What We Learned Along the Way by Nadirah Angail Read Free Book Online Page B

surprise, though, neither of them did
anything. They just stared at her in disbelief. They all looked at
each other in shock. Jaime couldn’t take the tension in the room.
She went back down the stairs and walked out the front door, being
sure to slam it on the way out for effect. She didn’t know where
she was going exactly, but she thought it appropriate to make a
dramatic exit after finally standing up to her parents after so
long. She felt so proud of herself. She couldn’t wait to tell
Aliya. She knew she would be the proudest of her. It was around 9
pm, so she figured Aliya was working at Starr.
    The old Jaime wouldn’t have been caught dead
in Starr by herself, but this new Jaime caught a cab there. After
going a few times with the girls, she realized that Starr actually
wasn’t as bad as she thought. She had always assumed that places
like that were full of drunken men and half naked women, and even
though she had seen some of those, the majority of the crowd seemed
pretty tame and sophisticated, nothing at all like she
expected.
    Jaime wasn’t prepared for the huge crowd at
Starr. There were so many people. It looked more like a club than a
restaurant. Jaime didn’t know that on the weekends, Starr actually
became a club, which would explain why the tables had been moved
and a DJ booth was sitting off to the side. After fighting the
crowd for a few minutes, she finally made it up to the bar. She
looked around and didn’t see Aliya anywhere. She felt someone grab
her hand from behind. She prayed that it was Aliya, because if it
wasn’t, someone was going to have a big problem.
    She turned around and saw Rashad. “I thought
that was you,” he said. “We don’t get too many women in here that
dress that way.”
    “You know you shouldn’t grab a woman’s hand
if she hasn’t asked you to,” she said with an attitude, snatching
her hand away.
    “Whoa, calm down. I’m sorry. It’s just really
loud in here. I didn’t know any other way to get your attention.
What are you doing here, anyway? Something tells me this isn’t your
usual crowd.”
    “Oh, it’s not. I’m looking for Aliya. I have
some great news to tell her,” Jaime said excitedly.
    “I don’t know if she’s in yet, but she should
be here. You can wait in the back if you’re not that comfortable
out here.” The Starr she had been to a few days ago would have been
fine, but this Starr, full of loud music and alcohol, was a bit
much. She followed Rashad to the back and sat down in the break
room.
    “Sorry I can’t keep you company. It’s pretty
busy out there,” Rashad said, happy to have an excuse to get away.
Jaime was confused.
    “I see it’s busy, but you’re a chef and you
don’t seem to be serving food right now. What is there for you to
do?”
    Rashad laughed. “It’s All-You-Can-Eat Wing
Night. Somebody’s gotta cook that chicken,” he said as he walked
back into the kitchen.
    Jaime looked around and assessed the room. It
was pretty plain. It had a sofa, some chairs, a table, a TV and a
refrigerator. She opened the refrigerator, but was disappointed to
see nothing but an opened Sprite and what appeared to be somebody’s
old salad. She was pretty hungry. In her haste to leave her house,
she had forgotten to grab something to eat. She wondered if it
would be too much to ask Rashad for some of those all-you-can-eat
wings. She tried to resist, and made it about 15 minutes, but the
smell was getting to her.
    “Rashad,” she said quietly as she peeked her
head around the corner. There was a lot of commotion, so he didn’t
hear her. “Rashad,” she called again, this time with a little more
bass in her voice. He turned around to see what she wanted. “Sorry
to bother you, but could I have something to eat?” She tried to
sound nice.
    “No problem,” he said. “Hope you like
chicken.” He put four wings on a plate and threw on a few fries,
too.
    “Thank you so much. You don’t know how hungry
I am,” she said.