CIERRA LITTLE
She's Curious and I Wonder
She never had much time to do anything for herself. She often only works and sleeps. She had no pastime, no joy, no hobby. She just was, until was wasn't. In that moment, she had lost the desire to speak. You could see it in her shoulders. She carried way too much sorrow to have only seen her twenties. Hopefully Nina will learn to smile on her own.
It is about 2 PM before Nina realized she had slept the morning away. She wipes yesterday out of her eyes to the sounds of inner city Baltimore outside her window. She rolls out of bed to walk over to the window across the room. She opens the blinds with two fingers to view the noise from her window. Below, a stage was being set up on the street.
Nina quickly turns and brings her attention to the calendar on the fridge. She quickly rips the outdated month off the calendar's pad. "Its P.R.I D.E" says Nina with her eyes brightened wide. She runs back to her bed to grab her phone and calls her best friend. "Hey Clark, its Nina." She lies back on the bed with the phone in her hand. "Did you know today was Pride?" She pauses waiting for Clark to answer. "Well why didn't you tell me?" Nina replies. "Ok well I'm going to call out of work, and get dressed" Nina throws her cell phone on the bed and rushes in excitement.
P.R.I.D.E was a once-a-year festival dedicated to the L.G.B.T.Q community in Baltimore. After working consistently as a teacher and harboring different side jobs. Nina had worked her way through all of her opportunities to have fun the whole year. So the fact that a parade, block party, and concerts were being held less than five mins from her house was a sign from above for her to finally get out the house.
She runs to the bathroom to freshen up and decide what to wear. She holds a pair of shorts up to her waist in the bedroom mirror. Until now, all Nina's been wearing is sweats and sneakers. Anything with a hood, anything that was oversized and didn't fit. She not only lost her social life during these past few years, but she lost her confidence too.
After getting dressed to join the festivities, she runs to the kitchen to get a drink. At the very same time Clark is approaching the door. She finishes her drink and walks toward the door. "Coming!" She yelled. "Hey." She hugs Clark after she opens the door. "Heeeeyyy," Clark replies. "You dressed? Let's go get something to eat before we join the festival." Clark turns around and looks. "You want to go to the Crown? Yes Nina, they have food!" Even though Clark was right and the Crown did have food, Nina knew she wanted to go to the Crown to go to the Club section upstairs. "Uggghhh… ok, whatever," Nina goes upstairs to grab her bag then locks the door. "Don't act like you couldn't go for Chinese food." Clark smirks. "There's More than just Chinese food at the Crown,” says Nina. Both Nina and Clark snickered.
The Crown was only a few blocks from Nina's house. After ordering some Chinese food, Nina could already tell what was on Clark's mind. "Don't think about it," Nina rolls her eyes. "Please Nina, let's just go up for five minutes." Nina says nothing and begins to go toward the bar. "Ooh, this is my song." Clark grabs Nina's hand and starts dancing next to the DJ booth. Nina closes her eyes and begins to dance too. You can tell Nina hadn't danced for a while. Clark has to tap her to snap her out of her musical trance. When she opens her eyes, she notices someone taking pictures of her from afar. She stops and stared for a few moments before she decides to approach the woman snapping her pictures. To her surprise, the closer she gets, the more pictures this stranger takes. She gets close enough to speak. "What's your name?" After asking her about three times she realizes a club isn't a good place for a conversation. Instead, she takes the stranger's hand and starts to dance. The woman is not the best dancer. It is as if she has two left feet, but she is sweet and Nina notices. After the song finishes, Nina goes on a search for her now intoxicated friend Clark.
She notices Clark's dance with a group of people she doesn't even know. She grabs Clark’s hand and heads to the door. On her way out, Nina sees the mystery woman she danced with on the dance floor. The woman walks over and asks for Nina's number. Nina tries to smile slightly to seem not as impressed. "Sure." Nina takes her phone to put in her number. "Oh, my name is Lyric by the way." Lyric takes her phone back. They lock eyes until Nina and Clark departed.
Nina walks Clark to her apartment which is also in the neighborhood. "Bye love, call me in the AM." She leaves Clark and continues to walk home. A new thought formed under every streetlight. She couldn't help but wonder what Lyric saw in her. "She probably won’t even message me," she couldn't help but wonder. "Maybe this could be something nice, something new." "This could be something worth coming outside again for." Nina made it to her home safely, kicked her shoes off and lay across the bed. She fell asleep with a smile on her face and phone in hand.
8:15 am
"Are you up?" Lyric
8:16 am
"Yes" Nina