Edwin P.O.V.
This week at the museum was actually quite eventful because this was the interns last week of their summer research projects. On Thursday, they all presented their research posters in the hallway outside of the lab and I thought that they were quite interesting in my opinion. After that, we had a small gathering that included some food and we said our farewells to the summer interns. Even when it was a little sad to see the interns leave to prepare to go back to school, all week I was kind of nervous for this weekend because my ten-year high school reunion is this Saturday. Jasiri is my plus one, and friend Kendall is also meeting up with us with her new boyfriend Jamal; I told Jasiri about it and she was totally fine with it and couldn't wait to meet one of my high school friends ahead of time. Plus, perhaps our outing being a double date could alleviate potential nervousness or stress before the event. Another reason that I'm nervous is that I have not spoken or contacted many of them in almost ten years and I'm curious to see exactly how much has changed with them.
Anyways, we went to our usual table in the cafe for our lunch break and just chatted as usual.
"I can't believe that the summer interns are finished with their summer research, and I was just starting to get to know them, particularly that one who frequented the Thermocycler in our lab, what was their name…..Laraine! That was it! Yeah I'm going to miss her...I hope she interns here again next summer…" Makini said.
"Oh yeah, I loved her too, I also found Konjit to be a remarkably intelligent young woman, although she does seem to be shy at times, either way she was an intelligent, curious and open-minded person." Vuruga said.
"Oh….and remember Ron, who used to always be late for the morning briefing sessions…" Pete said.
"Yeah, I remembered him and there was also Sabryna who was always the first one there, sometimes showing up an hour early." I said.
"Then there was Franco who always seemed to have the most unexpecting conversation topics whenever we got to chat with them during breaks." Bupu said.
"I know how you guys feel, today was the last day for the interns in our department too. I remembered we had one named Yosef who used to be a major help for us in many of our projects…." Jasiri said.
"Although he used to bud into our conversations a lot, but he was nowhere as bad as Wilson, who was constantly distracted from his work and even did some light damage on one of our specimens. I couldn't count how many times I have critiqued or yelled at him over the past couple of months. Although not all of the interns were bad, I liked that one intern, Madhavi, she was nice and focused on her work." Makuu said.
"So what are you guys up to this weekend?" Vuruga asked.
"Well this weekend I have some gathering with people from my self-defense class, How about you guys?" Makini said.
"Nothing special, just my usual weekend routine." Bupu said.
"Same." Makuu replied.
"Actually, Ma Tembo invited me to one of her yoga class's sessions so I will be trying that out on Saturday." Pete said.
"That's cool! I actually tried it once and let's just say that sometimes, Ma Tembo's session could do some intense poses. After that, I just decided to stick with pottery as a hobby and if I decide to to take up yoga again, I'll make sure to take a beginner's class next time." Vuruga replies.
"Yeah I would probably do the same if I were you. All I will be doing is just going bowling with a couple of friends tomorrow. What are you doing this weekend Vuruga?" Beshte said.
"I actually will be attending a session of my pottery class this Sunday while Saturday I will mostly just complete some errands. What about you Edwin, what are you up to this weekend?" Vuruga asked me.
"Well actually tomorrow Jasiri and I are going to my ten-year reunion for my old high school." I replied.
"That sounds interesting, I remembered going to my ten year reunion a few years ago and it was good to see some of my old friends, but many others continued to mention the 'sloppy legs' story over and over again. It also didn't help that the girl involved in the 'sloppy legs' story, who is now my sister-in-law, showed up with my brother, which only encouraged propagation of the story. I wish you luck with yours Edwin." Pete said.
"Yeah same, to be honest, I just skipped my ten-year reunion, it would have just been too awkward for me to see everyone that used to pick on me, although I did have a few friends in high school, we just met separately at another location so no one will point fingers at me when I get to my mandrill form." Makini said.
