Page 19 of The Impact (Parachutes #3)

“Shh. I won’t tell anybody,” Tahli whispered.

Paige didn’t answer. At least to that. But after a few seconds she warned, “You got about a 60-second window to pick your head up…”

Tahli busted out laughing at their childhood memory.

“Only your bitches get cuddles, right? Still using sex jokes to ward off genuine connection?”

“I’m Paige Wallace. Have we met?”

Sitting up with a smirk, the nostalgia faded into gloom. For a sparing moment, Tahli would have liked to return to those days when she and Paige were girls. When life didn’t hurt so much.

“You’re gonna be alright, Tah.” Her friend grasped her hand. Paige’s hand, warm and comforting. “Sometimes the people we think we need so much…the ones that we think we can’t live without, they leave us. And guess what? We keep living anyway.”

“You remember that?” Tahli’s surprise broke through her haze.

“It was some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten,” Paige admitted. “Real shit.”

Before they could go any deeper, a horn blared behind them. Paige slammed on her horn back, even though she was wrong. The light was already green.

Tahli giggled hysterically, popping her head out into the night air.

She shut her eyes, memories blowing through her hair.

The day she met Vin almost sixteen years ago was a simple yet monumental recollection.

A sentimental connection to freedom at the height of her Cree-given eleutheromania.

To power. To being young, and untouchable, and sexually liberated.

She wasn’t weakened by love or obligations.

She had her whole life ahead of her. And look at how that life had twisted and turned?

But she was back there. She could be free again.

She could escape Vin’s haunted house of love.

She could be liberated.

Locs whipping in the wind, the March night air biting her skin, Tahli kept her eyes shut and mouth open, inhaling enough air to clear her mind.

“Don’t fall out, hoe,” Paige joked, sounding so far away.

Tahli wasn’t lost. She wasn’t running. She was going through the motions. For now, her hair was blowing in the wind, and she was 20-year-old Tahli again, disconnected from him. Life was damn good before him. It would be damn good after.

About 21 years ago…Again .

Franklin High School was tricky. Technically suburban, Tahli’s hometown modeled beautifully lavish homes occupied by middle-class black families determined to give their children a better life than they had been dealt.

Unfortunately, some of those children did not want the better life.

They craved the urban lifestyles their parents had escaped.

With that combination, Tahli witnessed lost opportunities from kids committed to living a more colorful lifestyle than necessary.

Boys hung out on street corners of lower-income apartment complexes, then returned to their spacious, love-filled homes afterward.

The girls picked fights, had sex, and mirrored what they heard in rap songs.

They were dying to be G-Unit soldiers, Diplomats, or one of the D Block crews.

Amid all that were the regular suburban kids who were okay with being what they were. The school typically maintained a divide, with the occasional overlap that led to conflict.

“You got some ass up under that sweatsuit? What about them titties?”

Tahli brushed eyes with the new girl. The school was huge, but freshman year had been in session for two weeks now. By now, she knew the faces she’d catch between periods. Lexie had already told her there was a new girl in her Biology class.

“I think she’s gay,” Lexie had whispered like it was a bad word before they split hallways.

As Tahli passed the girl with the scowl and enviably clear cocoa skin — fumbling with her locker and shooting dirty looks at the boys who clowned her — Tahli bumped right into Mario Wess. Senior. Tall like a man. Spoke like a boy. Basketball star. Fine. Whole gang of bitches.

“What’s up, Tahli?” He said her name wrong.

“Hopefully, your stats this year. ‘Cause last year was ass.”

“Yo, ya mouth is bananas, shorty. But I like it. And other things.”

“Aw, how original. A sex pun.” Tahli chuckled. “Thank you, but I gotta get to gym.”

“Wait. What you doing in May?”

“May?” Tahli wrinkled her face, moving past him as he trailed her.

“Yeah. I’m a need a prom date. I’m trying to secure you now ‘cause niggas is on your head. You should hear ‘em in the locker room. You and ya girl Lex Two of America’s Most Wanted.”

Tahli snickered at the Tupac quip, shaking her head.

“Well, ask me in May. After I see how you do this season. Thanks for putting me up on game. Now I know I got options.” She smiled wider, leaving him stuck. Caught dirty looks from two senior girls she passed but still let one know, “The airbrush on your nails is popping.”

“Thanks,” the girl muttered. Mario had a lot of admirers. Tahli wasn’t one of them.

“Hi Miss Vingets.”

“How you doing, my Tahli girl? Ms. Jackson, if ya nasty.” Her favorite lunch lady joked an hour later as Tahli slid a Snapple onto her tray.

