Little Miami Girl: Antonia and Jahiem's Love Story

by Diamond Johnson

  We finally made our way to South Beach and I was able to find a parking space on the first floor of the parking garage. But before we got out, there were some things that I needed to address with Antonia.

  “Antonia, I was thinking, while we’re here, you can just hang with your other friends from school, and I’ll hang with my friends,” I told her, trying to say it in the sincerest way that I could.

  She looked at me and laughed. “Come on, Tacarra. Why you playing? You know that you’re the only friend that I have from school,” she said, not taking the statement that I had just made seriously.

  “No, Antonia, I’m serious. I’m pretty sure you have somebody from school that you can hang out with while you’re here,” I told her.

  The smile on her face quickly faded once she saw how serious I was. My mom told me to invite Antonia to the beach, she never said that I had to entertain the bitch.

  “Oh yeah. It’s fine. I have a few people that I might see out here that I know from class,” she said. I knew she was lying, but hell, I didn’t care.

  “See, I knew you had somebody else you could hang with. You have to go to work tonight?” I asked her.

  “No, I don’t work Fridays anymore. School work has been getting tougher so I had to cut back a day from work,” she let me know.

  “Okay, so after you finish having fun with your friends, just meet me back over here at the car at five. You’re cool with this, right?” I asked her. Shit, I didn’t care if she was cool with it or not because this was the way it was going to go down.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Have fun with your friends,” she said, sadly and then got out of the car.

  Whew! Now that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.

  Chapter 12: Antonia

  Had I known that Tacarra was going to ditch me as soon as we got to the beach, I would have just taken my ass to school. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why she would invite me somewhere, just to dump me off by myself. I had never been to South Beach, and I didn’t know this area, but yet she was expecting me to hang out with these invisible friends that she thought I had.

  I found myself sitting a very far distance down on the beach from the rest of the seniors. I had taken off my sandals and I was sitting down on the sand as I watched the seniors enjoy their time on senior skip day. I watched as boys messed with the girls and threw some in the water. They had their radios blasting and everybody was dancing and eating some sort of snack that they had out. I decided to get up and I walk toward the water, only standing near the edge and letting my feet get wet.

  I never would have thought that this would have been my first experience at the beach. It’s funny because last night I couldn’t even get myself to fall asleep because I was so damn excited about today. I had been in a funk for the past two months, and when Tacarra invited me yesterday at school, it cheered me up a little bit, even if it was only temporary.

  After my aunt’s boyfriend, Rick had come into my room that night, he did it twice more and he hasn’t been back yet. I don’t know if he felt guilty because the last time I cried so bad or what, but it’s been a little bit over a month, and he hasn’t touched me since. I wanted to so badly to let someone know what I was going through, but I was so damn scared. I waited two months to say something, and what if no one believed me? It’s not like I had any proof or anything. I decided to get those things off of my mind and went back over to the sand to get my shoes, so that I could go and get me some lunch because I was hungry as hell.

  I remember that I had seen a Johnny Rockets, so I was just going to go there and eat. I went over to the water to rinse off my feet and slid my shoes back on. I crossed the street and now I was on the other side of the beach where the restaurants and things were.

  “Antonia!” I heard someone call.

  I turned around and it was Jah. Oh my God, he looked so damn fine. He was wearing a yellow and white Jordan short set, and he had his long dreads in five big plats that were nice and neat, like he had just got them done. He had a pair of tan Sperry’s on his feet and his hazel eyes shined even more because of the sun.

  A smile plastered itself on my face as I made my way over to him. I couldn’t control myself, so I wrapped my arms around him and he did the same, resting his arms on my waist as I laid my head on his chest. He placed a tender kiss on my forehead and I didn’t want him to ever let me go. I hadn’t seen Jah since the night he took me over to his mother’s house, and I had missed him.

  “What’s up, lil’ mama? You good? What you doing out here?” he asked me. We pulled apart from each other and I looked at him.

  “Senior skip day,” I told him.