"I know how you feel Makini, I went to my ten-year reunion, and I transformed into my hippo form at some point, and all of them, except for a few close friends, just moved as far away from me as possible….Wait Jasiri? Aren't you worried about how Edwin's former classmates will see you in your hyena form?" Beshte said.
"To be honest, I am a little nervous but to be honest, I do not think there will be any reactions that I have not already seen before." Jasiri said.
"Okay, and just in case any of their reactions might get too bothersome for you, we can leave any time you start to feel uncomfortable…" I replied.
"Thanks for understanding my concerns...though I don't think there will be any major problems involving it." Jasiri said.
"You're welcome and actually, my ten year reunion already happened two months ago but I never went. High school was pretty much torture for me, and I was never really close with anyone in high school except for two people; which were a single friend and an ex-boyfriend, and the ex-boyfriend and I had an awkward break-up, so now the single friend is the only person from my high school that I still talk to." Jasiri said.
"Yeah, I feel you Jasiri, I kind of had a similar situation in high school as well, the friends I really had were just some people I was on the volleyball team with." Makini said.
"Really?...You played volleyball?" Pete asked.
"Yeah, I played during my four years of high school, I was moderately good at it, I wasn't the best at it….but it wasn't the worst at it either." Makini said lightly chuckling at the end.
"Yeah, I feel you Makini, I was the same with the chess club at my high school, I enjoyed it but I knew that I was not the number one player in the club." I replied.
Soon we continued talking about other topics of the day, after our lunch break we went back to our labs to work and I have to say….the lab is pretty quiet without the interns around. The rest of the day, we continued our research and nothing else really went on that day.
The next day, I am getting my place ready for Jasiri, Kendall and Jamal to come over. I dusted, vacuumed, sweeped and cleaned around my apartment. I finished cleaning at around 12:00 PM and I decided to get dressed in some formal clothes to attend the event tonight. So I went to my room and put on several items of formal clothing, which include a white button-down shirt, a grey suit jacket with matching pants, black dress shoes and black tie. After putting on these clothes, I placed my hair in a ponytail to make sure it doesn't get in my eyes.
As I continued to do some last minute prepping for my guest, I heard the text tone ring from my phone, I saw it was a text from Jasiri that states:
Hey Edwin, I just want to let you know that I am five minutes away from your place, possibly later if the Lyft gets stuck in traffic.
I just replied with: okay, no problem.
After I got dressed, I went into my kitchen where I grabbed a glass pitcher from one of my cabinets and I filled it with water and after placing it on the counter. Just in case someone wanted tea, I took out some tea bags and I heated another kettle of water on the stove and placed it on the counter after it finished heating up. I also placed a pound cake I bought at a store.
Mere seconds after I placed the pound cake on the counter, I heard the buzzer by my front door sound. I walked over to the buzzer and pressed the buzzer to see who was there.
"Hello, who is this?" I asked through the intercom.
"It's Jasiri, I just arrived at the door." Jasiri replied.
"Okay, I'm going to unlock the front door for you and you can just come upstairs to my apartment." I said as I pressed another button to let her in the building.
I finished placing plates on the kitchen counter for the pound cake, and as I placed the last plate on the counter, I heard a knock on my door, which made me go in a beeline towards the door. I asked who was behind the door, to which Jasiri said it was her. I opened the door to see Jasiri in her human form, wearing the same dress she wore at the gala a month ago but with a different pair of shoes whose heels were half the size of the ones she wore at the gala last month. She also wore a light code of what appeared to be lipstick that was the same shade as her lips without makeup, which was just a brownish pink color.
"Hi Edwin! How's it going?"Jasiri said as she came in and we gave each other a hug.
"I'm good Jas, just getting some stuff ready, and Kendall and Jamal will be here in about ten minutes so you can just have a seat, relax or whatever. Would you like a slice of pound cake, or anything to drink?" I asked as Jasiri walked into my place.
"What do you have to drink?" She asked.
"Well I have some ice water, but I also have some tea if you prefer a warmer beverage?" I replied.
"I think I would prefer the tea, thank you." Jasiri said.
