SYMPHONY AND DEKING WERE in the middle of eating and engrossed in conversation when her cell kept blowing up. She would sit there and monitor her phone screening calls just in case her mother called and needed her car back. However, she refused to take any calls from anyone who attended Westbrook High. She wasn’t in the mood to hear how things were going at a Homecoming she was stood up for. Besides, tonight she was on her grown woman thang, Symphony did not have time for little kids tonight.
“Someone must be really trying to get a hold of you. Boyfriend?” DeKing asked as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.
Symphony rolls her eyes annoyed by the many callers plaguing her phone. “Oh, it’s my mother, I’d better take this.”
“Hello, Mother.”
“Symphony?”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s… It’s Roman honey.” Symphony got up and excused herself to the bathroom. “I don’t what to hear nothing about Roman and his many excuses. He can roll over and die for all I care!”
“Baby, he—he’s been in a bad car accident.”
“Are you kidding me? How bad?”
“I don’t know. Evelyn called and told me. She doesn’t even know yet. They took him straight back to surgery.”
“Oh my God! Mom.” Symphony fought back the tears as hard as she could but some still escaped and fell down her cheeks staining her foundation. “I gotta go.”
Symphony hung up with her mother and ran out on DeKing without giving him much information except that a friend was hurt badly and she needed to get to the hospital. It was hard for her to drive because she was crying so hard. Her legs were shaking uncontrollably that for a minute she thought she was going to have to pull over on the side of the road until she got a grip of herself.
♥♥♥
At the hospital, the first person Symphony ran to was Evelyn. “How is he?”
“Chile, we don’t know. We don’t know nothing about nothing and they ain’t’ telling us nothing. All we know is that when they brought him in here, he was unconscious.”
“Girl, where you been? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for the longest!” Symphony wasn’t in the mood for Spirit’s nosey self-right now. She waved Spirit off and went to go hug Jaylen, who was sitting there with major attitude.
“Hey, J?” He nodded his head as a greeting.
“Where the hell was you at Symphony?” Quincy was sitting next to Amber and Melissa.
“None of your dayum business Quincy! You ain’t nobody’s daddy!”
“Well, obviously you weren’t with Roman. You was probably somewhere boppin’ it up with some nigga, ya THOT!. Prolly reason why ma-man laying up in here now.”
Symphony leaped over Hunter and the baby and went straight for Quincy’s head. “I got yo THOT… ya MAN-THOT!” Evelyn jumped up before Symphony made contact. “Y’all stop all this damn bickering! I’m old. My grandson in surgery. I don’t even know if he dead or not and y’all carrying on like dis! Stop it. Stop it now!”
Everyone got quiet suddenly. So quiet you could hear a pin drop. After ten minutes of quiet, Hunter couldn’t take looking at Quincy and Amber. She couldn’t hold her silence in any longer. “I see it didn’t take you long to move on?”
“What? You thought it would?” Quincy leaned over and put his arms around Amber.
Symphony chuckled to herself a bit, “C’mon now Hunter, stop. You’re sounding a lil thirsty boo!” She was being sarcastic reminiscing about the bus ride when Amber sat with Roman.
“Excuse me?” Hunter looked at Symphony while bouncing Josiah on her knee.
“Karma Boo. Karma… that’s all I’m going to say. Besides, I told you about those two and all you did was hand him to her. On a silver platter with a cherry on top. Symphony popped her lips to make a popping sound.
“You make it sound like I’m pressed. Have you ever thought that maybe it was my plan to get rid of Q to make room for my new man?”
“Boo please, what new man? You don’t go nowhere or do nothing anyway without a baby attached to your hip like you’re its mother. Ooh… how sexy is that!”
Hunter wanted so bad to tell her the truth because obviously Roman hadn’t yet. She wanted to sit Josiah on Symphony’s lap and say Boo that Bitch! You’re holding Roman and mines baby. But she didn’t. She didn’t say not one word. She felt bad enough that Roman had gotten into the car accident because of her. She kept replaying over and over in her mind her version of the events she thought took place regarding Roman’s accident. She pictures him driving and then reaching for his cell to check his messages and when he gets to hers. BAM! He loses all control when he finds out he fathered her baby. Hunter sits and eyes everyone in the squad wondering if Roman had told anyone anything.
Symphony sits and falls into deep thought. I shouldn’t have sent that message! I did this. This is my fault. If I hadn’t wished he’d get into an accident and die, none of this would have happened. Maybe, I wouldn’t have even hooked up with DeKing. Maybe Roman and I would have gone to Homecoming and had a great time and kicked it like we usually do. I can’t believe how selfish I was. There I was sitting there heated because he was late picking me up. No wonder he was late! He was smashed up somewhere probably dying while I was out wining and dining with some random dude. Maybe Q was right.