  He laughed, “So why you out here by yourself? Where your friends at?” he asked.

  “Well, the one friend that I did have, she ditched me to go and hang out with her other friends,” I told him and watched as a scowl formed on his handsome face.

  “And she brought you out here?” he asked me.

  “Yeah,” I told him.

  “Don’t call that bitch your friend because a real friend wouldn’t have let you be yourself, while she went to hang with some other bitches. Shit foul as fuck, and you don’t need to be surrounding yourself with people like that,” he told me and I nodded my head.

  “You hungry? Where you want to eat at?” he asked me.

  “I saw a Johnny Rockets, so I was just going to go there,” I told him.

  “If that’s what you want to eat, then come on,” he told me.

  I smiled as we walked to Johnny Rockets. We made it there in about ten more minutes and took a spot to eat outside, at one of the numerous covered tables.

  “Hello, welcome to Johnny Rockets. I’m Phillip, and I’ll be your waiter today. Can I start the two of you off with something to drink?” he asked us.

  “Let me get a Coke. What you want, Antonia?” Jah asked me as he stared at the menu.

  “I’ll take a Sprite,” I said.

  “Okay, I’ll be right back with your drinks,” Phillip said and then he walked off.

  “I ain’t never been to this restaurant, and I work right across the street. A nigga only came here because you said that this is where you wanted to eat,” Jah said, causing me to laugh a little.

  “Where do you work at? I didn’t know you worked out here,” I said in disbelief.

  “You see that tattoo shop right there?” he asked me, pointing across the street.

  My eyes scanned the direction in which he was pointing and I nodded my head. It was a big ass red and black building called Miami Tattoos.

  “That’s my business right there. I own that shop,” he said proudly.

  I knew never to judge a book by its cover, but I honestly just assumed that Jah was a dope boy. Number one, he walked around with large amounts of money in his pockets, wrapped up in rubber bands. He knew damn near all of the niggas that stayed in the apartments where I lived, not to mention the damn car that he drove. I knew my reasons were probably crazy to think that he sold drugs for a living, but that was the purpose of assuming, it was meant to make an ass out of yourself.

  “Wow, that explains all of the tattoos you have,” I told him as his arms lay out on the table, filled with tats. He was wearing a polo shirt, which he had the first two bottoms undone, making the few tattoos that he had on his neck visible.

  “You can say that. I have a love for art. What about you, Ms. Antonia, what do you love?” he asked me.

  I couldn’t stare at him in his eyes for too long because it was almost as if he were hypnotizing my ass when he did that. And what was up with this love topic? Why has it been a topic of discussion lately?

  “I guess you can say I love school. It’s the only time I really get a break from the problems that I have at home,” I told him.

  As I was answering his question, Tacarra walked past with her group of friends, and they all stared in our direction. I immediately felt the hate that they radiated my way, which caused me to bend my head down. Jah rea
ched over and lifted my head back up.

  “You know them or something?” he asked me.

  “I know three of them. The one with the curls in her head is the one I came here with,” I told him.

  “You got anything in her car that you left in there?” he asked me.

  “Yeah, my book bag is in there,” I told him.

  He nodded his head and then stood up. “Ay! Come here,” he yelled toward Tacarra and her friends.

  They all looked back and started coming in our direction. I looked at this man like he was crazy, but I didn’t say anything. They wall walked over to Jah with school girl smiles on their faces as they admired how fine he was.

  “Antonia said she left her book bag in your car. Go get it and bring it back over here. You ain’t got to worry about dropping her off at home. I’ll make sure she gets there,” Jah said to Tacarra and she looked at me.

  “My sister know you out here fuckin’ with the homeless?” Meccah asked Jah, referring to me.

  “Ay bitch, watch your mothafuckin mouth! Fuck your sister by the way! You saying that shit like that’s my bitch or something! Like I’m supposed to be scared of her ass. Tynesha don’t run shit but her damn mouth, you remember that,” Jah said and I smiled inwardly at him taking up for me.

