Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
As she exited the class, she heard heavy thuds approaching. Looking over her shoulder, just enough to take a discreet peek, she noticed him now almost right behind her. Either he moves like lightning, or I move too damn slow.
“Well, ain’t you pretty as a peach?” he said in a deep voice drenched in a rich Southern pride.
She turned to face him, but he’d already turned around, walking in the other direction. Just as she thought maybe he wasn’t talking to her after all, he yelled out her name.
She quickly spun around and looked him in his eye.
“Yes? What is it?”
He was several feet away now, walking backwards, away from her. A slick smirk on his face.
“I heard the professor call your name when you asked that French guy a question.”
“And? Is there something you need?”
I don’t want this attention. I don’t want this attention! I don’t want this attention!
She lied to herself, almost convinced of her own fabrications.
“Nah, I don’t need anything, pretty lady. I just wanted to tell you it’s a nice name is all. It suits you.”
“Thank you…”
“You’re welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow, Desiree… And don’t be so mean. I’m just bein’ friendly, beautiful. Enjoy the rest of your day.” He winked, then walked off just as smooth as he pleased…
Chapter Four
“Mama, I don’t want this, and I don’t need this. Why do you keep giving them to me?” Legend angrily tossed the gas station job application in the overflowing trashcan before walking out of his mother’s kitchen, into the living room that was filled with trinkets and photos of people he barely knew.
Mama’s house often smelled like bacon grease and strawberry potpourri. At that moment, he found the mixture rather nauseating. He plopped down on the soft blue couch, biding his time, hearing some rustling about in the kitchen, and the woman talking under her breath.
“You need to get a job.” She came around the corner, her platinum blond and gray wavy hair pinned up in a sloppy bun. Sitting across from him, her coffee and cigarette in hand, she blinked a few times before taking a taste from her green mug.
“I have a job. I’m also in school. I’ve told you that at least ten times now.” He reached in his pocket and lit a cigar.
“No. You work for Axel. You need to do you, a personal thing. A job of your own.”
“Workin’ for somebody else? You think I’d own the gas station for the application you just gave me? Or the retail store one you gave me two weeks ago? That’s not how this works.”
“I know that, Legend!” She gritted her teeth, as if she wanted to curse him out but was restraining herself. “I’m saying though, you’d be independent from your friends. Somethin’ just for you. Pullin’ yourself up by the bootstraps.”
“What does it matter if he helped me or not? Work is work, and at least he’s someone I can trust. I don’t know what this shit is ’tween you ’nd Axel. It’s been going on since we were kids. You acted funny around him, like it was some personal vendetta. Truth be told, he kept me out of more trouble than I would’ve been in.”
She rolled her eyes and puffed on her cigarette. “That’s hard to believe, considerin’ he did the same dumb shit you did. Runnin’ away from home. Fightin’. Absenteeism from school. Caspian, too.” She sucked her teeth. “Though he was a nicer boy than Axel. Axel’s mama is stuck-up. She always thought she was better than the rest of us.”
“No she’s not, and here you go, doggin’ ’er out, all ’cause she and you got into it, like back in 1995 or some shit. I stayed with her when you kicked me out, and you didn’t like that, either. The whole reason I’m in school in the first damn place is so that I can do my own thing, so what is your problem? I have ambitions, and a plan. You just can’t be happy for me… always tryna ruin shit.”
“That cookin’ school just seems like a waste of money to me is all. You can get on-the-job trainin’ at almost any restaurant, and be workin’ and gettin’ the education at the same time. Applebee’s and what not train their cooks on the spot.” He sighed and looked up at the ceiling, chasing the rings of smoke from his cigar with his gaze. “Melanie said you paid a lot of money to get into that there school, and you took some tests ’nd all. Just seems like a waste of time and resources, if you ask me.”
“I wish I never came over here. Always some bullshit.” He leaned forward and stuck his cigar in an ashtray, extinguishing the flame.
Her cheeks drew taut, then she began to chew on her lower lip. The older woman crossed her legs in her red leggings so skintight, they looked sheer in some spots. Mama rocked her bare foot back and forth as she smoked her cigarette, staring off at the television channel that was showing some soap opera.