“He May Need You To Forgive Him Just As Much”
A few weeks into the semester the fellas find themselves all at Open Mic along with Riley and a couple of the members of Chaotic Harmony, Steven and Imani. Steven’s girlfriend Bianca, who is also Imani’s cousin, comes along with them, as well. Riley has been talking to them about doing more original songs and fewer covers, but they have been struggling to put together lyrics they all like. They decide to all bring some lyrics they write to recite in front of a crowd and get an honest reaction to the words without a beat. Between the three of them they perform five times. They get some decent reactions but nothing that stands out for any of the lyrics performed that night, so they are very interested in the opinions of Mike, Duc, Jairus, and Bianca. As they sit and discuss what they hear, trying to give an honest opinion, they also pay attention to the performers that do get big responses from the crowd to understand what people are reacting to. Riley, never being one to withhold her opinion, gets frustrated with Mike because he is reluctant to give an opinion, probably because it isn't positive. “I guess you need to see what Kennedy thinks before you can give us your opinion” she says, instantly regretting her mouth getting the best of her as she tries to avoid the dirty look coming from Duc. The table gets very quiet with no one knowing what to say to break that tension until Quad comes back onto the microphone and performs a piece.
Riley takes notice of the poem Quad recites. She isn’t blown away by his performance, but the words speak directly to her as something they want to talk about. And the response he gets from the crowd is larger than anything the group members got for their performances. Afterward he comes over to their table and Riley loudly says, “Is that piece you performed something new?”
“I wrote it a couple of months back, but I hadn’t performed it before tonight. What you think of it?”
“I think it sounds like good song lyrics. You need to finish it and let us make a song out of it.”
Listening to the conversation, Duc's eyes suddenly get huge sitting at the table. He has a band with aspirations of being more than a cover band and a lyric writer who struggles with stage presence and actually rapping. It’s a perfect solution for both parties interested in getting their art heard. Duc is pissed at himself for never thinking about having Quad help write for Chaotic Harmony before. Quad is ecstatic to write real songs for someone to sing and the band loves the idea of working with him to find their voice.
The semester continues with things going normal for the guys as far as school and work. As usual, women leave them with all their unanswered questions about themselves and each other. The weather is starting to break and that means the start of the track season. When the first track meet rolls around Mike, Jairus, and Duc all attend just like they promised themselves they always will to support Kennedy. None of them are really into track and field so they generally spend the entire time talking about things going on or they forgot to run past the others. This time around Mike seems more interested in the actual races than normal and for Jairus it makes him wonder why and brings back memories of Riley’s comments at Jazzy Belles over a month ago, as well as some other occurrences that seemed strange. Always the one to call out someone if he thinks it’s necessary, Jairus doesn’t bite his tongue. “Dog, you awfully into these races today. I know we here to support but you ain’t never cared this much before.”
Mike looks at Jairus in confusion because he doesn’t understand why it’s bothering him so much and brushes it off. “This ain’t fin to happen too many more times. I’m just tryna enjoy it.”
Jairus wants to leave it alone, but he can’t. “Why have you and Kennedy been so close lately?”
Once again, a look of confusion comes across Mike’s face. He doesn’t think he has been acting any closer to her than normal, but he can see that Jairus and Duc, who are now waiting intently for a response, seem to think so. Before he can reply Jairus continues, “I mean, I have come in the caf a couple of times and found y’all chumming it up eating lunch. Plus, I remember y’all having side conversations all night back at the graduation party, and that comment Riley made a month ago at Jazzy Belles. It’s been looking more than normal for a minute.”
As Jairus rambles off all the things he’s noticed, Mike begins to see how the picture looks to him and realizes he may have the same thoughts if the roles were reversed so he tries not to jump to being defensive.
“For real though, if something is going on with y’all I guess I can see how it would happen,” Duc interjects. “Just let us know.”