  “Bring her book bag, we’ll be over here when you get back,” Jah said, taking his seat again and they all walked away, but not before they all gave me hateful stares.

  A part of me was happy that Jah had taken up for me, but then another part wasn’t so happy because I knew for a fact that whatever friendship Tacarra and I had was definitely now over. I could tell from the way she looked at me when she walked away.

  “Don’t let them bitches talk about you like that, Antonia! You let them get away with it once, they’ll consider you to be weak and they’ll keep doing that shit. I understand that it’s four of them and it’s one of you, but you got to stand up for yourself. Matter of fact, you don’t even need to be hanging with them bitches. They fuckin’ miserable, and they got to put on all of that damn makeup to feel good about themselves. Don’t ever feel like because you not dressed the way they are and because you not wearing a shit load of makeup, looking like a damn clown, that you’re not beautiful because you are! All of that extra shit don’t mean a damn thing to me,” Jah said.

  I assumed that he would be attracted to Tacarra and her friends, and never thought that he would see something in me. When you go so long not seeing anything in yourself, you expect people to feel the same way.

  “You two ready to order?” Phillip asked, coming back over to the table and placing our drinks down in front of us.

  Jah looked at me, indicating for me to go ahead and place my order first. I saw a few things that I wanted and I didn’t know when the next time would be there to eat, so I decided to order all of it that I wanted.

  “Okay, I’m going to have the smoke house double with one half onion rings and the other half the American fries, with a strawberry shake,” I said and Jah looked over at me and smirked.

  “And for you, sir?” Phillip asked.

  “Let me just get the rocket double, with the original American fries,” Jah said.

  Phillip then took both of our menus and walked away.

  “I want to see your little ass eat all that damn food,” Jah joked.

  I may be small, but I was greedy as hell and I could eat. I think I was like this because it was rarely ever any food in the house, so when it was, I always took advantage of it. We sat and talked, and a few minutes later, I saw Tacarra and the girls heading in our direction, with Tacarra holding my book bag. Jah stood up and took the bag out of her hands and set it next to him.

  “Damn, girl. What the hell you got in this damn bag? Bricks?” he asked me.

  Laughing, I said, “No, I have seven classes and I make sure I have a folder for each class, plus pencils and stuff like that. Oh, and my uniform is in there too because my aunt thinks that I’m at school right now,” I told him.

  “Tell me about your aunt? What type of person is she?” Jah asked.

  I didn’t want to give off too much information on my aunt, but I didn’t want to lie either. “I mean, let’s just say I’m Cinderella and she’s my wicked stepmother. Only, her temper is a little bit worse,” I said, hoping he was able to read between the lines without me going into details.

  “Why you always do that?” Jah asked me.

  “Do what?” I asked, raising my eyebrows in confusion.

  “You never answer the questions straightforward. You give fuckin’ similes and metaphors and shit, leaving a nigga guessing what your ass be talking about,” he said.

  I stared at him for a minute and then I decided to let him in on a little bit.

  “I have a very hard time letting people into my personal business because I honestly feel like no one really cares. But what I will tell you is that I pray to God every night, asking him to help my living situation get a little bit better. Also, the things that I have endured over the years, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. As far as my aunt, I don’t know what I did to make her treat me the way that she does, and I wish that there was something that I could do to change her ways. All I want her to do was treat me the same way that she does her children,” I told him.

  “Let me ask you something. If you don’t want to answer it, that’s fine and I won’t press you,” he said and I nodded my head, telling him to go ahead and ask. “The bruises. She put them there?”

  I stared into his eyes, wondering if I should tell him the truth or not. I could see that he cared, but I was so scared to trust him. I didn’t want him to take my secrets and tell anybody. I could handle the situation that I was going through with my aunt. Just to think that in a few more months, hopefully I would be attending University of Miami, and I will be receiving all of the scholarships that I had applied for. I knew that I was strong enough to take a few more beatings from her because I would be out of her house soon.

