damaris makes fun of him, but Tammy thinks it is sweet. She is a lot more mature than Russell and Damaris, especially since she had her baby Marlon.
“The two of you need to shut the hell up laughin’ at Jerry just because you don’t have anybody. Don’t even worry about what they say Jerry, you are lucky to have someone who likes you that much. It’s hard to find somebody like that. I wish my lazy ass boyfriend had been more romantic.”
Russell and Damaris are quiet for the rest of the car ride to the mall and Jairus tells his family a little more about Lisa. All he can think about now is what the letter means. Did she really just want to know how he is doing or does she want to make sure he isn’t doing anything with someone else? Does she expect him to pour out his feelings in his reply to her letter and if he doesn’t, will she be mad? She ended the letter with “Love” but she can’t possibly be in love already, can she? Does the letter mean that they are supposed to be together or is she not looking that deep into it? Is he overthinking things again? He wonders about these things, but his siblings can only tell him to ask her. That is the last thing Jairus wants to do.
After a few days of thinking about what he wants to say and getting Tammy’s opinion, Jairus eventually writes Lisa back. His letter isn’t nearly as open and vulnerable as hers, but it gets the point across. He tells her he thought about her some and mostly writes about what he, Duc, Mike, and Ovaughn did during the summer so far. For the rest of the summer Jairus focuses on spending his time with his family. Talking to his grandfather lying on his bed, spending his money on clothes with Damaris and Tammy, partying with Russell on the weekends and keeping his mother and aunt company on his days off. He occasionally talks to his friends and listens to stories of how exciting their summers are going. A part of him is jealous when he thinks about how uneventful his summer has been.
On one of the many days he doesn’t have much excitement he decides to stop by a convenience store on his way home from work. He stops by to get some chips and a soda and as he is leaving, he comes face to face with Tania as she is walking into the store. He is instantly shocked as if he has seen a ghost and freezes in place. She has the same reaction. He never gave much thought to having to run into her again and how he would react so he said nothing.
“How have you been?” she asked.
“So you had the baby… It’s funny that you knew the baby wasn’t mine without even taking a blood test.”
“I got pregnant in August when you were running around trying to get everything ready for school and then left for school.”
“So you cheated on me while I was still here. Not because I was so far away and you were lonely.”
“Jerry, I was scared. You were going all the way to Atlanta to go to college with thousands of people. I thought you would get down there and find some girl and leave me behind. I may never get out of D.C., and I know you don’t want to be here for the rest of your life. I guess...I guess I was just trying to move on.”
“It hurts me that you have so little faith in me. I love you! I would’ve done anything for you! Including spending the rest of my life in D.C. Didn’t you know that anywhere I would have gone you would have ended up there with me? No matter what. Isn’t that what love is! That’s all I wanted from you! You couldn’t even talk to me about it?”
As he is talking, tears are constantly running down his face.
Tania grabs him and hugs him, but he doesn’t hug back. He pulls away and walks to his car without another word spoken. As he is getting into the car he looks back and sees tears running down her face and they catch eyes. As he drives away, he looks at her in the rearview mirror and reads her lips saying, “I love you, too.”
That is the last time he sees her that summer.
When he gets back to his apartment, he greets his family and goes up the hill to his Aunt’s house to talk to Papa Tom. He always goes to his grandfather when he needs someone to talk to about things he feels are serious. He knows that he has lived through a lot in his life, and he is the only male figure that has always been constant in his life. When he enters the house, Papa Tom is sitting in his recliner without a shirt watching television as usual. He tells Jairus to come in and asks him what is wrong. Jairus tells him what just happened at the liquor store as if he thinks something is wrong with him for crying over Tania.
“As I said before you’re going through this for a reason son, it will make you a stronger man,” he says. “Don’t think that because you showed emotion you’re weak, sometimes a man just has to learn to let the emotion out. The craziest things you will ever do in your life will be over a woman. They just have that effect on us. Wait until the next one comes along. Knowing you she will have a time trying to get close to you. But always remember you’ll never know if the next one will do you right, but you do know the last one won’t. So, take that into account when you puttin’ that next girl through hell. She shouldn’t have to pay for what Tania did.”
Jairus just sits there the entire time listening to his grandfather’s advice and as usual it makes him feel a hundred times better. And with those words he tries to put the situation out of his mind. ***
When time starts to roll around for school to start, Duc finally comes home from New York and he and Jairus go out one last time to have fun at home before they go back to Atlanta. They even link up with Tim, Paul, and a few others from school on that last night out. Before it is time to go back to school Lisa writes Jairus another letter about how she can’t wait to see him and how she saved up over the summer and bought herself a car. Jairus only has a week and a half before school starts so he saw no reason to write Lisa back. He can tell her everything soon enough.
