Chapter 3: Prom Night

[Her] My baby! You look so beautiful!"

"Thanks ma!" I had on a copper sweetheart dress that showed off my thick legs just right and I had gotten my hair pressed and curled to perfection. One thing I can say is that I have crop, and when pressed, it flowed down to the center of my back. My mom helped me put on some light makeup to enhance my look for the night and I kept it simple with a copper open-toed heel. To top off my look, I had on a charm necklace by Tiffany's. My mom was my best friend. It was just me and her. She worked hard as a secretary for this huge company in downtown Long Beach and made good money. I was grateful to her for being able to afford to give me my dream prom night. I looked from the mirror to my mother and her face was wet with tears.

" Mommy, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"My baby, I just know how important this night is for you and I want you to know how beautiful you are, even without a date.”

Oh yeah, that was right. It was prom night and I was going without a date. My excitement had quickly turned to sadness, but instead of showing it on my face, I gave my mother a hug.

"It's all good, ma. Let's go greet everybody now. I don't want to be late. "

My mom went all out for my prom night. She was throwing a champagne party for me, and her younger brother, my uncle Jimmy, was escorting me in his new gold Chrysler 300.

As, we stepped into the living room, gold and black balloons covered the ceiling, soft music was playing, and all eyes were on me.

"Dang ma! You really went all out, huh!"

My entire church family was at my party and even a few of my cousins.

Everybody was complimenting me on how beautiful I looked, and for once, I felt the same.

[Him]

Ima buy you a drink and then

Ima take you home with me

I got money in the bank

shawty what you think 'bout that

Find me in the grey Cadillac

T-Pain was blasting thru our stretch limo. My cousin and I were on and Kyra and her homegirl Brittney looked fly. I had to admit tho, Kyra was getting on my nerves. I mean it's only been a couple of days and she already claiming a nigga.

"Babe, pass me the blunt!" I ignored Kyra as I continued to puff on my shit. She wasn't about to mess up the night by being too high to function. "Nah, you good. We’re here anyway."

The Grand was live! People were still standing outside of the building and it was the perfect time to stunt on niggas. Once we pulled up and hopped out the limo, everybody was staring. Nico and I had on matching black tuxedos and Kyra and Brittney both had on black gowns and weave down to their asses. As we walked down the red carpet and into The Grand, I looked over to my left and saw the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen and then I realized that it was her.

[Her] It was hot as hell in The Grand. People were grinding all over each other, cameras were flashing, and all I could think about was how much I wanted someone to dance with me. My best friend Anisa was standing next to me on the dance floor looking gorgeous as always. She was 5'7 with caramel skin, grey eyes and full lips. She had a cute petite frame and it was perfectly adored with a turquoise mermaid gown.

"Girl, I can't see how you can dance in that tight ass dress you got on."

"Jade, I can move in anything," Anisa said shaking her ass to Hotline by Pretty Ricky. I laughed watching her move when suddenly, I felt someone dancing up behind me. I turned and I saw him. That same mean face that was on the bus.

Surprisingly, instead of moving away from him, I got into my groove and worked him, just like I'd practiced at home in my mirror.

The mystery boys' friend shouted, "Damn, nigga! She workin' you," as I got in my zone and was having fun. This boy knew how to move too. But just when the song was about to end, I felt someone tug at the side of my dress, and before I knew it, I was in a full blown fight with the schools' biggest hoe, Kyra.

Chapter 2: Cori

[Him] Damn. It's raining. When I finally made it to my cousin Nicos' crib, I wasn't surprised to see him posted on his porch with a couple of bad ones. I went to a continuation school, so most of the chicks there weren't the type I'd get at; they all were either really stupid or had kids. The only reason I was there was because a year ago, my older brother got murdered and it set me back a bit.

Next to Nico, my older brother John was like my best friend. Now that he was gone, I needed to hold things down at home with moms. My father was out of the picture. He got murdered when I was four, right after moms gave birth to my younger sister Tavi. We were young at the time so I don’t remember much about him, but all moms would ever say was that he was a victim to the streets.

My mom is what some would call a "Jodie's Momma." She got pregnant with John at the young age of fifteen messin' around with my father, and then pregnant with me at eighteen. The good thing was she was part of a nursing program during high school so after she graduated, she got straight to work as an RN.

My parents got married after moms found out she was pregnant with Tavi, but about a month or so after she was born, my father got murdered. My moms' older sister Pam was nice enough to take us all in after he died so that my mom could continue working.

