Wanting this forever. As if. Wtf. They had a texting game among the four of them. If they wrote ‘wanting this forever’ it really meant wtf & that shorthand expression all but rolled its eyes and shook its head, cluck, cluck, cluck. Ayana impulsively added an ! to show she felt 100% wtf! She would’ve texted a few more details, but she had an incoming video from her cousin over at Lincoln. Her cousin Katya and Katya’s best friend, Martina, were taping a cute dance in real time.
Bzzzzt! The bell rang. Time for first period. Ayana wasn’t in a rush for Biology class, but at the same time, she’d didn’t want to stay in the Girls’ Restroom, with its gray paint peeling off the walls and ceiling, leaky faucets, out of order toilets covered in clear plastic bags, open wastebaskets for bloody tampons and pads, toilet tissue you can see your hand through, and Z grade paper towels that didn’t actually dry her hands. Not to mention the indelible sayings on the marble stalls: “Kiss my butt!” and “Stay away from Johhny!” and “Xiomara is a ho!”
Ayana stood in front of the metal plate that passed for a mirror, made sure her lipstick was on straight and that her hair was just right. As she stepped into the hallway, she wondered: was Xiomara really a ho?