Rinse

It was dawn when I looked out the window. Jasmine was in my room again, crying. “Jas, leave that boy alone. He is not that important. You’re wasting your time, and I know you don’t want to hear that but it's true.” She’s ignoring me...again. It’s always something new with her and Raheem. “Harlem, you don’t understand, he loves me. I just need to know what I did wrong!” I look at her like she is stupid, “By texting a man 30 times in a row because he ain’t say Good-morning back...Does that not show you its someone else in the picture? Probably that redhead girl...” I know that pissed her off by her expression change and she automatically dropped that precious phone of her’s. “Don’t bring that b***h up again, how dare you accuse my man of cheating on me. He loves me for me and nothing else. Just because your last man left you for another b***h doesn’t mean mine will.” She’s talking about my ex-Corey. He left for that same redhead girl, now the rumor is he got gonorrhea, so I dodged a whole missile. She pulls that card every single time I’m right. I will never depend on no man, especially the ones that just f**k around...literally. “Girl... Corey has gonorrhea from the same red-head girl you caught Raheem with. And you saying he loves you, girl bye. He is in lust with you. Every time he comes over, y'all fuckin, and he is a senior girl you are a whole ass freshman. He loves anything that smiles at him. You should not be so dependent on no man, especially Raheem’s b***h ass.” She hates to hear the truth; all I could see on her brown face was a river of tears. “Your mom has put it in your mind that you are just this horrible person that needs to go what she is going through...and I hate how that has impacted you. Why won’t you just stay here with me? No abuse, no Raheem, no degradation.” She looked at me with such praise. “What will your mom say?” “My mom has offered many times, and if your mom tries to fight back, she will lose every case. Just pack your stuff and come stay with me, K?” I saw the hope in her eyes. She jumped up and hugged me. “Girl, I love you.” “I love you too.” She headed out the door and I watched her run down the street. The fastest and happiest she has ever been in her life.