After staying on the eastside at my aunt Pam's house for about a year, moms finally got her own place on the northside of Long Beach in the Carmelitos.

" Wassup Cori? Bout' time you got here nigga."

"My bad man, the ride down here took forever." My eyes ran all over these two little lightskinned chicks sitting there on the porch of my cousins house. I looked over and saw Nico smirk and nod over them.

"It's all good cuh. Aye this my girl Brittney and her friend Kyra.”

Cori told me he had a new chick that went to Jordan. He was taking his girl to the prom and said that her home girl needed a date. I promised I would only take her if she was bad. Looked to me like I needed to get a tux.

"Nice to finally meet you Cori." "Nico, can we go inside? The rain is starting to come down really hard and I ain't tryin' to mess up my hair." When Kyra stood up I swear, it was like you could see her booty from the front. She had slanted hazel eyes, cute little pink lips and long curly hair; but for some reason, my mind flashed back to that girl I saw on the bus earlier that day. Quickly, I shook the thought of the mystery girl and followed Kyra inside the house.

Later that night, Kyra and I had sex in my cousin Nico's room for hours. For some reason after that, I was no longer interested. The sex was alright, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking 'is this all she's got?' We only had maybe a good twenty minutes of conversation while passing a blunt and sippin' some drink and yet I still knew nothing about the girl. She was easy as hell and to be honest, that ain’t the type of chick I’m trying to sport around. The Jordan prom was in two days, so my plan was to keep my word on taking her to prom, and then get ghost.

Chapter 1: Jade

[Her] I’m on my way to RaShawn's house. He stays off market and locust. We're in the school choir together . Being with RaShawn made me feel wanted. I didn't know if it was because I was always doing things for him, or if he really liked me. We use to kick it at school during lunch period. We kept it on the low, he said, because he didn't want to ruin my reputation as a " good girl. " I mean, it was true, I had a 3.7 GPA, sang in the school choir and I was in church actively 3 days out of the week . RaShawn, on the other hand was a " bad boy ". He sleeps in on Sundays, skips class, and he even smokes, but he's the only guy that'll give me the time of day.

Although we messed around physically, technically, I was still a virgin. I mean, I have seen his 'thing' and I've even rubbed it before, but the most he'd seen on me were my 36C cup breasts. Now, here I was again, in his musty ass room sitting on the corner of his twin sized bed with him on his knees and his hands around my chubby waist. "Come on Jade, we been kickin it like a year now. You know I care about you. Let's do this mama."

Here we go with this again. It seems as though lately all Rashawn talks about wanting to do with me is have sex.

"Well, prom is in a few days and I told you we could do it then but you messed that up when you got suspended last week." I was starting to be annoyed with him pressuring me about sex. I use to feel flattered that he would even think to want to do something as special and intimate as sex with me, but now, just the thought of it made me sick.

"Jade, are you going to bring that shit up again? What's so special about prom anyway? I don't know why you're so set on going. We can get a nice little room and a bottle and skip all that shit."

"Ugh. You don't get it do you? I want my first time to be special. I don't want to miss prom to be in some nasty room all night missing what could be the best night of my life."

I was so upset that I stormed right out of his room and out the front door. The truth was, I was so set on going to prom because I dreamed about that day since I was a kid. I would finally have the chance to feel beautiful, but this nigga was ruining it for me. I mean, I don't even have a date to the prom. I'm sure that even if he wasn't suspended he probably wouldn't even ask to be my date. He's too embarrassed to be seen with me. The more I thought about it, the more my eyes began to burn with tears as they slowly flowed down my face.

I needed to leave RaShawns' house anyway. My mom would be getting home from work soon and she was taking me to pick up my dress for Prom which was on Saturday. I stayed right across the street from Jordan High School in the Paradise Garden Apartments with my mom. I was my mothers only child, however, my Dad lived out of state with his 'new family,' which really didn't matter to me because my mom was the only person in the world who really cared for me.

As I headed back on the bus home, I shoved my headphones in my ears to drown out my thoughts of frustration, disappointment, anger, and pure depression. Music was the only real thing that kept me from going completely crazy. I played Ciara's new song "Promise" on my iPod while I gazed out of the window.

there's nothing I won't do

to spend my life with you

I'll give my all to you

I promise that I will never lie to you boy

The weather outside looked as sad as I felt inside. Rain had started to drizzle and I closed my eyes, but all I could picture was the face of that boy I saw on the way to RaShawn's house.