Stand on That

1. Lavani Oakford

I pressed the car horn hard and long enough to be annoying to anyone with ears.

Checking the time on the dash, I sucked my teeth while letting my fist linger a few seconds too long.

I wouldn’t give a damn if Tyriq came out talking shit because I was outside of his spot making unnecessary noise.

A spot that he conducted illegal activity inside of.

“This girl gets on my fuckin’ nerves,” I grumbled. If my sister, Lola, or Lo as we called her made me late for my date, I was going to kick her ass. She could converse another time.

Finally, the front door of the small white house opened, and Lo came out grinning. She bounced down the steps effortlessly, and rushed toward my waiting Buick, Enclave.

“Tyriq said you gotta go with all that noise,” she cheesed making my upper lip curl.

“Girl, fuck Tyriq. Yo’ flirting ass in there taking forever and a day to cop some weed.” My eyes narrowed as I peered at her. “You better not have been in there doing no freaky shit for some marijuana.”

“Girl, please,” Lo rolled her eyes. “You know better than that. And for someone that was in such a rush, you’re not driving. Why are we still sitting here? She pulled the seatbelt across her body.

My facial muscles didn’t relax one bit as I put the gear in reverse and backed out of the driveway. “Just making sure you’re not in there exchanging sexual favors for grams. ‘Bout to make me late for my date because you turned a marijuana purchase into a social event.”

“Dramatic much?” Lo asked as she pulled a small mason jar from her purse. “I’m ‘bout to get you right for your date.” A devilish grin lifted her cheeks. “This is some muhfuckin’ gas, sissy. It’ll help calm your nerves.”

Cutting my eyes at her, I eased off the gas because I was approaching a red light. “Who said my nerves needed to be calmed?”

“Lavani, please shut up. I know you’re that chick. You know it too, but you’re about to go out on a date with one of the biggest sharks in the city. Darius Artis is like that. You’re about to have every female in Diamond Cove hating your guts.”

“First of all, you listen to too much rap music. Every nigga with a bankroll isn’t a shark.

Darius has money for sure. But wearing designer and driving foreign cars doesn’t make a man a shark.

” I attempted to school her. I was twenty, and Lo was eighteen.

“I’ve seen some of the brokest men wearing outfits that cost more than their net worth.

Guys be out here money fishing,” I sniggered. “Fuck cat fishing.”

It was the beginning of summer, and we were just two girls trying to live our best lives.

Darius was twenty-four, and I’d been hearing his name since I was in high school.

He had been that nigga since he was in high school.

Darius was a very private person. He never did too much but still, Diamond Cove was Diamond Cove.

Streets were always linking him with some female and whether the rumors were always accurate or not, all the women had one thing in common.

They were all pretty. Darius’ name had never been attached to anyone that wasn’t her.

The last person I’d heard his name attached to was a woman by the name of Bree.

She was older like damn near thirty, and she was a paralegal at some big, fancy law firm.

I’d never admit it out loud but knowing that Darius had dealt with older women with their shit together was intimidating.

I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

Braiding hair was cool. I’d been doing it since I was thirteen, and I was a beast with it.

I had so much clientele that it was nothing for me to clear $1,000 in a week.

That was damn good for someone that still lived at home with their parents.

But I just didn’t know if that was it. Would I braid hair forever or try to go to college, learn a trade or something?

I wanted the funds to travel and live a very comfortable life.

My parents had been together for twenty-five years.

My father was a car salesman, and my mother worked at her mother’s soul food restaurant.

We were never poor by any means but with four kids, there wasn’t always heaps of extra money left over after bills were paid and necessities were purchased.

My sister Quana was twenty-two, Lola was eighteen, and Emmanuel was sixteen.

We lived in a five-bedroom house. Before Quana left for college, she had her own room, I had my own room, and Lola and E had their own rooms. There were also three full bathrooms. The house never felt crowded. And we all got along pretty good.

We had our issues like all families, but I loved my family.

I was just ready to get out on my own and see what the world had to offer.

It was time to lock in though, and I promised myself this was my last carefree summer.

Once fall rolled around I was going to come up with a plan for my life and make some important decisions.

