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He stares back at me with a irritated look, "You're in my house because?"

"What do you mean, nigga. Your fucking door is wide open, and your house is fucked up." I explained. He just groaned, reached for the covers and put it back on his head. I reached to take it off.

"Nigga, I know you were awake the entirety of my lecture about how nasty your place looks, and I was calling you. I'm not a fucking quiet nigga, I know you heard me." I said.

"Jah, why are you here?" He asks.

"Because it's Jared's birthday, Miles. We want you to come out with us."

"I already wished Jared a happy birthday.." He says in a small voice.

"Your point?" I asked.

"I don't want to go out. That's my point." He says sitting up and covering up. Like he's hiding something.

I sighed and got off he bed and patrolled around his room. "What have you been doing the past month or so?"

He shifts a little, "Stuff. Just..passing time."

"Passing time?"

"Y-yeah. Like.. work and sometimes I go out."

I nodded my head and picked up a shirt that was hanging out of his drawer and folded it, "Is there a reason you don't want to hang out with us? Is it because of me?"

"No, no. It's not. I'm just..dealing with stuff right now."

I put the shirt neatly into the draw and close it. I hear something rattle and quickly turn around and see Miles swiftly hide something behind his back, it sounded like those medicine containers when they're filled with pills. I get suspicious.

"What was that." I said.

"It was nothing." He answers quickly, shifting and his hands still behind his back. I raise my eyebrow because he's obviously hiding something. If it was something medicinal like pain tablets, why would he be hiding it?

"Look are you gonna keep patrolling my room or.."

"Miles. Please just come with us. We miss you, I miss you." I pleaded.

"Look, Jahseh, I miss you too, but I don't want to come. I..don't feel good."

"Okay..but what's that behind your-"

"Jahseh it's nothing. Really. Here." He gets up and grabs a birthday card that had been sitting on his nightstand the whole time. With one hand still behind his back, hands me it.

I open the card, it simply says "Happy Birthday, Dork, And Many More. Sencirelly, Miles."

"Miles, you spelled sincerely wrong." I pointed out.

"Oh. Tell him sorry." He says. I nodded slowly and turned to leave the cramped room. I made my way out the room and out the house.

I make it back to where everyone is. I see everyone gathering their things I guess to leave.

"I was just about to call you, Jah." Stokeley says. "Where's Miles?"

I scoffed, "Miles..can't come. He's sick." I said. I handed the card to Jared. "He wanted me to give you this though."

Jared takes the card and reads it before stopping and pointing at it, "Whats sencirelly?"

I shrug, "Typical." I said. "Anyway, lets go." I said.

"Is we using the pedo truck again?" Symere asks.

"If we were I wouldn't be here." Jordan answers.

"Nigga we taking Jah's car, you gon have to sit on the floor regardless if we were taking the pedo van or not." Dexter says.

Wait, who told me we taking my car.

"My car?" I asked confused.

Everyone looks at me, "Bitch. Yes, your car." Kim says. Let's go."

"I call shotgun." Jordan says getting up quickly.

"No, scoliosis. You're riding in the trunk." I said grabbing my keys.

"Trunk?." Jordan questions.

So Jordan nearly cried when we tried to convince him to sit in the trunk. No we weren't playing, we deadass had no space for all these niggas.

He threatened to stay home and Symere didn't want him to, and we all really didn't want him to feel excluded but nigga..get your ass in the trunk.

"Jordan, we have 8 people here, in a car designed to only have 5 people. We need to make sacrifices." Royce says from outside the car as we tried to make a way to fit all these full grown negros in this tiny car.

"Why me? Huh, why me. Why can't.. why can't Jared go?"

"Jared has a pass today. Please Jordan. Just for 2 trips." I asked as nice as I could.

"Why don't we just take each other's car? Why just your car?" Jordan asks.

"Nigga, money's tight. Especially cause we work at that shit bar. Plus, you're 2 paydays late, Dimitri. I got rent." Royce says.

"Nigga wait. I'll get it to y'all." Dimitri says casually.

"Jordan, please if you go in the trunk I'll pay for all your doctor visits." I pleaded.

Jordan gave a dramatic sigh before getting out the car, everyone cheered.

"Thank you, Jordan. We love you so much." Stokeley says.

Jordan gave the middle finger before opening the trunk, getting in and closing it.

"Can he breathe in there?" Symere asks.