The week and a half rolls by fast and after some long goodbyes Duc and Jairus find themselves driving back to Atlanta in the Explorer Duc bought from his father with the money he made on his short internship. It is really just some money that his sister gave him but put it through the company so that it will look legit and so he can put it on his resume. His father intentionally lowers the price of the car because he wants to reward him for the good grades from his freshman year. Even though he is rewarding him, he still gives him a lecture about not having his head in the clouds after being in New York with his sister this summer. Duc feels like nothing is ever good enough for his father. He finds himself anxious to leave and get back to his independence at school. Both Duc and Jairus can’t wait to get back to school and see all their friends that they haven’t seen since school got out in May.
6
“Especially After What Happened Last Semester”
It is three days before class starts and the atmosphere on campus is just as it was the year before. Only for Jairus and Duc it is all too familiar now. Freshman year seeing all the people walking around talking to each other and meeting new people seemed so foreign. It was like a different world. Now it’s more like returning home. They know exactly where they are and how to get around and can’t understand why it ever seemed so confusing before. The only difference now is the “new” unfamiliar faces. Duc would be in the middle of all the meeting and greeting if he and Jairus could only find Mike and Ovaughn. They are all supposed to arrive on the same day but neither Jairus nor Duc has seen either one. So, the dynamic duo continues their search for the other members of the fantastic four until they get near the cafeteria and see Mike sitting outside talking to some girl. As they approach Ovaughn comes out of the caf and sees them coming.
“My niggas! It’s ‘bout time y’all got here. We been here chillin’ all day. I know you saw the stuff in the rooms,” says Ovaughn. Mike then greets his friends with handshakes and half hugs and introduces his friends to Monique. She is a sophomore psychology major and her and Mike met each other in a very long line in the campus bookstore and after talking to each other in line for 30 minutes she decided to go to the caf with Mike to meet Ovaughn. Mike and Monique exchange phone numbers and she leaves with a few of her friends who are passing by.
Duc and Jairus haven’t eaten yet, so they go into the caf and Mike and Ovaughn sit with them. They catch up on how each other’s summers ended and talk about how much they are going to party this semester. Ovaughn then tells them about seeing these guys doing all these extensive handshakes and says they should make up their own just for them. Jairus and Mike instantly start laughing and say that they don’t want to play with anybody’s hand just for a handshake. Duc takes up for Ovaughn and that is all it takes to get them to stop laughing. He convinces them the idea isn’t bad as long as it isn’t anything long and drawn out. Duc is good at convincing people to do things. He can probably convince a blind man to buy a movie ticket if you put him to the challenge. So, the fellas let Ovaughn make up the handshake since it is his idea. He always gives people a pound when he sees them so instead of a regular pound with one fist on top of the other. He says they should give each other a pound and change it up by giving two pounds on the backsides of each other’s fists. From that day on that would be the way the four young men greet each other, and it will eventually come to symbolize the friendship and brotherhood they share with each other.
They then change the conversation to the usual topic of women. As expected, the first woman they talk about is Lisa.
“I saw your girl walkin’ across campus earlier today. First thing out of her mouth was, ‘Is Jairus here yet?’ She told me her and her girls were gonna be chillin’ in the caf today,” said Mike.
Duc laughs about Jairus acting like he doesn’t want to see her when he knows he does. Ovaughn on the other hand still wants to know what was in the letter she sent him this summer. Jairus just ignores them all and claims that he and Lisa are just friends. By now he has made his own assumptions about what the letter meant, and he thinks that she may be getting a little ahead of where he is. So, he plans to slow it down some before he is in over his head in another committed relationship. He then changes the subject to Mike’s new friend.
“So what’s up wit’ that broad you were posted up wit’ outside. What was her name, Monique.”
Mike then starts to tell the guys how they met in the bookstore and that they are just friends and she even has a boyfriend. Her boyfriend is some guy named Terrence who is a business major, too. Mike knew a few guys with that name, so he isn’t sure if he knows him or not. When he is explaining it, he doesn’t sound sure of what he is saying. The mood at the table gets quiet after Jairus tells Mike he shouldn’t be messing with other people’s girls. Ovaughn thought that he shouldn’t do it because it might start beef between Mike and her boyfriend. Duc then says, “I know you gonna do what you want regardless, and you say you just friends but it’s hard as shit to turn down some ass. So, in a situation like this I just say reverse the roles. If she was your girl and he didn’t know you, do you think he would fuck your girl?”
Just as Duc was finishing his sentence, Lisa and her friends Ashley and Shana walked up to the table. “Wassup fellas? I figured I’d find the four of you together. Where is Rob and Paul, or your boy Chris” says Lisa.
Mike replies telling her that Chris is coming back late and they haven’t seen Rob or Paul yet.
“So let me go head and get everybody’s number while we all here,” says Lisa.
“I haven’t got my number yet but I guess I can get it to you if I see you in class,” Jairus responds quickly.
Ovaughn then jumps in and says “I got it already, it’s 573-1239.”
“Jairus, if you don’t want me to have it, I don’t have to call you.”