  “Yes,” I said, short and sweet.

  Jah nodded his head and then left the situation alone. We sat in silence until the food came. When Phillip placed our food in front of us, I said my grace and then dug in. I had proved Jah wrong and finished up all of my food.

  “That’s crazy. I just knew damn well you wasn’t going to finish all of that food,” he said. Phillip had come back with the check and Jah placed a fifty-dollar bill on the table and stood up. He grabbed my backpack and draped it across one of his shoulders.

  “I want to see your shop,” I told him once we started walking.

  He grabbed my hand and then led me across the street. We walked into the place, and I guess red and black was his favorite color because seems like everything in the shop was either red or black. I looked around the shop at the different pictures that he had in frames hanging on the wall. Wow, this man was talented. He had done some of Lil Wayne, Tyga, Chris Brown, and the Game’s tattoos, just to name a few. He showed me the six rooms that he had in the building, and of course, his was the biggest.

  All of the men there were currently doing tattoos and they all said waved at me once Jah introduced them to me. Right now, we were in his office and I was sitting down in one of the chairs.

  “I bet your mom must be really proud of you. Twenty-three years old, running your own business. That’s great,” I let him know.

  “Yeah, she’s happy. Hell, as long as I’m not here following in my father’s footsteps, then she’s proud of anything that I do,” he said, sitting down at his desk.

  “Where’s your father? What does he do?” I asked him. Hell, he was asking me all type of questions about my personal life, so I felt like I could do the same.

  “He’s in prison for murder. He’ll be in there for the rest of his life. He was out here selling drugs though before he got locked up,” Jah said.

  “Oh wow, I’m sorry to hear that,” I told him.

  I knew that couldn’t possibly be a good feeling, knowing that your father would be
caged away like an animal for the rest of his life.

  “No biggie. I talk to the man almost every day. What about you? What’s something you have to be proud of? What them grades looking like?” Jah asked me.

  “I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I’m a bit of a smartass. I’ll show you right now,” I said, standing up from my seat.

  I went to the Apple desktop that he had on his desk and logged onto Pinnacle. Pinnacle was a website that all high school students used to check their grades. I typed in my information, and my grades for the first semester popped up, including the grades that I had right now for the 2nd semester, even though they weren’t final yet. First semester, I made straight A’s and right now, I had straight A’s too and finals were coming up. If I aced all of my tests, then I would be bringing home straight A’s again.

  “Wow. AP World History, AP Human Geography, AP Psychology, AP European History, AP Physics, AP Calculus, and AP Language and Composition, and you got all damn A’s. Wait, and you’re number two in your graduating class!” Jah said, visibly excited for me. “You damn right you’re a smart ass,” he said with a smile on his face. “No wonder that book bag is so damn heavy. That’s sexy as hell, girl, don’t let nobody ever tell you that it’s not,” he said to me.

  To see him so excited about my success caused my emotions to get the best of me, and before I knew it, tears were falling from my eyes. Only this time, they weren’t tears of hurt or pain, they were tears of joy.

  “Chill, chill, I was just playing about the book bag. Come on now,” Jah said, picking me up and then sitting me down on top of his desk. I wiped my eyes and shook my head no.

  “I’m not crying because of that,” I said through my tears.

  I allowed myself some time to get it together and then I continued. “It’s just that no one has ever been this happy about something that I’ve done. It’s tears of joy, that’s all,” I told him.

  He pulled his chair up closer to mine and we were staring at each other face to face. It’s like this moment felt so perfect, and this was how I imagined our first kiss to be. He stood up from his chair and walked closer to me, slightly opening my legs and placing himself in the middle of me. He dipped his head down and placed a soft kiss on my lips. God, his lips were so damn soft! It’s like all the shyness had exited out of my body, and before I knew it, I was slowly sucking on his tongue. His hands rested on the small of my back as I had mine draped around his neck. This was my very first time tongue kissing, but he was taking it slow with me. A few minutes into the kiss, and I had pretty much got the hang of things.