Story Macallister #2
Once the couch was delivered and I fixed the decorative pillows on it. I stood back and made a quick video to send it to Hendrix. He left earlier to meet up with his cousins and brothers. After I made the video, I went to make me a quick lunch and got dressed.
It was so hot outside, so I put on a pair of denim shorts with a halter top. I put on a pair of Gucci slip-ons with my stackable anklets. My long black hair was down in its natural fullness with a side part and my baby hairs laid.
Me and Hendrix got our cars sent here from Arizona. He paid for it, which is why I love him so much. I drove a blue Nissan LEAF that I like to call Bartholomew. Hendrix laughed for days when I named my car! I was proud of it because I saved my money for a whole year for the downpayment.
I could have had daddy or even Hendrix to pay for it. But I wanted to do it on my own. Before I took my keys out of my purse, I saw a girl struggling with getting a big box out of her car.
“I can push it and you pull.” I told her my suggestion.
“Good idea.”
I opened the other door to the backseat and started pushing the box. She pulled it and soon, it popped out.
“Thank you so much girl! I don’t know why I even put it in the backseat anyways.”
She was going into the townhouse next to mine. When she put her code in the security pad I figured she was a resident.
I held the door open for her then said, “You’re welcome, I wasn’t about to let you struggle. Are you just moving in?”
The box she was carrying was ripping on the bottom, so I helped her keep it together until we got inside her place.
“Yup, my first place alone and I’m so geeked! You can come inside.” She told me because I stood outside of her door.
I did not just want to walk in her place like a weirdo. “Me and my best friend just moved next door two weeks ago. The last of our furniture came today. It’s my first place alone too, well, not alone but without family.” I closed her door and leaned against it.
There were boxes everywhere, I liked her grey couch, it was boneless like and I saw many pictures of art against the wall. They were the typical ‘girl art,’ designer bags, heels, glitter lips kind of art. My type of style.
“I wish I did have a roommate but I’m in only child and I could not live with my mama and her girlfriend anymore. Her big he/she ass don’t know if she wants to play a good stepmom or an awful stepdad. Once I saved up enough money, my auntie cosigned and here I am.”
Dang, I already admired her. Siren was so pretty, light skin with butt length boho brown braids. I bet she was mixed with black and Samoan. Her body was slimmer than mine, but she had some curves.
“Wow, I know we just met but I’m proud of you for stepping out on your own and moving. That’s a blessing to have your aunt help you, I’m sorry I didn’t even introduce myself, Story.”
She shook my hand smiling, “Neither did I! Nice to meet you, I’m Siren. Looks like we both have unique names. And thanks for the kind words. I try not to let my upbringing shape the way I want my life to go. I’m only twenty and have much to learn but I know that much for sure.”
“I feel you. Me and my best friend moved here from Arizona. I have family here and I wanted something new. If I stayed in Arizona, then I would have kept living under my parents and humping my ex even though he has a girlfriend.” Shit.
Now why in the hell would I say that. She did not want to be my friend after that. I needed to clean it up.
“Not saying I’m someone who just sleeps with people in relationships. I promise I’m not it’s just he was my first and I have a trust problem, so I felt it was safe to jeep sleeping with him when I got horny.” I just knew I made it worse.
“Trust me I get it. My ex, Tala, was my first and it took me a year to let her go. She got pregnant and I was still messing around with her. No judgment this way.” She held her hands up laughing.
I did too and felt better about my mess. “I’m free today, I don’t start work until tomorrow. Do you need help unpacking?”
“Girl!” She came across her living room and hugged me. “Thank you so much, I picked up your energy and can tell you are a good person. Normally I sage someone before I let them into my place. But I’m not picking up any foul energy from you. To thank you, I’ll feed us on me.”
“I appreciate that. So, let’s get started.”
We got to the boxes in her living room. The layout of her place was like ours except her kitchen was a little smaller and her one bedroom was upstairs. Siren turned some music on and as we unpacked her. We talked about our families. I told her about my parents and siblings.
She then told me her mama was black and her dad was Samoan.
She had four brothers and an older sister.
Her brothers lived with their dad in Hawaii and her older sister lived here with her boyfriend.
