Chapter 15

Lux finally returned home after most of the day at Sasha’s, and while she didn’t want to leave she knew she had to eventually. With her book bag over her shoulder, she pushed back the creaky screen door letting anyone in the living room that someone was coming in.

Her brows furrowed at the sight of her mom on the couch along with her little sister, Luna. Her GG sat in her rocking chair as always, her head dived into the CVS circular as she looked at the upcoming week’s sales.

“Where ya been at lil girl?” GG pushed her glasses down the bridge of her nose.

“I was at a sleepover, I told you about it” Lux rolled her eyes.

Hearing her sister’s voice, Luna popped her head up and ran towards her.

“Lux!” She smiled, wrapping her arms around her legs.

“Hey mommas” Lux smirked, running her hands over the four year old’s hair.

“You just leave, without telling people where you’re going?” Her mother asked, beginning to light her cigarette in the room.

“I just said I told her”

“I don’t remember” her grandmother interjected, “But either way, grab my purse and take a run down to the CVS to get me some things before the sale ends”

“Do I have to? I’m tired” She fussed, throwing her bag down onto the couch.

“Yes, you have to. And take Luna, she’s been in the house all day”

Lux rolled her eyes into her head, but did as her Grandmother told her. She reached for the purse, and GG located the access card and handed it over.

“Get everything, I circled” She said, handing over the circular, “It shouldn’t be too much. Oh and take the stroller, that way you can put some of it in the back”

Lux groaned, but again just did as she was told.

She strapped Luna into her stroller once they were on the sidewalk, and began her route to the pharmacy. She was grateful that it was still a little early, as the sun was still out and the neighborhood kids were running around.

It was around five, and she wanted to hurry and do the task so she could get back and start her homework. She was surprisingly doing well in school so far, and she was glad because the more she saw the demise of her mother, the more she wanted to do better for herself in life. Everyone expected her to be knocked up by now, or at least expelled with the track record that Lux had years prior. However she proved everyone wrong, and she had to thank both Sasha and definitely herself for that.

After making it to the store, Lux completed the shopping efficiently and was on her way home. On the way back she decided to take the short cut, and her and Luna wound up passing the park.

“Park!” Luna tugged onto the gate as she rode past.

“Not today, Lu. Tomorrow” Lux half promised her.

With a book report from her english class due on Monday, she was expecting to be spending the entire day and a half in her room.

“Please” she said sweetly, her eyes wide as she turned around in the stroller.

“Fine, but only for ten minutes. Turn around” Lux said giving in.

She pulled into the park, and let Luna out of the stroller. She decided to give her some time to play as she sat on the bench, since she didn’t get to get out that much. As far as she could tell Luna was ecstatic, as she climbed the small slide and pushed herself down. She called for Lux to watch her, and Lux let het know that she was.

“You’re doing good!” She shouted as Luna made her swing go higher all by her self.

She stood up and decided to push her once her feet got tired of kicking, and Lux couldn’t help but roll her eyes as she witnessed unwanted company heading her way.

“Ay, I ain’t even see you” Don chuckled, jogging over from the basketball court. He couldn’t help but notice Lux as she arose from the park bench only a few feet from the court, her signature curly bun adorning her pretty face. After telling his boys he’d be back, he didn’t hesitate to talk her up.

“You don’t see me” Lux smirked, beginning to push Luna on the swing.

“Trust me, I see you”

She rolled her eyes as he made his way closer, and then begin to play peekaboo with Luna on the swing.
“Don’t talk to strangers, Luna” Lux joked.

She knew that Luna was comfortable with Don, however she would prefer if he would go away.

“A stranger huh?” Don snickered, “So, you’re going to move in with a stranger then. Your brother told me about you being our third roommate”

“Possibly, what does that concern you?”

“It means we get to spend more time together” he smirked.

“No, it means I’ll be living with my brother. So if you try anything, I’ll tell him”

“Wow, you really acting brand new” he scoffed, clearly offended.

“Boy”

“I don’t know why you keep playing. What happened to all that you was saying. You loved me, you ~”

“Don, it was last summer. I don’t look at you like that anymore. Plus, I’m in a relationship” she shrugged.

Don squinted his eyes as he attempted to read her.

Lux on the other hand continued to push her little sister, hoping the news would cause him to walk away.

“Let me guess, you gay now. What’s that, the trend?” He snickered.

He remembered Sasha, and while she told him the two were friends he was smarter than that. He wasn’t surprised, as now and days all the girls were saying they had girlfriends, however were still messing with niggas around the way. He figured whatever phase Lux was going through it would quickly be over, and she would be running back to him.

She was relieved when Luna asked to stop swinging, and she strapped her in the stroller so the two could hurry back home.

“Don’t worry about what I am” Lux told him as she began to stroll away, “Just know I don’t want you”

“We’ll see” Don shouted before returning to the basketball courts.

Lux shook her head as she laughed painfully to herself, and decided maybe moving in with her brother wouldn’t be a good idea after all.

And while she definitely wanted to get away from her mother, she would rather put up with that then being annoyed by Don all day. Plus, she didn’t want anything to mess up her new relationship with Sasha. Things were going good, and all she needed was for bad habits or people to change that.

