Pops and Nyla were having a good time at the pizza joint. They were laughing and Nyla was playing with Coach’s kids.
Coach brought his sister-in-law with them too. She was a pretty woman, not as pretty as Daisha was to me, but she was definitely looking good for an older woman. Pops acted like he was my age. He was all up in her face. Her name was Mariah and she reminded me a lot of Momz because she kept laughing, something Momz used to always do. Momz used to laugh at some silly stuff. Things that weren’t even funny. Her laughter would make me laugh. I missed her a lot.
While I enjoyed eating slice after slice of pizza, Pops and Mariah were talking more at each other and less to the rest of us. I saw Coach when he elbowed his wife and then the two of them looked at Pops and Mariah and smiled.
Mariah seemed like she was bringing out the best in Pops because I hadn’t seen him have this much fun since before Momz died.
Watching Pops and Miss Mariah made me smile on the inside because Pops was smiling on the outside. I know there was never going to be anybody who could take the place of Momz in my book, but maybe for Pops, Miss Mariah was what he needed.
Pops was still laughing and eating pizza while he and Miss Mariah talked about whatever. I couldn’t understand much of what they said, only that she liked basketball and she used to play on her high school girls’ basketball team. When we got ready to leave, I heard Pops ask Miss Mariah for her phone number. They stood in front of each other, and with cell phones in hand, I watched from the sidelines as they added each other’s numbers in their phones.
On the way home, Pops congratulated me some more for the great game I had played. He talked more than ever, all the way up to the house and still talked when we got inside. After he talked about my game, he started talking about Miss Mariah. Miss Mariah this and Miss Mariah that. I smiled because finally Pops had come back to life.
∞
I texted Daisha when I got home.
“U goin 2 c Kanye? Daisha texted.
“Naw, I want 2. No money.”
I didn’t mind telling Daisha the truth. If it had been Sierra, I would have been making up excuse after excuse about why I couldn’t go to the concert. But Daisha was just real. She didn’t put on any fake airs, she was just plain cool.
“Don’t feel bad. I can’t go either. Cost 2 much.”
Me and Daisha texted back and forth, then I picked up the phone and called her. We talked about school, about our classes, and what we wanted to do when we graduated from high school. I told her I wanted to go to college and then get drafted to the NBA and Daisha said she wanted to go to be a journalist. By the time we hung up the phone, I knew I wanted Daisha to be my girlfriend.
Daisha was the kind of girl that I wouldn’t mind getting in trouble about. She was really cool and she seemed like she understood me.
So at school the following Monday, I built up my nerve and during lunchtime, we were outside in the breezeway. It wasn’t as cold as it had been but we were still hugging on each other.
“Daisha,, you gone be my girl?” I asked her while I hugged her warm body.
She pulled back a little and looked at me like I was a school textbook and she was searching for answers.
“Are you serious?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m serious. I want you to be my girlfriend. Is that cool?”
Daisha smiled and nodded. “Yea, that’s way cool.”
I kissed her and squeezed her in my arms and she laid her head on my shoulder. I was so glad that she had said yes. I wondered what Sierra would say if she knew. Then again, who cares? I’m back on top of the world and nothing or no one is going to pull me down ever again.