Page 64 of Girl, We Go Together
“We’re going to the penthouse.” She chuckled lightly, which made me let a small laugh out because the building we were standing in was the furthest thing from luxurious. Standing outside the building, I couldn’t tell how many floors it had.
“What level is the top floor?” I asked.
“Six.”
“Sixxxx?”
She laughed because I was sure my face was screwed up as I playfully dragged my words.
“Yeah, six,” she said as she traded places with me and then grabbed the handle of the stroller.
When she bumped the stroller up the first three steps, I grabbed the bottom to get most of the weight that her sleeping daughter and the stroller had. There was a moment of silencebetween us as we climbed the stairs. I wondered how life had ended up like this for her. Back in school, Cayla had a good head on her shoulders, and she always used to tell me she wanted to be a veterinarian. I heard how her mother had passed right after we graduated back then. I didn’t have a way of reaching out to her when I heard. Even the day before, I didn’t want to dampen the mood by bringing it up. Now, probably wasn’t the time for it either, but I had to get it off my chest.
“Sorry about ya moms, Cay. I know I’m late as fuck, but I just thought I should say something.”
We had reached her floor, and she was breathing heavily as she pushed the stroller to unit 6C. She was sweating around her button nose and above her lip. I was a little winded, but it was nothing I hadn’t experienced in the gym. She used her keys to open her door before turning around to face me. She seemed a bit unfazed, and I was sure it was because she’d most likely numbed herself to the shit by now.
“It’s good. Thank you. She left me this apartment, so at least I have something.”
When we were in high school, Cayla lived in a different apartment closer to the school. I remember she had moved during our senior year, but I didn’t know where. I never bothered asking because she was still going to our same school. She stood in her doorway for a little while, and I just stood there looking stupid because I didn’t have anything else to say.
“You wanna come in?” she asked.
I ain’t had shit else planned for the night, so I accepted the offer. I honestly wanted to catch up with her anyway, so this would be the perfect opportunity. When I started to walk toward the door, she stepped aside to let me in. It smelled good, but the place looked a mess. In the entryway, her kitchen was to the left of me. It wasn’t big or anything, which shocked me. Nowknowing that the building didn’t have an elevator, I knew it had to be an old prewar build, and usually those were spacious.
Unlike the new ass buildings they were tossing up everywhere that had no damn space. This is why I didn’t mind staying in the basement apartment of the house my grandmother owned. I wasn’t leaving the nest until I could afford to put down on my own home and pay my own mortgage. She rolled the stroller off to the side to allow me space to come all the way into the apartment. I closed and locked the door behind me. The damn girl had three locks on her door.
“You trynna keep the zombies out?”
“Huh?” She turned around and looked at me, confused as fuck.
I nodded my head toward all the locks on the door.
“Oh… I had to have two more locks installed because my baby daddy broke down my door when I first came back here.”
I twisted my face in slight disgust, but I didn’t offer a response because it was none of my business. What I did know is that she was too good a female to be subject to the bullshit that I’m sure she had been through and was possibly still going through. She walked over to the stroller and then pulled her child out before retreating somewhere into the back.
“Make yourself at home,” she said before leaving me in the living room.
The space in the corner was cluttered with a whole bunch of boxes, like she had just moved in. I walked over to the leather loveseat and sat on the edge of the couch. Because the place was so cluttered with shit, I wasn’t sure what would pop out of that muthafucka if I placed all my weight onto it.
The coffee table in the middle of the floor was dark brown in color and had a glass surface. I looked on the side of the table and saw that one of the legs was cracked and broken. I was sure her baby daddy probably had something to do with that as well. Igrabbed the remote from the table and turned the television on. I was about to try to watch some TV, but I saw that her cable was off. Since I couldn’t watch TV, I put the remote back on the table.
“Thank you for helping me upstairs.”
I jumped as she entered the room because she had scared me a bit.
“It’s nothing really.”
Her round brown eyes rolled over to the television screen, and once it did, a look of embarrassment spread across her face. I could see her eyes bouncing around with the DirecTV symbol bouncing across the screen.
“I’m going to pay that.”
“You're good, really. I don’t even watch TV for real. I was just trying to have something on ’cause you left a nigga sitting in the dark.”
She chuckled before flipping a switch on the wall closest to her. When she did, the light was dim, but it was on. I honestly wished she hadn’t done that because now I was able to observe the living room as a whole. The carpet was balding, and there were a couple of juice stains spread about. She had gotten out of her wet clothes and was standing in front of me in an oversized t-shirt and some sweatpants that hugged her fluffy frame. Her hair was pulled into a bun on top of her head. She put one knee on the couch and then sat next to me. Once she was comfortably seated, I sat back in the chair. She grabbed the other skinny remote off the table and turned on a speaker. I watched as she connected her phone and started playing music.
Once the beat dropped, a smile spread across my face because back in school, this was her shit. She closed her eyes as she sang along, and I was sure she was probably thinking back to those days. The good old days when things were simpler for her.
