Page 81 of You've Got a Place Here, Too
“Gotchu, dawg.” Scootie smiled as he fist-bumped Leo. “I’ll be right back.”
Leo had clothes. Plenty of clothes. His favorite clothes. It’s just that he wouldn’t get caught dead wearinganythingthat he wore back home anywhere on campus, let alone to a party.
Around 9p.m., Leo and Scootie left Young Hall, both decked out in oversized gear—Leo in FUBU and Scootie in Cross Colours—looking more like fraternal twins than two strangers becoming friends. Leo closely watched how Scootie moved, and he tried to match his swagger and confidence. Small groups of other students headed in the same direction. The neighborhood where the party was being held was so close that it might as well have been on campus.
Leo felt like he’d stepped onto the set of a music video on BET’sRap City,which seemed to be the only television programming in Young Hall.
Inside, the living room was even more packed than it looked from the outside. Walking through the crowded space with Scootie was like being with the unofficial freshman mayor—Scootie knew everybody! After every dude he dapped up and every girl he hugged, he made sure to introduce them to Leo even though it was nearly impossible to catch their names with all the chatter and music.
“You down with ‘O.P.P.’?” a man rapped through the speakers.
“Yeah, you know me!” everyone in the room shouted back.
Everyone in the room except Leo.
He tried to maintain his cool, like he was one of those menwho didn’t sing along to songs no matter how popular they were. Tried to pretend like he was hard, like he was the slightly reformed bad boy from one of Oklahoma’s toughest hoods like everyone thought he was. But fronting wasn’t as easy as Leo thought it would be. He started sweating. Then his heart started beating fast like it did when he was back home and…Leo tried not to think about his life back home.
I gotta get out of here!
Anxious, he scanned the room filled with swaying bodies in search of an escape route. He could see the front door, but he couldn’t imagine wading through the vast sea of people to get there.
Breathe. Breathe.
Scootie was deep in conversation with a woman wearing baggy jeans and a bright green crop top that called attention to her toned abs. Leo watched as Scootie gently moved her long hair away from her ear before he leaned in and whispered something that made her smile. Leo hated to interrupt but he tapped Scootie on the shoulder and mouthed that he’d be right back.
He made a beeline toward the kitchen. Students were gathered around the marble island littered with a few half-eaten bags of potato chips and several pitchers filled with colorful concoctions.
“Nupe Juice, jungle juice, or omega oil?” an upperclassman asked as he held up an empty red Solo Cup.
“What?” Leo mumbled. “Oh, no. I’m good. I…I had some earlier.”
As soon as Leo opened the sliding glass doors and stepped out onto the deck, he felt his body relax. Even though there were a lot of people outside, the crowd was much smaller than inside.He walked off the deck into the lush green grass of the backyard and took a deep breath of fresh air.
Nowthiswas more his speed.
“Nice to know I’m not the only one who’s not drinking the Kool-Aid,” a soft voice said.
Leo turned around to see who had walked up behind him, and he couldn’t believe his eyes.
It washer.
She’d changed. Now she was dressed in red-white-and-blue baggy jeans and a matching tube top emblazoned with the Tommy Hilfiger logo. She looked just like the poster of Aaliyah hanging in Scootie’s dorm room.
“At least, that’s what my homegirl said it tastes like,” she continued. “Kool-Aid. But it most certainly isnotKool-Aid.”
Leo nodded, unsure of what to say. He stared at her. Just…stared.
“I’m Layla.” She extended her hand, and when he took her small palm in his, her soft skin reminded him of the rose petals in his grandma’s garden. “Leo, right?”
“Yeah.” He tried to gather himself. “I’m Leo. And I’m sorry for staring at you like a creep. You’re just so…pretty. And I’m not just saying that. I’m not trying to run game or whatever. Like, you’rereallypretty.”
Layla smiled, looking away from him as she blushed. “Thank you.”
“But I’m sure people tell you that all the time, though,” Leo said. “I can’t possibly be the first person to tell you that.”
Layla giggled as she shook her head. “I mean, yes, I’ve been told that before,” she confessed. “But not all the time.” Then she looked at him, her gaze soft. “And not by someone like you.”
Leo tried to ignore the butterflies dancing in his stomach. Butterflies he’d only felt back home. How had they followed him to Langston University?