The moment Lo removed the lid off the mason jar, the pungent odor of marijuana filled the car. The weed had a slightly musty scent and smelled like it would have me higher than a giraffe’s ass. “Got damn,” I whipped my head in her direction.

“I told you,” Lo giggled. “You gon’ be high as hell on your date.”

Both my parents smoked weed and so did me and all my siblings except Quana.

They didn’t care that we smoked because aside from E we were all grown, but they had one rule and that was only they were allowed to smoke inside the house.

They didn’t want the smell of weed to be permanently embedded in every room of the house.

Most of the time even they smoked out on the screened in back porch.

My mouth watered for the weed that Lo was about to roll.

I didn’t know what the hell went on the day I was conceived, but I was five feet even and the shortest one in the family.

My mother was 5’5, my father was 5’9, Quana was 5’5, Lola was 5’7, and E was 6’0.

The fact that I always got mistaken for being a little kid was frustrating as hell because I was only twenty, but I was freakin’ grown.

Lo and I looked the most alike out of all the siblings.

The only difference was her pretty dark brown skin.

Our mother had the most beautiful, rich, dark skin.

Our father was the color of heavily creamed coffee.

Lo and E took after our mother, and me and Quana were lighter like our father.

Everyone assumed Lo was older than me simply because of her height. That shit irritated my soul.

On the porch, we sat in the black wicker chairs that had been placed out there. The always prepared Lo removed a weed grinder from her purse to begin the process of breaking up the weed.

“Where you and Darius going?”

“He didn’t tell me which restaurant we were going to, but it’s one on the beach, I do know that.”

“Ouu what are you going to wear?” Lo’s eyes lit up.

One of my most favorite things about her physical appearance was the miniscule mole on her bottom lip.

It was so tiny but perfectly unique at the same time.

The dramatic lashes she wore made her eyes look too heavy to hold open but like the viral sound on social media said, she was mine, and I was gon’ stick beside her.

Looking like she was about to fly away and all.

“Chile,” I sighed sitting back. “I’ve only been thinking about what I was going to wear since he asked me out last week. I think I finally decided on some denim shorts with a denim corset and my black, red bottoms. I hope it’s not too hot for that damn denim.”

“That sounds cute.”

Since I was so short, I wore heels every chance I got.

When I graduated from high school, with all the monetary gifts I got from my family, I had enough to buy myself a Cuban link ankle bracelet and a pair of Christian Louboutin heels.

You couldn’t tell my young ass shit. I knew that stepping out with Darius I had to come correct because he wasn’t going to half step at all.

The day before, I had done my hair in a super long ponytail that brushed across my booty when I walked.

The sleek style could be dressed up or down.

I loved ponytails. While all the girls wanted bundles and wigs, I was good with a ponytail or a cute bob.

“Girl, Gail’s mother put her out and in like three days Jerome got her a spot.” Lo gossiped while she rolled up.

My nose scrunched. “Isn’t Gail like seventeen, and isn’t Jerome like twenty-five?”

“Yeah.”

“These niggas kill me messing with little kids.”

“Seventeen isn’t exactly a little kid.”

“It damn sure isn’t grown. She can’t even vote, rent a car, or get a hotel room in her name, but this grown ass man that’s closer to thirty than twenty, wants to date her?

These niggas are sick. You’re legally grown, but what will happen if you walk through that door with a man that’s eight years older than you? ”

Lo snickered, and that was all the response that I needed.

She knew our daddy would kick that man’s ass and then kick hers for bringing him home.

I hated men my age that were immature. Why the hell would I want a teenager?

I didn’t even want anything under twenty-one and hell, I wasn’t even twenty-one!

Lo sparked the blunt and the moment the smoke filled her lungs she started coughing. I eyed her in awe as she coughed so hard that tears rolled down her cheeks. “Damn. You good shorty?”

As she continued to cough, Lo stuck her middle finger up at me. When she finally stopped hacking, Lo hit the blunt again. After two more tokes, she held it out toward me, and I was damn near scared to take it.

“Let me find out,” she smirked her voice still strained from the coughing fit.

Sucking my teeth, I snatched the blunt from her, and placed it between my lips.

“This shit is like that. And Tyriq gave me all this for free.”