Page 8 of Imperfection is Beauty

I had actually tried with this paper.

Son of a bitch.

Thankfully, the professor allowed us to make corrections, or else I would be fucked with a capital F.

No way was I letting it get out there that I had a problem.

Instead, I tagged my phone and called the one person I knew who understood.

He answered on the second ring, “Yo!”

Damn, but it felt good to be able to call him at any given time. “I need your help.”

Immediately, he asked, “What do you need?”

I was walking out of Thompson Hall when I said, “You got access to the internet?”

“Yeah,” he answered.

“Going to give you my login, can you read my paper and help me?”

He was silent for a beat, then he said, “This is something I missed while I was on the inside.”

We went back and forth on when he thought he would be coming home, but I wasn’t going to push him. He had been locked up in the pen for eleven years.

And that story would be told a little later on because I needed to be in a decent mood to tell it, or else I’d end up breaking something or putting someone in the hospital.

After I hung up, the rest of my classes flew by.

Taking in the crisp autumn air, I headed to the forecourt to wait for Daemon, Aliyah, Crew, Braydon, Finch, Culpepper, and Matthew.

We were all headed to the house to watch Monday night football.

On the way there, we just happened to walk in front of a group of girls, and the moment they saw us coming, no one could miss the way they adjusted their tops, patted down their hair…

Didn’t anyone tell them that natural and imperfections are better than anything?

I knew at least one person agreed with me, I knew that because Aliyah snorted.

I looked down at her, and the moment she caught my eyes, I shook my head.

***

It was halftime, Aliyah sat down beside me, put her head on my shoulder, and said, “Hey, Marcus.”

I shook my head, looked at Daemon, and muttered, “Hey, Lil Mama.”

“Why don’t you date?” Okay, that so wasn’t the question I thought she would ever ask me.

But I’ve always been honest with her, and I wasn’t going to stop now. “I’m picky. And I don’t date.”

She didn’t need to know how I really was.

And with her, that conversation would never be brought up.

She sighed, “I wish I knew a woman for you to date. Double dates would be killer.”

I shook my head, and seeing that I wasn’t going to reply, Daemon called her over. She rolled her eyes but nonetheless got up and went to him.

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