“Nigga, I’ll fight you,” says Mike, feeling like Duc is questioning his loyalty to their dead friend. He knows now he has to give them an explanation for what they have been noticing. Trying to brush it off won’t let it die now that Jairus has called him out. “Man, it’s not like that…at all. I started going to Kennedy last semester for advice about Shante because I know that they are teammates and she’s around her all the time.” Normally they aren’t so easily convinced, but Duc and Jairus witnessed how an incident with Shante messed him up and remember how he suddenly seemed to be over it, so they let him continue explaining. “At first, I was trying to find out if Shante was dating someone else, but Kennedy told me that if I really wanted her attention, I needed to stop acting pathetic and start being myself again. That’s the guy she would want. So, then I started going to her for advice about getting back out there and dating women. I didn’t want y’all to know so that’s why it was side convos and shit. At the graduation party we were talking about how she couldn’t convince Shante and them to come out.” Mike is feeling awkward being the only one talking as they just sit and listen. Almost like he’s doing a class presentation, but he carries on. “We would also talk about the other girls I would see or anytime my friend Cecilia and I talk Kennedy would try to convince me she is more than just a friend. Eventually, I started the job hunt and realized Kennedy is the only other person that is walking at the same time as me in May. So, we’ve been talking about what we’re each planning for after graduation, getting fresh starts, me feeling like I’m doing this alone, still me dating chicks, and even her being scared of having to date again…a bunch of shit we didn’t want to make y’all talk about. I was trying to not throw it in your face, especially since you aren’t graduating yet.”
They know Mike well and they know from his body language and tone that he is being genuine with them, and they respect it. What he says makes sense, but Jairus in particular tends to see red flags based on his past experiences. Mike gets it and isn’t upset by it, but he appreciates it when Jairus says, “Aye, my bad young. I should’ve known better.” It’s his way of saying he was sorry for questioning his character. Although they never discuss it amongst them, none of them would take lightly to disrespecting Ovaughn’s memory and for them Kennedy is a part of that. It’s an unsaid fact that they are the best relationship any of them saw occur within their friend group. It is almost sacred to them.
In the following weeks Spring Break is upon them. They have all been very focused this semester with Mike and Jairus both on their way to achieving 4.0 GPA’s or close to it and Duc looking like he’s going to make it to a 3.0 or better. With all their hard work, they make big plans for the break inspired by Anthony, who has been constantly trying to get them to visit his home city of New Orleans since they missed Essence Festival last summer. So, for Spring Break they travel to New Orleans with Anthony to experience Mardi Gras. They are in need of the time away from school and are looking forward to doing something big together before Mike graduates. Anthony doesn’t have enough room at his parents’ home for them all to stay so they get a hotel for the long weekend. They get a suite with two bedrooms. A king size bed that Duc pays extra to have and two Queen's in the second room that are fine with Mike and Jairus. There’s even a pullout couch in the living room in case Anthony wants to crash one night instead of going back home every night.
With Anthony as their guide, they spend their days touring different parts of the city. They get to see the real New Orleans, although they do force Anthony to take them to some places and restaurants he has no interest in since he is a native. At night they are completely in the mix taking part in the crazy and wild behavior on Bourbon Street. Every night Jairus and Mike find themselves amazed at how wild the white people are willing to act for some worthless beads or a drink. They are just looking for a reason to be wild. They think it’s like the white freak-nick. Or at least what they imagine it being since they are all a few years too young to have actually experienced it before it ended. The more they see each night the more adventurous they become themselves until eventually they start flirting and hitting on some of the wild white women themselves. Eventually the four of them find themselves with a group of girls from the Midwest who are just as unfamiliar with black men as they are with them.
One of the girls, named Mandy, is particularly forward and Duc loves it. She isn’t the best looking out of the group to the guys but she’s pretty and slim with a personality that stands out. Duc’s outward demeanor and gift of gab along with her unfiltered aggressiveness lead to heavy flirting as the groups begin to share drinks and talk. Along with the first girl there is Stephanie, who is loud. She finds any reason to get excited and seemingly cheers on anything good or fun she and her friends are doing. She spends the night reacting to everything by yelling out statements no matter how vulgar like, “You better put it on him Mandy” and “Deep throat that shot, bitch!” The guys realize quickly she is what they would probably call a “party girl” and just wants to have a wild time. For some reason she takes a liking to Jairus and makes a point to initiate physical contact with him as the group is talking with things like rubbing the back of his neck or his chest while loudly saying how attractive he is. He thinks she is annoying but overlooks it because she is the only one of the group who has a body “like a black woman.” The other two girls are Amy and Sarah. They are the prettiest of the girls but also seem to have the coolest personalities, especially for sheltered Midwest girls who may have never seen black men in person before. They are mildly flirtatious but are just cool having regular conversation with Mike and Anthony. Mike and Anthony are intrigued by the thought of white women actually being into them.