She hurried home, and had just enough time to jump in bed to start her homework. She sat with her legs pretzel style on the twin sized bed, her bowl of noodles cradled in between as she read over the chapter for African American Literature; And found that she was actually enjoying reading the chapters and debating with her friends on their viewpoints during class.

As she followed her eyes along the words of the book, her mother strolled down the steps sloppily, her flip flops creating a flapping sound against the wood.

“What you reading?” She asked, taking a seat on the inflated bed.

She sipped the beer that was attached to her hand, and Lux didn’t move her eyes from the book.

“It’s for school” she answered.

“Let ya momma see what they got you reading in this new school”

Yolanda gestured for Lux to hand her the book, and just for her own amusement she did so.

She watched as her mom skimmed the book, and she wondered if she could even comprehend the chapter based on the fact she dropped out in ninth grade. After a few more minutes of looking completely confused, she rolled her eyes and handed the book over.

“Whatever the hell that is, it ain’t gon help you” she spat, “they need to be teaching ya’ll asses how you gon pay bills once you get out in the real world. Cause all that other shit is useless”

“Well I like it” Lux shrugged.

“You can like a lot of things Lux it doesn’t mean it’s good for you”

“You would know” she replied sarcastically, and Yolanda scrunched up her face at the slight shade.

“Yeah I fucking would know, I had to carry all of you and take care of you. School ain’t help me with that”

“Mhhh hmmm” Lux pretended to listen as she read the rest of the chapter.

“None of ya’ll daddies wanted to help, I wish I had that option. Sheiitt” she snickered, throwing the rest of the beer back, “That’s why, you need to stay away from these lil boys. My momma been telling me about you hanging with someone from school every day ~”

“Mom, as much as I would love to talk about whatever you’re talking about, I have to finish this homework. So please”

The last thing Lux wanted to hear was her mother’s rambling, especially about stuff she didn’t care about or want to talk about. She also knew her mom was just in another drunken mood, where she wanted to talk to hear herself. Lux always hated that, and after not seeing her for so long she wasn’t surprised to see it never stopped. And while Lux used to not want to hurt her mom’s feelings, not this time. Not if she was going to be forced to be with her majority of the time when she was home.

“I just told you ~”

“I don’t care what you told me” Lux raised her voice a bit, “You haven’t been here physically in months, and mentally, well never. Just because we’re sharing a room, doesn’t mean I want to hear your stupid speeches about stuff you’ve never even done. Like going to school, or being a parent, or ….”

Seeing the hurt expression on her mother’s face, Lux quickly calmed down and immediately realized she was being super harsh. She didn’t mean to snap, however she really needed to get this work done and it was hard with her mom being annoying.

“Sorry” she whispered, picking her book back up.

Yolanda just retreated back upstairs, and while Lux felt bad she was slightly relieved. She rushed to finish her homework while she had peace, and once she was done, Sasha was calling her right on time.

“Hey, did Quan revolt against the peace treaty yet?” Lux joked as she fell back against her bed.

“Not as of yet” Sasha chuckled, “But I’ll let you know. What you up to?”

“Just got finished doing my homework, and I had to hurt my mom’s feelings in order to do so. I didn’t mean it, but she was going on and on” she said dramatically, “I don’t know how I’m going to survive here”

“You’re being dramatic”

“Actually I’m not…that’s the sad part”

“Welp think about it this way…we have 158 days left” Sasha said, trying to look on the bright side.

Lux raised her brow, “Until when exactly?”

“Until we graduate”

“And then what?” Lux asked, not exactly catching Sasha’s drift.

“We’ll be going to college and away from our families. Miles and miles away” Sasha sighed pleasantly.

Luz twisted her mouth, as she never thought about going to college and didn’t have any plans on it. Besides, she barely passed the three grades before, and she wasn’t sure if she could even get into college.

Whereas Sasha talked about college all the time, and how she couldn’t wait to play ball on campus, or be miles away from Philly in her dorm room which couldn’t be randomly invaded by her dad. It definitely sounded like something Lux could get into, however she was sure she would never even get accepted into a college.

“Right” Lux chuckled uneasily, “But then we’ll be miles away from each other two”

Sasha didn’t respond at first, and Lux’s brows furrowed.

“Maybe not. We could always apply to the same colleges, and if not…I’ll always be a call away. I promise”

“Ouuu, you promise?” Lux cooed, “Now you know you have to keep that promise right?”

“That’s what I intend to do” Sasha chuckled flirtatiously, her cute and raspy laugh causing Lux to blush.

“Well okay then, does that count for tomorrow too? Because I’m tired” Lux asked with a slight yawn, and pulled her sheets back.

“Yeah it can, I’ll call you”

“Okay” she yawned a bigger yawn, “Oh and Sash?”
“Yeah?” Sasha asked just before hanging up.

“If we’re roomies in college, you’re going to have to learn to control your snoring”

“Ahhh, funny” Sasha laughed sarcastically, “Goodnight palm tree head”

Lux giggled, and she said goodnight before disconnecting the call. She smiled to herself as she laid back onto her bed after turning off the light.
College. She thought to herself.

Again, she never thought about it. But Sasha had a way of making her feel like she could do anything. She made a note to visit the counselor to see her options on Monday, and right before falling asleep she whispered something out loud.

“157 days” she sighed pleasantly, “Until college”

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