"Would you prefer chai, jasmine, hibiscus…" I said going through my tea bags.
"Chai would be fine." Jasiri said.
I grabbed two of the ceramic mugs I laid out on the counter, filled them both with the water from the tea kettle and I placed a chai tea bag in one for Jasiri, along with a hibiscus tea bag in the other one for myself.
I brought the mugs to the coffee table and took a seat next to Jasiri.
"So, how's it going Jasiri, anything interesting going on in the fossil lab?" I asked.
"Nothing much, though it will be much quieter since the interns left." She said.
"Yeah, it's the same with us in the genetics lab, the interns were such a presence in our lab and even when I have only been at the museum for over two months, I felt that they were a major presence in the lab this summer." I said.
"Yeah, I understand how you feel." Jasiri said.
We talked for a few more minutes until I heard my door buzzer sound off again. I walked up to it and pressed the button .
"Who is it?" I asked the intercom.
"Hi Edwin, it's Kendall, Jamal and I are at the front door, can you please let us in?" A voice called.
"Sure thing Kendall, I'll unlock the front door and when you come in, just either walk up or take the small elevator to the third floor and my place will be on the first door to the left." I said.
"Okay, thank you." Kendall replied back.
I went back to the coffee table to notify Jasiri of Kendall and Jamal's arrival. We continued to chat for two minutes until I heard a knock on the door. Jasiri and I stood up and I opened the door to see it was the couple themselves.
Kendall was about the same height as me about 5'5, she had brown eyes, around which she wore a thin layer of eye shadow, while wearing dark red lipstick. She had black curly hair that was tied into a bun, wearing a cyan dress with thin straps and black shoes. She also carried a brown handbag with her. The man with her, who I assume is Jamal is around 5'8, with brown eyes, short dark hair and wearing a pair of frameless glasses. He wore a black suit jacket over a white undershirt with a navy blue tie, along with black dress slacks and a pair of black shoes.
As I opened the door, I was excited to see my long-time friend since it has been over a year or two since I last saw her in-person.
"Hey Kendall, long-time no-see old friend!" I said while we gave each other a hug.
"Same, I think it's been almost two years since we met up with each other. How's life been for you?" Kendall said as she entered the apartment.
"It's been good, as you know I am doing my genetic research at the Field Museum now, I left Genico Pharmaceuticals almost three months ago. I'm much happier now than I was then." I said.
"That's good to hear, how's your research there going?" Kendall asked.
"My research is going well, thanks for asking, although some items might get a little tedious since our interns' summer shifts ended. How's your life?" I asked.
"My life is going great, I just got a promotion, I am now a marketing coordinator for the Chicago regional office of Whole Foods." Kendall replied back.
"That's amazing Kendall, just out of curiosity….do you think you can try giving an old friend a discount on a few items?" I said, jokingly asking a later question.
"Trust me, I tried asking the others if I could get a discount on Whole Foods merchandise and long story short it didn't work, so the chances of me getting it for you are slim." Kendall replied.
"Damn…" I jokingly replied.
"Oh and to add on to our conversation about our lives, this is my boyfriend Jamal…" She gestured towards the man next to her.
"Nice to meet you Jamal." I said as I shook his hand.
"Likewise, it's a pleasure to meet you too." Jamal said as Jasiri came closer to the group.
"Hi Kendall! Hi Jamal! My name's Jasiri, and I am Edwin's date for the reunion. It's a pleasure to meet you guys." Jasiri said as she shook each of their hands.
"Yes, it's nice to meet you too and I have to say, I love your dress. It looks perfect on you!" Kendall said enthusiastically.
"Thank you! I had recently had it dry cleaned. I love your dress as well! It really matched with your bag!" Jasiri said.
Third Person P.O.V.
"Thank you! So, just out of curiosity, how do you know Edwin?" Kendall asked her.
"Oh, Edwin and I both work at the Field Museum, except he works in the genetics lab while I work in the fossil lab." Jasiri said.