I shrugged, "Hopefully. Anyway, Gazzy sit on Omar, Jared on Kim, and Dimitri you can come up here. So Royce, Symere, Stoke and Dex can figure out who's sitting on who." I said.

"Hey!" Stokeley says, "Why not me?"

"I'm sorry, Stokeley. I just want to talk to Dimitri more."

"That's why he got a big ass forehead." Stokeley mumbles.

"What you say nigga? I'll cut your check down, you little bitch." Dimitri threatens.

"Try it, hunnit head." Stokeley says back.

"Worldstar." Jared says casually.

I roll my eyes and start the car.

After trying to get Dimitri to stop reaching in the back seat to choke Stokeley, Omar trying to explain to Gazzy that leap years have nothing to do with frogs, Dex getting annoyed because he had to sit on the floor and Royce is using him as a foot rest, Symere complaining on how he's squished, pulling over every 2 minutes to check on Jordan and getting weird looks from passers by, we decided, well, Jared decided where we were all gonna go.

To Dimitri's bar.

I know, I tried to convince him we shouldn't because of obvious reasons. The bar is literally 1000 cans of bounce that ass. Or one and a half cans of bounce that ass.

"Why are we going to that place?" Symere asks Jared.

"Because! One of my wishes is for Dimitri's bar to thrive."

"That shit is never going to thrive! It will stay at one half." Royce says.

"Don't day that, Royce. One day I promise you guys will be the best bar in Florida, Dimitri." Kim says.

"Thank you!" Dimitri says.

I see why Miles didn't want to come, we're going to a bar that's the least rated one in Florida. I don't know why I stood around this long for this job, Dimitri missed the paydays by 2 weeks.

We made it to the bar. And as usual that shit dry. Like, it never has anyone there. Matter of fact, there were no cars except Jah's. I don't know why Jared wanted to come here. I guess we don't have to stay here, we could always just migrate somewhere else after we get bored.

"Ight, get my nigga out the trunk." Symere says.

Jahseh walks to unlock the trunk, Jordan hops out.

"Freedom, at last!" Jordan says.

"Nigga you were in there for 20 minutes." Jahseh says.

"Maybe you should try riding in the trunk." Jordan says.

"Maybe you should try shutting the fuck up, birthmark." Dex blurts.

"I will kill you, Dex." Jordan replies.

"I will record." Jared says.

"Why are you guys so violent? Damn." I said. "Let's just inside."

We get inside and I don't know why I was expecting there to be something great, but there was nothing great. Just dryness.

"Why are we here again?" Royce asks.

"To be honest, I don't know. Dimitri told me we should come here."

"Yes, because I have a cake." Dimitri says.

"Y'all sell cakes too?" Symere asks.

"No, I made the cake." Dimitri states.

"Don't tell me you're about to open a bakery too." I say.

"Stop trying to crush my dreams, kid." Dimitri says leading us to the entrance of the place and letting us all in.

He goes back back and brings back a vanilla cake and sets it on a nearby counter. We all come and examine it, it says Happy Birthday Jared and it..looks better than what I thought it would.

"Aye, this actually looks great, Dimitri." Jared says.

"Of course it does. Let me go get candles." Dimitri says leaving.

"Alright, so there's a dumpster out back, y'all wanna just toss the cake out there and say that Stokeley ate it all?" Royce says.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Dex replies.

"Nigga. I'm right here." I say.

"Guys just taste the cake first before we decide on throwing it out." Jared implies.

"This cake better be good, I haven't eaten all day." Gazzy says.

Dimitri comes back with a bunch of candles, "Okay. How old are you turning? 18?" Dimitri says sticking the candlesticks in the cake.

"I'm fucking 24." Jared says.

"You're 24?" Dimitri says surprised.

"I thought you were like 20, nigga." Royce adds.

"Same." Symere adds

"What you mean SaMe? We been friends since high school?" Jared says to Symere.

"Oh shit, my bad." Symere says.

Jared rolls his eyes as Dimitri finishes putting 24 candlesticks on the cake.

"Okay. Do I wish for something now?" Jared asks.

"Well no, we're supposed to sing happy birthday first." Kim says.

"We can do that at the end of the night." Jared says.

We all agreed.

"Okay. Wish for something good." Dex says. "Wish for Dexter to get a new well paying job."

