“He asked me to prom!! He asked Me to prom!! He wasn’t supposed to do that what on Earth could he have been thinking!! I shoulda told him no that’s what I shoulda done. Got the nerve to ask me to prom. The Nerve!!” Ashley exploded. Her mother chuckled softly.
“Well I told you once he decided to like you, you wouldn’t have much choice. And why would you tell him no?”
“He can’t decide to like me!! He doesn’t know anything about me!! And I don’t know anything about him!!!! The boy DOESN’T TALK!!!! That doesn’t make any sense mom!! Tell me how that makes sense. And I’d tell him no because he WASN’T SUPPOSED TO ASK!!! And we don’t have prom money. And I’m not gonna be the girl who shows up in the dress she wore to Winter Cotillion the year before!! And yea that probably makes me really shallow but darnit mom!!!” Ashley collapsed onto a box in exhaustion and exasperation.
“And yall wonder why I’m single. Look at what boys do. Look at it.” Ashley muttered. Her mother got up and walked over, intending to give the girl a hug. Ashley always had been too emotional. She took everything so seriously. Christina personally thought she enjoyed it. Before she could reach her however, they were interrupted.
“Ashley,” Brandon called. Ashley looked over at him miserably. He motioned for her to come over to him. She didn’t move.
“Arvon want you.” He called over again. Ashley scoffed. “You tell Arvon as long as he got legs that work he could get over here himself.” Christina chuckled again, and moved away to go busy herself elsewhere. Children would be children.
Ashley got up to, and pretended she was completely occupied with packing and moving a box from the storage unit to the car.
Gone tell me that I need to come over to where he is? Pshka this nigga got me fucked up. Thinkin he gone tell me where I need to be and what I need to do. The fuck the think he is? She thought to herself bitterly as she attempted to lift the heavy box and move it to the car.
Difficult, Arvon thought as he watched her. Why did girls have to be so difficult? He approached her slowly, like he did everyone and everything else. Arvon had never been one to rush, unless he was on a basketball court.
“You need help.” He told her, in more ways than one, he added on in his mind, but he wouldn’t dare say that, Ashley was kinda crazy, she might kill him or something.
“No. Thank you.” She grunted as she attempted for the third time to lift the box.
“I wasn’t asking you.” He informed her as he lifted the box himself and carried it to the car in one quick movement. Like it was the easiest thing in the world. God she hated when niggas did that. Why could he not let her just move the damn box herself? It wasn’t that big a deal. She told him as much.
“I coulda moved the box myself you know.” She spat. “Yea but it woulda taken about twenty minutes.” He replied coolly. She rolled her eyes. Gave up arguing. This was Arvon. He wasn’t gonna get it. HE wasn’t gonne understand that it was important to her that she could move the box by herself. Niggas, she thought again.
“Why you mad?” He asked her.
“I’m not mad.” She lied
“You are mad. Now why?” He asked her again. His voice stayed calm. He wasn’t used to dealing with girls like this one, he was used to dealin with white girls, that cried for everything, or talked so much that it was impossible for you to not know how they felt. He wasn’t used to this. He almost thought she really wanted him to just go away. Which he would have done, but he didn’t want to leave knowing he made her mad, so he needed to figure out why she was mad.
She glared at him. Why was she mad? He wanted her to tell him why she was mad? The worst part about it was she’d had a million reasons before he’d asked her, but now that she was looking at him, she couldn’t remember any. She was just tryna figure out why his eyes weren’t that normal nigga shade of brown. They were lighter. Prettier. And distracting as hell while she was trying to be mad. Why niggas always gotta fuck up my anger? She thought.
“NIggas”, she said, chuckling and shaking her head. Looking at the ground. He put his hand on her chin, forced it up, forced her to look into those un nigga brown eyes.
“No, not niggas. Nigga. Its just me.” He said firmly. Still quiet, not like he was raising his voice at her, not like he was gone snap and kill her if she kept talking shit, she didn’t know what it was about that voice, but there was definitely something about it. Something that made her wanna stop actin up, and maybe be nice to him for a minute or two. Maybe. Possibly. Why was he still touching her?
Oh shit. She thought, panicking. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. No Ashley. She thought, frantic. Stop. Stop liking him. Stop liking him right the fuck now. This is stupid. This nigga don’t like you. You always tryna put extras on something. He asked you to prom cus Jerome && TT told him to. Not because he actually wanted to take you. So calm down. Get ya head together, and STOP liking Arvon Barker right the fuck now!!!!
“I’m not mad though, really. I was just surprised when you asked me. I just really don’t like surprises that’s all.” She said, smiling at him a little. Reallyyyy hoping he would stop touching her so she could get on with her life. He did. Looked at her for a second. Turned around, took a few steps and then turned back.
“I like you.” He said bluntly. “I mean I know I don’t know you that well, but from what I’ve seen, I like you. And I wanna get to know you better. Just me and you. And so just in case you were wondering, that’s why I asked you to prom. Because I like you. And that shouldn’t be a surprise. That people like you. You’re a likeable person you know.” And then he turned around and walked away again.