"That's cool, so you actually handle the bones and fossils the museum receives, such as the ones that go on exhibit?" Kendall asked.
"Yes, I aid in the handling and preparation of all of them. Even when Edwin and I work in different departments, we still get together during our lunch breaks and even outside of work we talk to each other, we've actually been on two dates already.." Jasiri said.
"Really?! Two dates? That's good for both of you? Are you guys seeing each other or…" Kendall asked, which provoked Jasiri to approach Kendall's ear to whisper something.
"I'm trying to get to the relationship level but we seem to be taking it slow for now to see what it feels like." Jasiri said.
"I totally get it, that was essentially my first month with Jamal." Kendall said, which caused both of them to let out a laugh.
"So Edwin told me the two of you went to high school together.."Jasiri said.
"Yeah, we both went to Hemingway together, as well as hung out on multiple occasions, even when we did not have a lot of classes together. We still managed to maintain contact with each other despite going to different colleges and different career paths. Just out of curiosity, did you go to high school here in Chicago as well?" Kendall said.
"Oh no, I actually went to school in Milwaukee." Jasiri said.
"That's a funny coincidence, I have a cousin that lives in Milwaukee! I believe in the Story Hill area." Kendall said.
"Oh yeah, I know where that neighborhood is. I lived in the Havenwoods area….Also just out of curiosity, sorry if this is an inappropriate question but when you guys were in high school...did you and Edwin ever….dated?." Jasiri said.
After Jasiri asked that question, Kendall laughed a little bit.
"Oh no….Edwin and I never dated….we were and will always only be friends and besides, even if he was interested in me, I already was focusing much of my romantic intentions on another guy we knew back then." Kendall replied, while Jasiri took a mental sigh of relief
Edwin P.O.V:
While we continued to chat with each other, I want to get to know Jamal better since I have never met him before.
"So Jamal, how long have you and Kendall been dating?" I asked.
"We've been dating for about seven months, we first met at a speed dating event at this hotel and after that we exchanged contact info, went on a few dates and soon after that we were in a relationship." He replied.
"That's cool, so have you lived in Chicago for a long time?" I asked.
"Not exactly, I lived here for about three years, I grew up in Seattle, and completed both my undergrad and graduate studies at Penn. Eventually I got a position as a programmer for a company here in Chicago and I moved from Philadelphia to here." Jamal said.
"Interesting, which company do you work for exactly?" I asked.
"I work for a company called CodeNet, in which we aid in the coding for the software for many medical groups across both Chicago and other cities and towns across Illinois." Jamal said.
"Oh yeah, I've heard of that company before. I have a friend who is a resident at Rush University Medical Center and they have told me that they frequently use software from CodeNet." I said.
"Oh yes, Rush is a frequent client of our services. So Kendall told me that you guys have known each other for fourteen years, is that right?" Jamal asked, I nodded in response.
"Yeah, we met each other during our freshman year of high school, we were in the same Intro to Orchestra class at the time, I played double bass and she played the violin. After that class we started to talk to each other more during the passing period and found out that we had two more classes together that year. We began to hang out both at school and outside of school much more frequently, even when we had less and less classes in later years of high school with me having a more STEM-based curriculum while Kendall had a more social science based curriculum, although we continued to have orchestra classes together as an elective because our high school required that we take at least one humanities course, plus we found it as a common hobby outside. After we graduated we managed to stay in-touch with each other and occasionally meet up with each other from time-to-time." I replied.
"That's cool, did you guys ever….dated when you were in high school?" Jamal asked, to which I responded with light laughter.
"Kendall and I never dated in high school, we were and still are only friends. Kendall and I are more like relatives rather than romantic interests, and even if I did have any interest in her, she wouldn't have paid attention because she was interested in this other guy in high school….I think his name was Julius...yeah that was it….Julius Steele.." I said as Kendall and Jasiri walked closer to us.
