[b]The Next Day[/b]

Saturday. I wake up late. I check my phone, almost on autopilot, just checking Facebook, Instagram, pretty much whatever just to catch up on what I may have missed the night before. I see a post by Renee. It read ‘that moment when you meet someone better than your last’ with a bunch of heart emojis after it. I immediately perk up. ‘Is she talking about me?’ I think to myself. I mean, she has to be talking about me, I was with her yesterday. As I’m pondering this, that party pops up in my head. I jump up and shoot a text to Greg, telling him to get dressed. I tell him I want to head to the mall and get some new clothes, something casual, something fresh. I get dressed, freshen up and head downstairs. The house is empty, which isn’t atypical for a Saturday at my home. Mom is probably out shopping and dad is probably running errands or something. Because I’m an only child, I don’t have to worry about siblings to look after. After I grab a quick bite to eat, I’m at Greg’s in 15. He jumps out his room window (thank god it’s on the first story of his house. He does dumb shit like that).

“What’s good bro? What’s the floor plan?”

“Were going to the mall to floss up. Probably get some new clothes, chill and wait for the party.”

“You taking this party serious. It’s just a small function, but aye, I’m with it.” Greg chuckles, punching me in the shoulder.

“Yeah, I wanna look fresh, you feel me, my boy.”

We head to the mall downtown. That was our main chill spot. It had a theater, food court, a bunch of dope, small shops that sold some interesting stuff. Just a cool place, unlike most conventional malls. We get there, and park. Despite it being 10, it was already kinda packed, so we made our way to a few stores that had what I was looking for. Casual and fresh. The first store we hit was Jacksons. They had a bunch of clothes designed by local artist and wanna-be fashion designers. As I’m picking through the racks, Greg is chatting up this cutie by the register. I chuckle as he is trying to get her number. Slyly, he saunters back to me, holding his phone, showing off the latest number in his collection.

“Yeah bro, she chill as fuck. She go to Rosemont. Said she was just bored and she was just killing time, so I invited her with us.”

“Bruh, with who, I aint got gas to be running around the city, making pit-stops everywhere.”

“Nah bro, I got you on gas, I just got paid yesterday, and she said she don’t stay but a few blocks from you, down the street from that burger joint. Come on bro, look out for your mans.”

“Alright, but you better hit that tonight, cause I don’t like wasted time.”

We look around a few more stores. I ended up getting this black and red jacket with some shoes to match, some basic dark jeans and a few shirts from Jacksons. Greg kept it simple with a few plain colored tshirts, and some simple black shoes. We head over to the food court, which surprisingly was pretty tame compared to the rest of the mall. A few couples here and there, some groups of friends chatting it up. I get a small Chinese lunch and Greg gets this wrap. As we are scanning for a place to sit, and catch a glimpse of this chick eyeing me. I don’t think nothing of it, but subconsciously I position myself so that I can look at Greg, and see her looking my way. As we sit and eat, I keep catching her looking my way.

“Yo, bro, be chill, but I think that girl over behind you, four tables back, is staring at me hard.”

He nods, and gets up to throw some trash from the table away, right next to where she is sitting. He walks back over, as smooth as he possibly can.

“Yeah, bro, she is eyeing you hard. She didn’t even turn when I walked past her. You gonna go up and talk to her?” He asked, sitting back down in front of me

“Naw, she probably is just zoned out or something. She could just be in her own world or something. “

As soon as I said that, she gets up and walks away. I can’t lie, I was captivated. The way her hair just flowed. Jet black strands of silk draped her shoulders. The way she walked was that of a runway model. With authority, yet grace. It was elegance personified. And before I knew it, she was gone from my sight. Mentally I’m kicking myself for not taking a chance, but I suck up, along with the last of my food and drink, and decide to head back to Greg’s place. We play his Xbox for a few hours, mess around with his cat Lola, having her chase a laser pointer around the room.

After a few hours of dicking around his house, we decide to get ready, making sure our outfits were on point, we smelled nice, and we even gave each other minor line ups so that our hair looked pretty fresh. Greg shoots a text to the girl he met at the mall, Katy, and she sends the address to pick her up from. One final look in the mirror, and we are out the door.

“Aye, bro, should we get some condoms or some shit?” Greg ask.

“I mean, maybe. I was kinda joking earlier about fucking that girl, but I mean, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“True.” He mutters.

After a quick stop at the gas station, we are in front of her house, waiting in her driveway. A few short moments later, she exits the house, and I must say, my boy Greg was a lucky man. She was a cute white chick, a little thick in all the right places, and glasses that framed her cute face. She hops in behind Greg.

“Hello, I’m Katy.”

“Hey, I’m Mike. This is my car”. Why the fuck am I so awkward. “Are you ready to have a dope time tonight?”

“Hell yeah! Your friend Greg here is such cool guy.” She says, while rubbing his arm.

“Yeah, he is the coolest, isn’t he?” No one caught my sarcasm as Greg and Katy ignored me and slipped into a conversation I assume they were continuing from earlier.

I pull off and after what felt like a long 20 minute drive listening to them aggressively flirt with each other, we arrive at a huge gated house.