They all begin to bar hop together since they are having fun and entertaining each other. As the drinks flow, Duc and Mandy become more flirtatious. They go from smart quips back and forth making the crowd laugh to him leaning into her as she sits on a bar stool whispering in her ear and her doing the same in response. Mike and Jairus know where this is going. They have seen him in action before. As they move from the second to the third bar, Anthony runs into some friends from high school and stops to catch up with them going in another direction. He tells the guys he will catch back up to them, but Mike looks at the group. It’s mostly women and he wouldn’t come back either. His expectations of seeing Anthony again get very low when he says, “Y’all know how to get back to the hotel from here right” just before he walks away.
Hearing the hotel room mentioned is all Stephanie needs to start persuading the group. As they get the first round of drinks at the next bar, she starts yelling things like, “Let’s take this party to the room” and “Somebody needs to take me to the hotel” while giving Jairus looks. The guys start thinking about how much money they’re spending, the fact that they have alcohol in the suite and decide she is right. Everyone seems to be fine with the idea of free alcohol and personal space, so they make their way to the hotel. The entire walk there Jairus can’t help but think about how he’s barely ever spoken to white people most of his life, let alone have a white woman throwing herself at him. He starts to get anxious although he doesn’t show it to them.
They arrive at the hotel room and Duc immediately pours out some drinks for everyone. It doesn’t take long for Mandy to call him out. “Don’t talk all that shit at the bars and get to the room and act timid.” He is shocked at just how forward she can be. Before he can respond she pushes him backwards and asks which room is his until they disappear behind the closed door. The rest of them try to laugh it off for a moment with neither group being surprised at their respective friends’ behavior.
It is momentary before Stephanie loudly says, “Hell, I’m not going to sit out here and just listen to them. You better come in this room” as she grabs Jairus by the hand and leads him to the other bedroom. Now Mike is sitting there with both Amy and Sarah. He is stuck and feeling very awkward as the three of them start to hear sounds coming from the bedrooms. All he can think of is to turn on the television, so he asks the girls if they want to move from the kitchen table to the couch. Amy offers to let Sarah and Mike go over the couch alone since she has been primarily talking to Anthony and Sarah to Mike.
Amy doesn’t want to get in the way of her friend but the best she can do is go across the room and kill the lights. Mike doesn’t take her up on the offer and tells her it’s cool for her to sit on the couch, too. The three of them sit and talk. Mike starts off asking “So, what made y’all come down for Mardi Gras? Do y'all come every year?” Amy, still trying not to impose, allows Sarah to respond. “We’ve never been but heard so many wild stories we had to come check it out for ourselves. It is the same time as our spring break too.” “Oh, so y’all are just like us. Well, Anthony is from here but he keeps telling us to come to New Orleans. Just happened that Mardi Gras is during our spring break too.” Mike replies. They realize they have more in common than expected since they are all in college. “So, where do y’all go to school?” Mike asks them. Sarah responds, “It’s a small school in Nebraska. You’ve probably never heard of it.” Without even thinking Mike instantly responds to Nebraska and says, ”So, y’all don’t have any black folks at that school, huh?” This gets Amy to finally break her silence as she bursts into laughter causing them all to laugh. Mike then continues “It’s cool. We don’t have any white folks at our school either.” They are all in the process of discovering who they are and aren’t and a lot of those experiences are universal. They also find a lot of interest in how different they are, being from environments where they don’t see a lot of folks that don’t look like them. The more they talk, the more they like each other, and the girls appreciate that Mike isn’t the type of guy who tries to press the issue of sex on them. They all get a laugh when Sarah jokes “Had I known how nice you are I would have made sure we beat Stephanie to the room.” Mike is cool with how things go down but knows he’s going to get clowned by his friends for being the only one who can’t “close the deal,” but there’s nothing he can do about what they say.