Dimitri slaps Dex as Jared blows out the candle.

"What did you wish for?" I asked.

Jared stares at the cake before sighing casually, "That you guys would spell my name right."

"Spell your name right?" Jahseh asks. "It's not spelled J-a-r-e-d?"

"No. It's spelled J-a-r-a-d."

"So..your name is Jah RAD." Gazzy says.

"No, it's Jared."

"I like Jah RAD though." Kim says laughing.

"It's not..." Jarad stops himself to take a sigh. "Jah RAD it is."

"So who's gonna eat this cake?" Dimitri asks.

"No one." Royce says. "Nobody will eat this shit."

"Y'all ain't gonna try it?" Dimitri says.

Nobody speaks up. I genuinely did not want to try this cake.

"I..will try it." Gazzy speaks up.

"Gazzy, you don't have to do this." Omar insists.

"I wanna try the cake okay. Dimitri spent time on it so i'm gonna help him out."

Dimitri has him a plastic spoon. Gazzy took the soon and took a small bite out the side of the cake and immediately spits it out.

Everyone starts to snickering. "Damn bruh. That's tuff." Jordan says.

"It wasn't even bad." Dimitri says tossing the cake in a nearby trash bin."

"It was. I'm sorry Dimitri, but that was terrible." Gazzy says rubbing his mouth.

"It's settled. Dimitri ain't no cook." Royce says.

"Or businessman." Jordan adds.

"Or a good manager." Dex says.

I legit feel bad more Dimitri, he always gets picked on.

We spent more time at he bar before we decided on leaving. We were all crammed in the car, all trying to decide where to go next. And it was the beach.

I have a lot of memories at the beach with Miles when we were younger. Miles tried to make me eat sand one time, I don't know why he tried to make me do it. I don't know why but I accepted.

Such weird things remind me of Miles and I when we were younger. It's never anything normal kids do. Good times.

We made it to the beach and park not to far from it. Not very many people were out here. Probably because it's getting a little colder. Well it's Florida it's never really "cold" but the water is cold. And no ones swimming.

We didn't have any extra clothes but we all got in the water anyway and had left our things in the car but Jordan forgot his phone was in his pocket and got in. He got out and was having a whole anxiety attack while we all laughed, and Symere tried to comfort his tall companion.

A few hours went by and the sky started darkening and more and more people were leaving the beach. Soon leaving us all the only ones there. I learned Stokeley doesn't really like water, and can't swim for shit. He's also scared of seaweed. Other than that, it's been really fun and I kind of wish Miles was here. I feel guilty that we're all having fun without him and he's just..sick at home. But honestly I don't think he's sick, I think he just doesn't want to come because of me.

We got out of the water and I now regret going in the water because it was cold once you get out. And we had no towels. So with all of us being cold and wet, decided that we should just wait until we got home to change.

After a long drive of people complaining about the heat in the car not being on when it was clearly on, we finally make it home. Finally because I was starting to get really tired of convincing Jordan that the trunk isn't that bad of a riding spot.

"Well. We're home." I said turning off the car.

Everyone sighs as they all make their way out the car but I remembered.

"Wait! Niggers! Wait. We have to sing Jarad happy birthday." I reminded.

"Fuck Jarad's birthday." Jarad says.

"But nigga, you wanted us to sing it at the end of the night." I said.

"Oh yeah. I forgot." I said. "I'm ready when you are."

"1..2..3"

"Happy Birthday To You."

"Nigger!"

"Happy Birthday To You."

"Titties!"

"Happy Birthday Dear Jarad."

"Worldstar."

"Happy Birthday To You."

We all gave him a small cheer before everyone starting stampeding out the car. We all said our goodbyes, wished Jarad a great rest of his night as I saw Kim wasn't gonna be coming home with me tonight, I guess. So it was just Stokeley and I.

"We never spend any time together." Stokeley says intertwining his hands with mine. And walking me towards my door.

"Yeah.. I feel the same way. We've never been on a real date since we been together."

"Right, and I was just about to ask you if...we're you know..together together." He asks me.

"Stoke, we were together together from the beginning." I told him. He gives me a smile before a small peck on the lips.

"Okay, well since that's that, we need to go on a date. Just you and I." He says.

"When."

"Is next week good?"

"I'm available." I answered.

"Good." He says softly. "Goodnight, Jah."

I smile, "Night, Stoke."