Siren wanted to stay with her mama and things were good until her mama’s girlfriend moved in five years ago.
Between the good music, our laughs and conversation we had the boxes in her living room and dining room unpacked in no time. We used her Command strips and hung her pictures on the wall.
Then we took the boxes that we broke outside to the dumpster. When we came back in, we started talking about more personal stuff. I told her about me and Walker’s past, and she told me about her and Tala.
“Have you always been into girls?” I inquired as we started on her kitchen things.
“Girls are sexy to me, but I never had a girlfriend until Tala. Since then, I haven’t been attracted to men at all. My last boyfriend was in the ninth grade. Tala is gone, she and her baby daddy moved to Ohio.”
“Did she cheat on you or y’all were broken up when she met him?” I passed her three glass plates so she could put them in the cabinet.
“We were broken up, Tala is a femm who liked men and women. I learned my lesson, now I only date soft studs.”
“Soft studs?”
“Those are women who dress like a boy but still know and embrace them being women. In fact, my new crush is a perfect example.” Siren took her phone out then I saw her go to Instagram. “See, her name is Blake.” When she handed me her phone I looked.
“Goodness. She is gorgeous and I can see y’all together real bad.” I looked at the pictures.
The girl was dressed like a boy in a Detroit Lions jersey, baggy jeans. The blue and grey Nike high tops matched the jersey. I saw she had tattoos on her arms and her neck. But her face looked angelic, she was caramel skin with slant eyes, a nose hoop and shoulder length sister locks.
Some pictures she’d smile in and sometimes she would have tight jeans on with a big shirt. She must love her gym shoes because she kept a fresh pair on. I handed Siren back her phone.
“I hope God hears what you said because I would love to get to know her and become her girl. Even though every girl in Michigan wants her, even if they are straight. But I don’t care, I want her so bad.”
“Have you ever told her how you feel?”
Siren stopped and laughed, “Hell nooooo! I am not that bold. We are cool, she hangs at Infinity Wheels.” She put up the glasses I gave her.
“What’s Infinity Wheels?”
“My slow self-forgot that you aren’t from here. It’s a skating rink that stays lit on Friday nights.”
“I didn’t know people still skate anymore.”
“Oh, hell yeah and it’s so fun. In fact, you should come with me this Friday. You can bring your best friend too.”
Me and Hendrix used to skate in high school, but I did not know if he’d want to go now.
“I’m down! And I’ll ask my best friend.”
“Yayy! After we finish the kitchen, we can pick up some food. Uh, if you want to leave because I kept you long enough, I understand.”
Really, I did not want to leave. I liked Siren and enjoyed hanging out with her. “I have no plans, unless you want to do your own thing.”
It was cute how we both did not want our hangout to end. It’s tough making friends with other girls and we did not know what the other was thinking. We ended up laughing then went to get something to eat after we finished the kitchen.
I stayed at her place until seven in the evening. We exchanged numbers and followed each other on social media. Siren and I clicked well, and I hoped she would become my new permanent friend.
**
“There she is!” Wren was the first to run to me when I walked inside the shop.
Giselle and Marley ran to me next and hugged me tight. Braids Masters was my sister, Regan, braid shop. Regan was twenty-eight and she moved to Michigan from Arizona when she was nineteen as well.
Her passion for hair was intense, and she was so good at braiding. It did not matter the style, the texture of your hair or how long and short you wanted them. Regan could master it. She started doing hair in another salon for two years until she opened her own in 2012.
I was so proud of my big sister, and she inspired me to get my cosmetology license in Arizona as well. I was just as good as a braider than her. Regan had been teaching me how to build my brand on social media and transitioning to Michigan and getting an audience here.
Today was my first day in the shop as an official braider. I haven’t been here in three years. When I came to visit it was only for a week and the salon was getting renovated. Standing here now I was impressed at how Regan had the place.
There was a long wall booth against the left side of the wall by the door. On the right side of the salon were hair chairs in front of stations. They were spaced out and the braiders had their sections customized with their names above them.
One the left side was the double seated shampoo stations and hair dryers. There were three vending machines. One with junk food in it, the second with drinks and the third one was a Gourmet Coffee machine. The floors were dark brown hardwood, with brown and gold trim walls.