After nearly an hour Duc’s bedroom door slowly opens. He peaks his head out to see if everyone is decent on the couch before coming out. He and Mandy find Mike cuddled up on the couch with Amy and Sarah. Duc throws out a joke at Mike, “You out here waiting for a room to open up?” but Mandy quickly tells him “stop it.” Mike just ignores him, shaking his head. The five of them begin to talk some and then they hear the noises from the other room begin to grow louder again. The noises from the room stop and start again a few times for the next hour and a half leading Mandy to say, “shit, maybe I picked the wrong one” getting a huge laugh from everyone. When Jairus and Stephanie finally come out of the room the other three girls all give him a round of applause. Stephanie loudly bursts into laughter telling them to stop. She is now somehow bashful and after another shot of vodka telling her friends she is ready to go. A few moments later the guys are at the door saying goodbye to their respective partners. Mandy turns to Duc at the door and kisses him on the cheek before saying, “that was fun…have a good life” and winking as she walks out. He smirks at her in return and says good night. Stephanie walks up to Jairus and grabs his crotch simply saying “Mmm” before turning away and yelling “Bye!” He is left standing there in shock. And lastly Mike tells Amy and Sarah “it was cool talking to you”, not expecting nearly the goodbye his friends got but Amy grabs his hand and pulls him close and gives him a big kiss. His eyes get big as he is surprised by the gesture. Sarah then walks up and grabs the back of his neck and French kisses him before saying, “Thanks Mike,” and walking out. He thinks maybe they are trying to make him look better but he isn’t telling that to Duc and Jairus as he just grins as they walk to the hotel hallway.
Sunday is their last day in New Orleans, and they have a late flight back to Atlanta. They plan to just chill that day knowing they will be on the late flight and getting up first thing Monday morning for class. The only thing they have on the agenda for the last day is to go visit Ovaughn’s parents. They sleep in to recover from the late night and, after Anthony drops them off, arrive at the Stover home around noon. They are greeted by a large amount of food that Omelia prepared for the boys, which is perfect for them because they are starving. They catch up over meals and Oscar gets more in depth with how the boys have been doing in school and life. Providing them guidance and warning them of where to avoid trouble all while pushing them to be their best. He’s full of advice for Mike’s upcoming career decision, direct in telling Duc he has to tighten it up, and happy to hear that Jairus has started talking to his father. Every time they talk to him, they remember Ovaughn speaking about his coach parenting style, and they know he’s everything they have ever heard about him. They also do a lot of reminiscing about Ovaughn in the process. The end of the trip is the most special part for them all. They talk all afternoon and early evening until they have to leave to get ready for their flights and make their way back to Atlanta.
When they return to Atlanta there is just over a month left in the semester but for Mike it still feels like there is a ton to get done. The first thing he does is email a copy of his resume to Oscar. He told him that he will check to see if they have any entry level business positions with the NBA team when Mike told him about his job search. He also has some other business connections around New Orleans he is going to look into for potential opportunities for him. Mike fell in love with New Orleans during Mardi Gras and jumped at the idea of finding a job opportunity there when it came up. Sooner than he expects he begins to receive responses for jobs he interviewed for, most of which are positive and include an offer and starting salary. He promises Duc and Jairus he will keep them in the loop on this part of the process. They don’t want him to feel like he can’t include them in this milestone even though they won’t be graduating along with him. It seems like each week came with an offer or two for a couple of weeks and Mike quickly notices that even though his boys are always happy for him they lean towards him taking the offers in Atlanta. He has a huge decision to make but is holding out hope of hearing something back from anyone in New Orleans before he decides.
While Mike is dealing with his upcoming milestone, Duc has a few of his own in his business life. The biggest of them being that he has finally secured a standing gig for Chaotic Harmony every week on Thursdays, which will get the band some more consistent cash flow and not interfere with the once a month shows they perform at spots like Jazzy Belles. It’s perfect for them and comes right on the heels of them completing the first couple of songs they are working on with Quad. It also makes it easier to pay Quad a little bit more for his song writing services. That makes Duc feel successful just as much as any of his other victories.