"Oh yeah, I remembered Julius Steele….I used to have a crush on him in high school, but he never gave me the time of day. Eventually I just gave up and I have not really heard from or seen that guy since graduation." Kendall said.
"Yeah, I think the last time I heard about him, Karolina Ricupero told me that he now lives in Houston where he is a geologist for Rice University." I said.
"Oh that's interesting, I always knew that he had an interest in geosciences so that does not surprise me." Kendall said.
"That's funny because geoscience was one of my majors in undergrad, along with anthropology." Jasiri said.
This conversation continued for two more minutes before I realized that I forgot to offer additional guests something to drink or eat.
"Hey, Kendall, Jamal, I am so sorry but I forgot to offer you guys something to drink or eat. If you want I have some pound cake and I have some water or tea if you want?" I asked.
"That's okay, but since you offered, some water would be nice." Kendall said.
"Yeah, I would like one too, along with a slice of pound cake." Jamal said.
"No problem, coming right up." I said, while I headed to the kitchen.
As my three guests continued to converse in the living room, I prepared the beverage and pieces of pound cake. Along with a plate for Jamal, I also made a plate for myself. I first served the beverages to my guests before I brought the pound cake. After bringing the pound cake, we talked for five minutes and then Kendall reached into her handbag and took out a wide book with a thin binding. The book had a light blue cover with some golden yellow root-like designs on it and on the tips of three of the root-like designs, listed the letters "H", "C", and "P" in an almost triangular orientation. I then read the spine of the book which had gold-yellow letters that read "Ernest Hemingway College Prep High School 2009". I could recognize this book as our high school yearbook since I also own a copy.
"Hey Edwin, guys, since the reunion doesn't really begin until 4:00, I was thinking that we could browse through a few pages from our old yearbook to help pass through the time, how does that sound?" Kendall asked.
The rest of us just nodded and agreed to peruse the yearbook for a little bit. As we started looking at the yearbook, some old memories of that time came back that I have not really thought of in years, including some of the classes I took, the people that were in them, the clubs I was in and even some of the teachers I had. When we got to the pages of the faculty departments, I immediately recognized my old AP Calc teacher's perm in the math department photo. Despite his outdated hairstyle,I remembered that he was a cool guy, but man his class was tough, especially the exams...I wonder if he still works at Hemingway. There were also photos of other teachers I had in some of the other faculty pages, ranging from my old AP Bio teacher that used to play music in their classroom when they have no classes, to my old French teacher that used to tell us about their mornings before we began our lessons for each class period. Also at one point, we saw an old photo of me and Kendall in our old orchestra class handling our string instruments. I pretty much had the same long hair then as I do now, but I remembered at the time of the photo, that was the day I tried to experiment with curling my hair and I ended up looking like Weird Al Yankovic for the day, while Kendall's hair was in a braided ponytail compared to the bun she has on today. I blushed when we came upon seeing that picture, while the other three just started laughing….even I started to laugh after a few seconds.
"Edwin….what was up with your hair then?" Jasiri said between laughs.
"Oh shit! I forgot about this picture, that was the first and last time I experimented with my hair in that way." I said while the rest continued to laugh.
"Yeah, I remembered, you practically got roasted all that day and even after you straightened it people still talked about it for a week." Kendall said.
"Yeah...including my own family….my dad didn't stop calling me a 'Weird Al wannabe' until a year after that" I said.
"Moving on from the hair Edwin, you told me the truth when you said you played the double bass, but that bass looked heavy, how did you carry that thing around?" Jamal asked.
"Our high school used block scheduling, so that even when there are seven classes listed on our schedule, they were divided into two groups that each had four classes, with at least one of those classes being present in both blocks depending on the class or classes, so when I had block 1 classes on one day, I had my block 2 classes the next day, and block 1 after that and so on. Essentially I only had that orchestra class every other day, although when I did have it, I got some awkward stares when I carried that thing to and from school on the Red Line. Even when I eventually got used to it, sometimes I still got annoyed at it because I do a bit of my homework on the train both to and from school." I said.
