Hood Ornaments

Tori almost didn’t hear the light rapping on her door. She rolled over to check Ladee’s bed, but as usual it was empty. Ladee was a different girl than she was at the beginning of the semester. At first Tori was worried, but then she saw Ladee on campus all gothic with blue-black hair and dramatic make-up. She almost didn’t recognize her.

She sprang out of her bed thinking Ladee forgot or lost her key again, but when she opened the door, it was Michael. Tori was so surprised, she gasped.

“Were you expecting someone else?” He asked her in a half serious tone.

“Actually, yeah. I didn’t think you were coming until later. I thought you were Ladee.”

Michael sighed and shook his head, “She went home.”

“Oh,” Tori shrugged, yawned and trudged back to bed leaving Michael in the doorway.

“You want me to come back tomorrow?” He asked before he sat down on the foot of her bed.

“Nah, no.” She answered with her eyes shut while lifting the comforter up welcomingly. “Just lay here with me for a little while.”

Michael smirked, “You sure?”

“C’mon Michael, I am tired. Wake me up in an hour. I’ll do your hair.” She whined.

As he got next to her in the bed, Michael chuckled, “One hour?”

“Or two. Just hush, I’m trying to sleep.”

He kissed her shoulder, but she shrugged him off of while whispering through clenched teeth, “I swear for God Michael if you don’t let me sleep there ain’t gon be a hat big enough to cover the mess on yo head.”

He giggled and playfully whispered in her ear, “And if you don’t wake up in two hours, I’m still gonna look like a hot mess, so you might as well get your tail up now.”

“Ugh, you are impossible!” Tori said while tossing the covers off of her.

Again Michael chuckled as he got out of her way, “And you’re adorable.”

“Not when I’m woken up I’m not,” She said as she got the rat tail comb and rubber bands out of her night stand. She flopped down on the foot of the bed. Michael sat down on the floor between her legs. Tori pushed his head down and began parting and combing his hair with vigor causing Michael to wince and hunch his shoulders in pain.

“Am I hurtin you?”

“Nah, Victoria, I sporadically wince. It’s a form of Tourette’s.”

Tori sucked her teeth, “Man up, you woke me up. The quicker I get done, the quicker I can go back to sleep.”

“Casualties be damned.” Michael retorted.

Tori giggled, then stopped abruptly slapping Michael on the shoulder with the comb, “Oh! That’s what I wanted to ask you. Why did Ladee go home?”

“Um, I know she’s been lookin rough lately, but me saying “casualties be damned” reminded you of Ladee?”

“No fool, that’s awful. When I am sleepy, I am sporadic.”

“Good one!” Michael chuckled.

“I try.” She responded. “But no seriously, is Ladee okay?”

Michael sighed heavily, “Nah not really.” There was an awkward silence between them before Tori slapped him with the comb again, “Are you gonna tell me what is goin on?”

“Are you gonna stop hitting me with that damn comb?!” He playfully snapped.

“I don’t make any promises when I am tired.”

Michael chuckled, but then, he too, abruptly stopped, “Ladee’s in bad shape.”

“In what way?”

“She’s on somethin. I think she’s bein influenced by that crowd she hangs around. Everything about her now is dark. Almost dead-like.”

“That could be explained by weed and alcohol.” Tori said matter of fact as she started to braid his hair in thick braids.

Michael shook his head no so it wouldn’t disturb Tori’s braiding, “Nah, they found her one night running down the street singing.”

“Again, weed or alcohol.”

“Naked”

“Or wet!!! What the fuck Michael, naked? How come I am just now finding out about this?”

“Would you want somebody to know that about you?”

“Hell fuckin yeah. Wet is dangerous. Back home, I can name at least three people who had murdered children, babies while on that shit. As her roommate, I had a right to fuckin know. That shit never gets out yo system. You can have flashbacks for years!!!”

Tori was oblivious to Michael’s wincing; because she was also oblivious to how hard she was pulling his hair.

Skeptically, Michael asked, “How do you know all this Victoria?” He then hunched his shoulders waiting for his hair to be pulled again. Tori was stunned twice in a time span of three seconds. She put the comb down and leaned over Michael’s shoulder.

“Am I hurting you?” She asked sincerely.

“Yeah, a little bit.”

“Why didn’t you just say something?” She said as she resumed her normal position and began massaging his scalp.

“Because I was a little stunned by your knowledge of street pharmaceuticals.” He shrugged matter of fact. Tori’s face wrinkled up into a confused frown.

“I’m surprised you don’t,”

Michael sighed heavily, “Look just because I am from here doesn’t mean I am here. I am just as shocked about Ladee as you are. She is so talented, intelligent…”

Tori cut him off, “…Sheltered. Just like you must have been.”

“Are you suggesting I am uppity because of where I grew up?”

“Michael,” she explained and she began to re-braid his hair, “I am not saying that at all. I guess what I am saying is just like you’re surprised about the things I know. I made an assumption that you knew them as well. As far as Ladee is concerned, if you take a sheltered, affluent, young girl out of her environment and leave her basically unsupervised, she is gonna experiment. You have a better chance because you are male.”

“I see what you are saying.”

“Good, so I didn’t mean to be assumptive.”

“No, but can I ask you something?” Michael tilted his head back and batted his eyes at her?

Tori smiled softly, “Why do I know the things I know?” She tilted Michael’s head back down so she could finish braiding. She was tired, but it was like she got her second wind, “I grew up differently from you. No one in my neighborhood was wealthy. Some of them weren’t even working class. Maybe, what I knew was instilled in me to keep me safe, so I wouldn’t follow in my parents’ footsteps. They both died so young. I didn’t want to end up a statistic, I guess.

“But you’re in college; you’ve already defied the odds.”

Tori shook her head and yawned, “Nah, I’ll defy the odds if I graduate, make something of myself and give back to the community.”

Now Michael was yawning as he felt his head, “Um no delicate pattern, just big thick cornrows, huh?”

“I’m going to sleep now.” Tori answered as she laid back on the bed.

Michael propped himself up and kissed her forehead while she dreamt about opening a creative therapy center for abused women.