The other milestone he has is finally breaking into the strip club promotion with Malik. He still focuses mainly on the regular clubs, but Malik found Sunday nights can be hit or miss, so he figures bringing in Duc will only help. More than anything, Malik needs someone else to brainstorm moves with who can look at it from a similar perspective as him. Duc’s perspective is simple. He views the strip club the same way you view a dealer selling drugs. You don’t actually sell it. You present the drug and wait for people to beg you for more. They start with free entry at the door but require a drink purchase. After a few Sundays they start to see an increase in numbers. One Sunday in mid-April they have the club pretty full and almost everything is going well until one of the ladies complains to the DJ about a table in the back getting too rowdy. The DJ tells the club owner, who passes it to Malik for him to handle since it is his promotion bringing in the crowd. Malik in turn passes the task over to Duc. Duc walks to the table, near the rear of the club on the back side of one of the stages. As he approaches, he sees the big, loud guy he was told about and notices him yelling at or trying to touch the different women who walk by whether they acknowledge him or not. He also notices there’s four other guys at the table with him that are just as hype.
Duc has no choice. He walks right up to the large guy and tells him he needs him to calm it down. He hopes he’s wrong about the reaction he expects but he isn’t. The guy instantly gets louder yelling through his gold teeth grill. “What da fuck you goin do if I don’t, shawty.” Duc is not a fool, and he has no intention of getting into a shouting match with this guy and his friends. Before he begins to answer he looks towards the front door and catches eyes with security, giving them a head nod, so they know something is up.
“I just want everyone to have fun tonight but that includes…” but before he can begin to reason with the guy, he hears a familiar voice yell out his name from the couch behind him. He didn’t notice it before, but Carlos is one of the four friends with the large man, and he runs up acting ecstatic to see Duc. He tells his friend to chill the fuck out and gives Duc a huge dap and hug.
Duc is in shock but then remembers to acknowledge to security that he is good. He tells Carlos they have some complaints about his group, and they need to chill so it won’t be any problems. Carlos barks at his friends “chill the fuck out before we get kicked out.” It seems to work and takes care of the dirty work for Duc. He then says to Carlos, “Young, how you been? It’s been like a year.” Carlos doesn’t go into much detail, basically saying cliché responses like “it’s the same old same old” to brush past what’s he’s really been up to. Based on the looks of the company he is keeping Duc assumes the worst.
“So, you graduating this year?” Duc saw right through the question. They both know Duc hasn’t been on pace to graduate this semester for almost two years. No way he really thinks that. He is just trying to get around to what he really wants to know but trying to make it feel like a natural flow. “Well, I know Jairus is ready to get out of there.” Duc, knowing who’s next, explains that Jairus needs one more semester, which actually shocks Carlos. He always used to joke that Jairus is the smartest nigga he ever met. Mike is the hardest working, but Jairus is definitely the smartest.
After hearing the news about Jairus, Carlos jumps at the chance to make sure Mike is still graduating on time. Duc assures him there is nothing that is going to stop Mike from walking across that stage next month, then says, “I’m surprised you don’t already know. You still not talking to him?” Duc has no problem confronting the elephant in the room head on. Carlos’ entire body language changes. “Man, he made it clear that he doesn’t want to hear from me. I ain’t chasing behind nobody. He has enough friends. He don’t need me.”
Duc shakes his head because he doesn’t believe for one moment that Carlos believes that, so he tries to encourage Carlos to reach out. “You know, when that went down, it was a rough time for all of us. We were all hurt, and Mike took it as hard, if not harder, than any of us. I think he may need you to forgive him just as much as he needs to forgive you.”
Carlos hears what Duc is saying but can’t help but react to the word forgive, especially with Duc. “Aye, you know I wasn’t trying to cause no problems or do nothing stupid with the gun shit, right? I guess, I just only know one way to really protect yourself. I thought I was looking out.”
“Nah, I know. It’s good man. We haven’t even talked about it since that day. We don’t talk about much from that time anymore.”
“Man, I think back on last year and how a dude like Ovaughn can die but niggas like me still out here running around. A nigga like that don’t deserve that shit. Nobody would even care if it had been me.” Carlos begins to shake his head as if he’s deep in thought.
“I don’t want that to happen to you anymore than I wanted it to happen to Ovaughn. Y’all are both our friends…I really think you need to holla at Mike. Y’all like brothers, man.”
Carlos doesn’t respond to the statement. He just says, “You a good nigga, Duc. You a wild boy when you wanna be but you a good nigga. We all need friends like you.”