"Yeah, I get it Edwin, when I was in school, I used to use to complete some of my homework on the bus rides home." Jasiri said.
"Same, I did that too." Jamal said.
"Just out of curiosity, do you still play double bass?" Jamal asked.
"Actually yes, I still play it on occasion during my free time. So Kendall, do you still play violin?" I asked.
"Sometimes but not that frequently." Kendall said
"I totally understand how you feel, sometimes it can be difficult." I replied back.
After browsing through several more pages of the yearbook we stopped at the photo of the girl's volleyball team, which Kendall was in at the time. We then encountered a photo on that page in which it was a seventeen year old Kendall in her light blue and gold volleyball uniform and unfortunately this photo if of the time a player from Baker High's volleyball team spiked a volleyball that accidentally hit Kendall on the head.
"Oh man, I remember this, that was when someone from the Baker team spiked a ball to my head. Even when I knew that the player did it by accident, I still felt that hit for a couple of hours after the incident. I remembered that when I first saw this in the yearbook, I went to the person who photographed it to ask them why they used it for the yearbook and all they claimed was that it was a good action shot, but I think that they used that photo most likely for their own amusement." Kendall said.
As I looked at the picture and saw the Baker player, I saw that along with her green and gold uniform, they also had short brown hair, black-framed sports goggles and what appear to be green irises. For some reason, the player looked vaguely familiar to me.
After the volleyball team page, we looked through the other team and club photos in our yearbook which included our National Honor Society photo, my Science Olympiad photo, Kendall's debate team photo, my environmental club photo, Kendall's Spanish Club photo, and my French club photo. We then moved on to the individual senior year photos. In mine, my hair was just the same long brown hair that I have now, wearing a black suit jacket with a grey button down shirt and a blue tie in front of a blue background. My senior year quote was something from a Ralph Ellison book I read in an English class I had a year before I graduated. The quote stated: "Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat" -Ralph Ellison.
We soon got to Kendall's picture, it had the same blue background as in my picture, while she was wearing a sleeveless burgundy wrap dress with her somewhat long black hair in a wavy hairstyle. Her senior quote was from a book about Helen Keller that she talked to me about that year, which stated: "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all-Helen Keller".
As we finished looking at the rest of the yearbook, I quickly remembered something.
"Hey guys, I just remembered that I have some photos from high school in my closet, would you like to see some?" I asked.
Everyone pretty much responded with "Sure, why not", so I went to my closet to find the white envelope of photos and brought it back to the living room so that we were able to peruse through the photos, with the first one was with one of me, Kendall and a few of our other friends sitting in fold-up chairs in-front of the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue.
"Oh yeah, I remember this! We were sixteen and this was when the first iPhone came out and we went to the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue to buy one. Gathering each one of our savings from babysitting, doing odd jobs and alliances we received from our parents, we used our money to buy each of our phones. Who knew that about twelve years later, that would be the first of several phones we would eventually attach a large chunk of our lives to." I said.
"Yeah, I remember this, it was chaos when we got inside the building. I remembered that I was grabbing an iPhone and some guy was approaching behind me and I thought he was going to steal my phone, so I elbowed him in the face. I definitely regret it now, but I guess I was caught up in the hype at the time." Kendall said.
"Oh yeah, and then you found out that the guy you elbowed was our friend Marino, who was trying to get the phone next to the one you were trying to grab. Although I remembered that he eventually got an iPhone that day, despite his swelling and bleeding nose, you guys eventually talked it out later on, after we left the store with our new phones." I said.
"Yeah, though I am still curious about what Marino has been up to lately, I have not seen him in person since graduation, though I follow him on Instagram, he seems to be doing well." Kendall said.
"Oh yeah, I think Marino now works for the math department at Loyola." I said.
"Yeah, I heard that too, I think he became an assistant professor there." Kendall said.
Jasiri P.O.V.
