Chapter 7: Hi. Bye.

September 5th, 2022

Harlow Hanes

Grownups! Kind of...We have kids

JJ

Lilian please

tell your best

friend that

she has no

reason to be

nervous

YES I DO JJ

I REALLY DO

Silly Lilly

Why exactly are

you nervous?

JJ

Friday. She's nervous

about Friday

Finnegan

What's Friday?

Silly Lilly

Family night! I told

you this days ago

Finnegan

I forgot!

Silly Lilly

Harlow why are

you nervous about

Friday?

Because  Halo &

Atticus are always

talking about how

pretty Ms Black is!

Finnegan

I'm not following...

JJ

You're never following

Finnegan

Is it because I'm

white 🥲

JJ

Absolutely

Finnegan

Wow 😔

Can we focus on

the important thing?

JJ in the event that

the kids' teacher is

actually pretty asf

I need you to not

stand so close.

JJ

Calm down

white girl. I

didn't plan on it

I don't want their

teacher to think

we're together

JJ

Nigga I said ok

Silly Lilly

Are we done here?

I want to get my back

blown out...

Finnegan

I'm gonna blow her

back out! 🙋🏼‍♂️

Yeah... we're done

Thanks for nothing

Silly Lilly

Of course 😋

JJ

Good god have

mercy!!!!

Halo's old schools didn't do family night.

(or open house as we like to call it) so I already knew I was going to be nervous no matter what Miss Black looked like.

But I knew if she was how the kids described her my confidence is going to jump out Lilian's window.

Lilian's window specifically because hers doesn't have shards of glass coming out of it.

Mine does because JJ thought it was a good idea to teach Halo how to play baseball...inside the house. I guess she scored a home run because my window is literally broken. That or she just sucked and the bat hit the window.

Her name is Halo Hanes, not Jackie Robinson.

I groaned as I got up from my bed. I had took Halo to school and then came home to go back to sleep. I was off today and so was JJ which usually doesn't happen.

I looked over at him. He was scrolling through his phone smiling at something. Smiling to myself, I went to the bathroom to prepare myself for the rest of the day.

I did my hair, makeup, and got dressed. It wasn't anything extravagant just some grey leggings and one of JJ's old college sweatshirts, which were very comfortable might I add.

"Are you hungry?" I asked JJ as I walked out of the bathroom.

"I could eat." He shrugged, not looking up from his phone.

"I'm gonna DoorDash IHOP. I don't feel like cooking." I told him.

He hummed in response so I grabbed my phone from my side of the bed and put in the order. After that I went over to Halo's room to straighten up. Her room wasn't dirty but it wasn't clean either, plus I knew she'd appreciate the action.

The food came immediately after I finished Halo's room which I was heavily thankful for. Cleaning made me work up an appetite.

As we ate JJ and I did some talking. Most of it was nonsense which was usual for us.

"All jokes aside I need to go to Walmart. And We Sell Furniture...and the grocery store. Do you want to come?"

"Nah, Shorty, you got that. You have fun though."

"Jason." I glared.

"My fault."

Though he apologized, I knew he didn't completely mean it. He was gonna call me it again like he always does.

I don't like the idea of having phones out while eating but I didn't want to go shopping alone so I texted Lilian to see if she wanted to tag along.

Silly Lilly

Hey...

What do you want?

A greeting would

be nice🙄

Harlow, my bestest

friend, to what do I

owe the pleasure

Wanna run some

errands with me 😁?

My legs are sore.

And they're still

shaking

Sounds like a

personal issue

You're going

Hello?!

Nobody told you

to get your back

blown out 🤷🏼‍♀️

Stop being a whore

Wow. Fuck

you too!

Can you pick

me up tho. Fin

has Lottie and

Jellybean is in

the shop

I mean I guess 😒

You want ME to

come with YOU.

You're picking me

up or I'm not

going 🤨

Fine 😐

"You don't have to come," I told Jason, looking up at him from my phone, "I'm forcing Lilian to come with me."

"Hallelujah!" He cheered, "Now ask Fin if he's busy."

"Do it yourself."

"You said "no phones at the table" Miss Ma'am."

"...I'll allow it just this once."

After we finished eating we got up from the table. I went to grab my keys from the bowl but I noticed that they weren't there.

That's weird.

"JJ!" I called, "Have you seen my keys?"

"Last time I saw them we were in the car, though now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing you bringing keys in yesterday. "

And that's when it hit me. My car is a 'push to start'  so I don't necessarily need my keys unless Im locking or unlocking the doors. Halo asked to play with them yesterday on the way home.

But I just drove her to school this morning so where else could they be?

Instead of screaming across the house, I took the journey upstairs to the game room where JJ was.

"I took her to school. I had them."

"Ok well go turn into Sherlock Holmes and go look for them." He told me, not bothering to look up from the controller he had in his hands.

I rolled my eyes at the man and went back downstairs to retrace my steps.

I took the keys off the key hook, put them in the car, drove Halo to school, took them into the school with me (in case I needed my id) put them on one of the lady's desks and- Aha! I left them at the school.

I hope someone didn't take them. I need them..a hell of a lot.

"Jason! I'm going back to the school that's where I left Them."

I had to text Lilian to tell her I was going to be a tad late.

Silly Lilly

Hola Lillian

You're white.

Stfu 😐

I took Spanish in

High school!

And failed...

DIE

WHAT DO YOU

WANT HARLOW?!

I have to run to

the school real

quick to grab my

keys. I left them

there by accident

Ok gives me legs

more time to get

it together 😋

WHORE

I took Jason's keys off the hook and went to his car. Then I realized I never locked my car door. Fuck people stealing my keys, someone could've stole my car! The car I brought with tips I made from my shitty job!

_+_+_+_

"Miss Hanes! I was just about to call you! You left your keys here." Rosanna, the office lady smiled.

"Thank you, Rosa. I almost had a heart attack." I thanked her as she handed me my keys. Thank God for Rosanna.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see someone walk into the office. She was beautiful. Her chocolate skin glowed in the light. Her hair was put into a tight high ponytail with two front pieces flowing freely.

Again, she was beautiful.

"Rosanna, I hope you made my copies. Valentine told me she was getting tired of the Same worksheets." She spoke. Her tone was calm yet assertive.

I guess she could sense me staring at her because she turned around to look at me.

"Good morning."

"Hi. Bye."

I literally ran out of the school. Was I embarrassed? Absolutely. Did I regret running? Absolutely not.

Now I had to go to pick up Lilian and pretend I didn't just embarrass myself in front of a random lady.

1,299 words

A/n: This chapter is a whole bunch of bull shit but its okay because next chapter will be 1000% better.

-Mj