Carlos then abruptly daps up Duc again, pushing him away and telling him to go ahead and get back to work. The next day Duc tells Mike about the encounter with Carlos at the strip club the night before. Mike seems more interested in who he is with than what they talked about. He’s spent most of his life trying to keep him out of trouble and reverts back to normal behavior before catching himself and going back to acting like he’s unphased again. He has plenty to worry about with finals approaching and still having to make a decision about what job offer to accept. Duc doesn’t press the issue, but he tells Mike, “I really think you should reach out to Carlos. He’s like family to you.” Mike doesn’t make any promises, but he agrees to think about it.
The last couple of weeks of school leading up to finals are business as usual. Mike has his classes under control and has no fear of not graduating at this point. For him it’s a matter of making the right move after school. He has two very appealing offers from companies in Atlanta. One of them being the cellular company he and Jairus interned with the previous summer, which is also one of the highest paying offers. He just doesn’t think he wants to stay in Atlanta right now. He lived outside of Atlanta once and that was the internship in Baton Rouge, which led to two friends he still keeps in contact with now. He wants to see what else is out there for him and get away from the traumatic things that stick with him at home. He also has an offer from a company in Charlotte, N.C. He can’t help but think about Ovaughn when he thinks of that offer. He knows he would have loved the idea of Mike in Charlotte but without him he really isn’t that interested. Especially when it’s the lowest offer. He even applies to a company with multiple offices around the country. They give him an offer that allows him to pick which city he prefers between their Dallas office and their Phoenix office. He doesn’t know much about either city, but he doesn’t want to limit himself.
Mike has much to consider and plenty to choose from, but he still can’t help but keep thinking about New Orleans. It isn’t until the week before finals that he gets a call from a number he doesn’t know but he recognizes the area code. It’s New Orleans and he isn’t going to ignore the call even though his caller ID doesn’t show who it is. He answers hoping to hear someone from the NBA team on the other side of the line. Instead, it is a business manager for one of the major oil companies operating out of the Gulf of Mexico in New Orleans. They have a working business relationship with the team, and he was referred to them by some of their contacts. After seeing his resume and his internship experience with a major competitor in Baton Rouge they want to bring him in for an interview. It’s not the job offer Mike is hoping for from New Orleans, but it may be even better. After hearing about the company and the type of work they are hiring for, Mike realizes his experience is perfect for what they want. He quickly accepts the opportunity to fly in and interview even though they have to wait until after graduation. They apologize for coming to the party late but promise it will be worth his while if things go well. As long as they don’t lowball his eventual offer, Mike knows this will be the position he takes. So, he makes the decision to risk losing out on the other offers to wait for a possible one and makes plans for an interview at the end of May. It also means he has to call the other companies and request extensions on the deadline to reply to their offers. They do not all respond positively to the request, but it is what he feels is best for him, so he doesn’t second guess his decision.
The next week arrives, and everyone focuses on final exams. It’s always a stressful time, but even more so if your graduation depends on it. Luckily this is not the case for Mike. He is passing all his classes with flying colors and is looking like he will just barely fall short of the 4.0 GPA he set as a goal when he first started college. The fact that he got so close, and it took losing a friend to barely throw him off course is amazing. He is a determined young man who will work to achieve anything he sets his mind to, and his college career has been proof of that. When the final exams are complete and the final GPAs are set, Mike finishes the semester with a 4.0 and graduates with an overall 3.9375. It’s as close as he can get to a 4.0 without getting it and although a part of him is disappointed, his family is extremely proud of his accomplishment. His friends are, as well. They all know he sets the standard for school. So, they plan to celebrate his graduation like it’s their own and make sure he knows how much he deserves his upcoming celebration.
First, he has to graduate. The graduation is held in one of the local Atlanta arenas big enough to house the large crowd that will attend. There are hundreds of students graduating from the schools within the university and they all have multiple people attending. Mike alone has his mother, sister and brother, as well as his father, an aunt, a younger cousin, and his paternal grandparents. That’s just his biological family. That doesn’t include Aunt Deb, Yolanda, and Shante all being in attendance. Or his boys who aren’t graduating, Duc, Jairus, Chris, and Anthony. And as he will discover, some surprise guests in Oscar and Omelia. They are invested in all the boys now and aren’t going to miss his graduation for anything.