Tahli looked nothing like Janet Jackson but couldn’t tell Ms. Vingets that.

“Girl, you be buying them two-dollar Snapples. Tell ya mama she can buy a whole case for what you spend in three days.”

Tahli only smiled a little, not bothering to tell Miss Vingets that her mother was in London. Or maybe it was Paris this week.

But her father didn’t mind. Neither did her stepmother. Tahli’s reputation for making sound decisions earned her perks, like free rein to credit cards.

“You got ya lottery ticket?” Tahli asked instead.

“Baby, you know it. Pick It is up real good. If I ain’t here tomorrow, you know the dealio,” Miss Vingets tried to stay young, scanning Tahli’s lunch card.

Tahli chuckled, heading to her table. Lexie didn’t have her lunch, but Abby did.

Of course, Abby was absent today and Tahli tried to ignore the pit in her stomach that told her Abby’s mother’s new boyfriend might have had something to do with it.

He had slapped Abby once. Tahli didn’t like it.

Abby’s mother promised it wouldn’t happen again.

As Tahli prepared to take her table alone, she spotted her.

The new girl. She almost left her alone.

But when Tyesha Felton’s back was turned, the new girl used the opportunity to grab a few French fries, shoving them in her mouth before Tyesha knew the wiser.

Tyesha took a bite of her burger then turned her train-track mouth back to her friend.

And the new girl stole another fry, swallowing it and shutting her eyes like it was steak.

Tahli loved steak. That’s how she looked when she ate steak.

Fries were okay, unless she dipped them in McDonald’s ice cream. But their fucking machine was always down.

“You back again, Tahli?”

“Yeah. I forgot a few things.”

“Girl, yo mama gonna get you,” Miss Vingets spoke to the extra Snapple, fries, and slice of pizza Tahli had grabbed.

Tahli plopped down at the foreign table, right across from the new girl as Erica and her friend changed to a table where a freestyle rap battle started. They all thought they were going to end up on 106 and Park Freestyle Fridays or something.

“Aw, man,” Tahli groaned, staring down at her chicken sandwich and fruit salad, along with the new fries, pizza, and two drinks.

“I got gym after this and I done bought all this food,” she spoke aloud to the noisy lunchroom. “I’m a get sick as hell if I try to eat all of this,” she chuckled, meeting the girl’s dead stare.

Shaking her head, Tahli squeezed ketchup on the chicken sandwich.

“I guess I’ll just eat what I can and throw the rest out.”

The girl fiddled with her fingers, an empty space before her. No tray. No milk. Nothing.

“I mean…unless you want something? If not, I’m a just throw it out.”

The tasted wet her lips, eyes on the food before raising them to Tahli. She shrugged.

“Yeah, whatever. What you want me to eat?”

“Whatever you want.”

“Don’t tell me that,” the girl smirked.

Tahli crinkled a brow. Was that a nasty joke? No way. That would be too bold.

As the girl ripped into the pizza, Tahli tried not to ogle.

But Tahli had a pizza scale. Top tier was New York, North Jersey, and the occasional Jersey Shore mega slice, but only from Point Pleasant.

Douglas Pizzeria, around her way, was a solid 8.

Places like Pizza Hut and Domino’s, she’d put in a 5-6 range.

School pizza, we were talking a good 2 or 3.

Chuckee Cheese was better. But this girl was gobbling school pizza like she’d crossed a desert for four days without food.

“Period’s almost over. You gonna eat the fries?”

“Nah. Have at it,” Tahli pushed them over, gawking at the wonder. Tahli could put food away. But compared to this girl, Tahli had seen more decorum at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.

After gulping down the Snapple without breathing, the girl burped; giving Tahli her eyes again. “You had gym last period.”

“Huh?”

“I said you had gym last period,” she exposed. “I saw you when I was going to Health. You’re a fucking liar, but I’m a still eat ya food.”

Tahli chewed her cheek before shrugging.

“I saw you, too.” She leaned in closer. “Stealing fries from Tyesha.”

For a moment, the girl’s arrogant-bordering confidence took a noticeable blow.

“So, you don’t got no friends or nothing? You just scour the lunchroom feeding the needy like a black ass Mother Teresa?”

Tahli snorted. “My best friend isn’t here today. And I know people, but I don’t rock wit’ too many folks like that.”

The girl nodded. “What’s your name?”

“Tahli.”

“I’m Paige.”

“Cool.” After a moment, Tahli squinted. “Why you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.”

The girl shrugged. “You cute.”

Tahli fought off awkwardness. “I like boys.”

Paige grimaced. “Why?”

When Tahli couldn’t answer, they both let loose giggles that subsided with Tahli’s next inquiry.