Chapter 2 2

I had to babysit my little brother. Instead of sitting inside all day, I decided to strap him into his stroller and head outside for some fresh air. We went for a stroll around the park until I spotted my friend sitting at a table and decided to join her.

There were several teens playing tennis nearby. I stayed as close to the fence as I could to avoid getting hit by a stray ball until I could reach the table.

"Why so gloomy sis?" My friend spoke out on my obvious expression.

"George found us." I muttered my response.

"So George found where y'all living at, big deal." She responded, not caring to understand how this affected us. "Did he hit her again?" She looked in my direction, waiting for my response.

"No." I muttered while looking down.

"So, like I said, big deal." She was a little on the cocky side which didn't really help with my current situation.

She looked past me and got an instant smile on her face. Her cheeks turned rosie red and she looked away almost instantly. "Oh shit." That came out with a small laugh.

"What?" I snapped my head up quickly and looked at her in concern.

"That boy over there, drippin' solo, he's totally checkin' me out." She looked up at me again, still smiling and blushing.

"Where?" I tried to look where she was looking.

"Don't look," she shoved me a little. "He's by the railings."

I looked away to try to not look obvious.

She giggled and looked back at him again. "You see, he's so hot."

I glanced in the same direction again and saw an older looking teenage boy standing at the top of the short cement stairs in front of me about 20 feet or so away. He was tall, brown skin, bald head. He was wearing a white shirt with black designs on it, red baggy gym shorts, and black tennis shoes. This boy didn't see me looking at him because he was busy wiping the sweat from his face with a hand towel at that moment.

"You see? You see?" My friend tapped me excitedly while I continued to check the boy out from a distance. "Watch this," she stated as she started to get up from the table.

Are you kidding me? She was leaving me at the table by myself. "Where are you going?" I rushed the words out before she could slip away.

"I think I'm going to go say hello," she said as she walked away.

I watched after her to see if she would actually do it or not. I'm sure she would for the simple fact that she really doesn't let anything stand in the way of what she wants. She walked over to a lady selling street Mexican food next to the stairs. I continued to watch her as she was about to say something to the boy. Then, the unexpected happened. The boy walked down the stairs and didn't even look in her direction. He, instead, was walking straight for me.

He rubbed his hands together like birdman right before he reached where I was at. "Hey," he said to me, causing me to look up again from my baby brother.

"Hey," I responded dryly.

"Is that your kid?" He looked from me to my brother and then back again.

"No." I gave him the look that would have made anyone feel dumb for asking such a dumb question. How could he think that my brother was actually my baby? Do I even look old enough for a baby? Yikes.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, right. Cuz you know, I figured you were too young to have a kid anyways, so." He scratched his head nervously and looked around.

"Then why'd you ask?" I rolled my eyes and looked at my brother before looking back at the boy.

He seemed a little nervous while I was talking. "No, I was just trying to make conversation, that's all."

That kind of made me angry, even though it shouldn't have. "How, by implying that I'm a slut?" I pursed my lips together tightly and glared at him.

"No. No. I just . . ." He gave me a small smile as his words cut off. "So, you live around here, huh?" The boy whirled his finger in the air as he spoke before crossing his arms and not taking his eyes off of me.

I nodded, still pursing my lips together and looking down at my brother. "Yeah."

"That's cool, that's cool, that's cool," he put his hands together again and looked at my baby brother.

"Is it?" I asked, looking back up at him.

He placed one of his hands on his chest, "I think so."

A long moment of silence passed as we stared at each other. It started to get a little awkward so I had to do something about it. Rudely, I stated, "Stop mackin' on me. I'm not interested." I threw my hand up and rolled my eyes again to emphasize what I was saying.

He was taken aback, as if I hurt his feelings. He took a step backwards. "Ok." Another short pause, "Look, I-I ain't mean to bother you or anything. I-I better get back to my game. M-maybe I'll see you around?" The boy pointed behind him as he was talking before lowering his head to get me to look at him.

I shrugged.

He nodded at that and turned to walk away. As he was walking away, I noticed my friend still standing by the woman selling food. She saw the entire thing. I guess he wasn't looking at her as she thought so maybe she would get over herself now. Maybe she would even be mad at me, who knows?

She walked back over to me after watching the boy climb back up the steps. She stopped in front of me and just looked at me.

"What?"

"What do you want?" She rushed out.

"Nothing. Come on, I gotta go." I picked up my brother's diaper bag and got up from the table. Grabbing the stroller, I steered it in the direction I needed to go. The boy stood at the top of the stairs with one of his friends and watched me as I walked away.