Another major surprise for Mike is that Tim is also graduating. He assumes Kennedy is the only good friend he has walking so he is happy to see another. With that surprise came another one. When the ceremony ends, and the graduates go into the arena to find family and friends, Mike is shocked to see Rob there with Tim’s family and friends. He and Tim have stayed in contact ever since he left college and become good friends, so he came down for this and gets the chance to see some old friends. Mike makes sure to get his contact info and let him know some of the plans Duc has for the evening.
Mike isn’t the only one to be surprised by who he runs into inside the arena. Jairus can be included in that group as well. As they are all exiting their seats to find a place to congregate to wait for Mike to arrive Jairus looks down the wide hall of the arena and sees Lisa walking by in her graduation robe looking for her family. As she walks by, she just happens to look in his direction and catches eyes with him stopping her dead in her tracks. He slowly walks over to her and notices how pretty she looks in her makeup. “Congratulations,” he says calmly. “How have you been?”
Lisa is initially unsure how she wants to respond to him. She has so many thoughts of things she may never get to say again and some things she should probably never say. “Everything is good now. Chapter closed. Now to figure out life.” Jairus gets a confused look at the insecurity in her response. He has always only known her to be completely confident.
“Lisa, I’ve never known anyone who had it more together than you. How long has it been since we talked, and I already know you have a job lined up in New York and will be heading home immediately.” They both get a giggle from the comment. He is right but she isn’t talking about just getting a job.
“Yeah, it’s just funny how much some things matter, and you didn’t realize it and how little some do that you thought meant everything. Like I always just assumed you’d be graduating with me trying to compete for the best GPA. Stuff like that is fun but you don’t appreciate it until it’s gone.”
“That’s true…but I’m sure the next journey in life will have similar types of things that will matter to you. Now you will be able to appreciate them more now that you realize they can go away. I’m 100 percent sure you are going to be fine.” He then leans in and gives her a big hug and she returns one to him, as well. They let the hug linger for a while and then they say their goodbyes as she walks off into the arena to find her family and he makes his way to the group waiting for Mike
When Mike finally gets to his friends and family the first person to greet him is his mom. She has tears streaming down her face as she tightly embraces her son and repeatedly tells him, “I’m so proud of you Artemis.” His sister and brother are right behind her waiting to hug him after she finally releases her son. His grandparents then come over to him. His grandfather, never having many words, offers him a firm handshake as a sign of respect and tells him he’s proud of him. Grandma Louise reaches up and lays her hands on his cheeks, looks him in the eyes and says, “You have been carrying a larger load than anyone your age should for quite some time now and you have done it better than anyone would have expected. Now is time to get some rest, young man.” She then bends his head down and kisses his forehead.
They both know she is talking about more than just college courses. His father, Tony, is standing right beside them to hear her comments. As Tony gets his chance to speak to Mike, he pauses for a second to think about what to say as he daps up his son. “You are so much better at this stuff than I ever was. I’m sorry if I made this journey harder for you than it had to be. Congratulations.” Mike thinks it is surprisingly fitting and appreciates his father’s acknowledgement. He is followed by Ovaughn’s parents who are holding back tears as they hug him and tell him how proud of him they are.
The rest of the congrats are much more energetic, starting with Aunt Deb. She is loud and Mike won’t have it any other way. Yolanda is filled with the same excitement as her mother, but Shante doesn’t want to impose too much. She is still not sure how comfortable he feels so she simply hugs him, asks if he knows where he is going to work yet, then just stands back trying to let him have his moments with everyone. His friends then take the opportunity to all maul him at one time jumping around hyping up his excitement for the accomplishment. They expend an hour's worth of energy in five minutes, and it made everyone else tired. As his friends draw his attention Mike doesn’t really notice Carlos standing away from everyone in the distance taking in the celebration from afar. Mike briefly thinks he sees him but when he turns back to look after the guys calm a bit, he can’t find him in the sea of people in the arena. Jairus and Duc are especially hype about Mike graduating, but it is bittersweet all the same. They know that he is planning to head to New Orleans if possible and they are all aware, in the back of their minds, that this night could very well be the last time they go out and party together for a long time.
It doesn’t only feel like a moment signifying completion for Mike, it feels like the end of an era in their lives. There may never be another time that they live together in such close quarters, that they grow from the same shared incidents, that they experience the joint search for their paths in life. Now is the start of them branching out on their own and they don’t know what that journey will mean for their friendships. But that is a story to be told at a later time.