“Get yo behind up and move… right now!” Symphony was startled out of her thoughts wondering who this lady was yelling at until she saw Amber roll her eyes and stand up.
“Ma! I’m not leaving until I find out if my friend is okay.”
“Friend? Since when did you have any friends other than Ryder and Willow? Whom you viciously pounded half to death in a place you weren’t supposed to even be!”
“Ma! You’re embarrassing me.” Amber clutched her teeth as she spoke.
“Well, how do you think Willow felt?” Joi stepped closer to her daughter. “What is this mess you have on? Whose stuff is this?” She eyed the teenaged girls looking for someone to fess up.
“It’s… It’s mine.” As Melissa stood up Russell held his head in shame and embarrassment.
Joi looked at her ex-husband, then to Melissa, and back at Amber’s feet. “Take it off! Joi snatched the wig from Amber’s head and the shoes from her feet and threw them at Melissa. “If you ever… play dress up with my daughter and have her looking like a hoe, I will kill you my damn self!”
“Yo… lady, no disrespect but-” Quincy was referring to Amber’s mother.
“Sit you butt down boy and stay out of people’s business.” Evelyn chimed and Quincy obeyed.
Amber sat in the chair with her face in her hands the whole time crying her eyes out. Symphony pulled some tissue from her bag and handed it to Amber. “Rule #3.”
Amber tried her best to stop crying as Russell wrestled Joi out the door and into the parking lot. When the surgeon had finally come out, everyone got quiet and stood at attention. “As of right now, we’ve done all we could do. It was a little touch and go, but he’s stable.”
“Oh thank God!” Evelyn collapsed in her seat as she held her heart and continued to listen.
“At this point I don’t want you to get your hopes up. He has some swelling of the brain… so he has a concussion and a few broken bones. One of his broken ribs punctured his lung, and it collapsed.” Everyone gasped at the thought of Roman going through all that. They all held each other as if no one had any problems with the other. “We will keep you posted on his condition and let you know when you can go back.”
“So what does that mean?” Symphony wanted to know. “He hasn’t really told us anything!”
“Well, we know he ain’t dead! That’s good enough for me right now. We just have to keep praying.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and Melissa and Amber began to walk out to the parking lot. “Hold up.” Quincy ran to catch up to Amber. “Can I talk to her for like a quick second?” Quincy said to Melissa.
“If I were you I’d make it quick.” She looked at Amber. “I’m goin
g to head out and see where your dad is. Don’t stay to long, alright babygirl?”
Amber kept her head down because she felt she had been stripped of any confidence or dignity she had. Her hair was a mess and stood all over her head. Her make-up was smeared from breaking rule #3, and her feet were cold from being barefoot.
“C’mon bae.” Quincy hugged Amber and rubbed her back. “That shit was foul that yo moms did to you.”
“I hate her! I’m so embarrassed right now.”
“Don’t be, baby.” Quincy held Amber’s face and kissed her on the forehead and then on the lips. “You got my number right.” Amber nodded her head yes. “Use that. I don’t care what time it is or even if you don’t even really want nothing. Just use it, baby okay?”
Amber cracked a smile and looked up into Quincy’s eyes and for that moment, she felt as if she loved him. She didn’t care she was probably about to get her butt beat when she got home. This was enough to cover a multitude of anything thing she was about to face. She really wanted to hug him so tight and tell him she loved him, but even she knew that would be a dummy move.
“Amber! Now!” Russell stuck his head inside the doors and called his daughter. Amber however, rolled her eyes to the ceiling.
“Do you see what I have to deal with?”
“Yeah, you parents bugged out. Just try to play it cool though so you don’t be on punishment too long.”
“Alright.” Amber blushed.
“I’ma miss you baby. That is until I see you in school, right?”
Amber nodded her head and went home with her mother to suffer any consequences she had. She was placed on strict lock down and because of Quincy’s love and pep talk, she was able to do it all without talking back. She was on cloud nine for weeks and even though she never got that dance, visions of Quincy’s kiss danced in her head forever.
Fitting in is unnecessary. Embrace who you are. You will go through rough times in high school, but always stay strong, and never deny yourself!
~Neon Hitch
Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.
OTHER READS BY HEAVEN J. FOX
(Young Adult Reads)
Kissing Cousins
Fitting In: (Is Hard to Do) Semester 1 (Book #1)
Fitting In: (Is Hard to Do) Semester 2 (Book #2)
Fitting In: (Summer ’16) (Book #3)
(Urban Christian Fiction)
Something Worth Fighting For
(Urban Fiction)
Sins of the Family: Honey’s Story
I really hope you enjoyed this story, and if so can you please take a moment to leave positive feedback for this book.
Thanks again
Heaven J. Fox
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