As we looked through the rest of the photos, I thought that it was interesting looking at these photos of Edwin during his teen years, we looked through photos from his prom, his extracurriculars and even some from outside of school. While placing some photos back on the coffee table, I noticed that one accidentally fell off the table, so I picked it up and turned it over to look at it. The photo turned out to be an old holiday card. It had a blue background and the top had the words "Happy Holidays from the Marianis, 2008" written in white letters. With a few small white snowflake designs surrounding the picture. As I looked at the picture, I saw it depicts a family standing on the concrete steps in front of a dark brown wooden door in a dark reddish-brown brick wall. As I took a closer look at the family in the photo, I saw that each person in the photo looked miserable, with each of them having blank expressions on their faces.
One of them, a teenage male that I immediately recognized as Edwin, was wearing a grey button-down shirt, a blue tie and black dress pants. He looked about seventeen years old in the photo. There was another teenager, but a female with long dark blonde hair, with greenish-hazel eyes, and was wearing a red and white blouse with a black skirt. She looked about fifteen in this photo, so I assume that the young woman is the younger sister Edwin told me about, while the two older adults in the back are probably their parents. The woman appears to be in her late-forties while the male appeared to be in his mid-fifties. The woman had moderately long brown hair with brown eyes, and a black dress and the man also had dark brown hair with some noticeable grey patches in his hair. He also had blue eyes, frameless glasses and was wearing a black dress shirt, red tie and black dress pants.
The bottom of the card also had an inscription which read "and a Happy New Year from Sabino, Julia, Edwin and Katrina". It was kind of interesting to see the blank, serious expressions on their faces because the winter holidays usually had a joyous connotation, but on the other hand Edwin did tell me his parents used to fight a lot before they got divorce, so I guess it wasn't that surprising.
"What are you looking at Jasiri?" Edwin asked, which briefly startled me for a little bit, before I handed him the photo, before passing it to Kendall.
"Oh my gosh, I remembered this! This was the last of the holiday cards my family used to do for the holidays, I always hated it. My sister and I were basically dragged into that shit every year, with our parents forcing us to participate in their facade to cover up their flawed marriage. They thought that a decorative Christmas card would cover up the arguing they did at least once a week. Eventually, when Katrina and I got older, and as our parents' marriage continued to deteriorate, it became much harder to hide the charade and when that card was taken, Katrina and I just got tired of playing the sharade and no matter how many times we took the photo, neither of us nor our parents could really hide the tension going on there, so we just picked the best photo out of the ones and we basically stopped doing that tradition that year, and our parents still didn't divorce until two and a half years after that photo was taken." Edwin said.
"Yeah, I think I did remember that you complained about holiday cards at least once every year when we were in high school." Kendall said.
"My family never did holiday cards, when I was younger my family just invited relatives whom I barely knew, telling the same stories every year and obsessing over table centerpieces for some strange reason. Although I did a fair amount of holiday money from some of those relatives, so that's a bit of a bright side." Jamal said.
"Yeah, I was not really big on the holidays either, my parents are such perfectionists and everything had to go their way or nothing when it came to the holidays. I hated it and tried to pretend I was sick every year at that time, but they never fell for it except for the one year I actually did get sick when I was nine. When I was fourteen I began to take volunteer opportunities at soup kitchens and food pantries every holiday, and by that point, the perfectionism from my parents started to wane down when they finally acknowledged that I was growing up and able to make my own decisions in how I want to spend my freetime. What about you Jasiri, what were the holidays like for you?" Kendall said.
"Well….when I was in Tanzania, I did initially enjoy some of the holidays I celebrated there, but when I was nine I moved to the US and I was never really a fan of the holidays commonly celebrated here because of all the commercialization involved in them. Plus Ma-...uhh my legal guardians and I were still trying to adjust to the move, with one of them even going back to school." I carefully said, trying not to reveal all the details of my life to Edwin's friends right now.
"Yeah, I totally understand how you feel. So since you said you were with your legal guardians, I imagine that your parents were no longer in the picture?" Kendall asked.
"Yeah, both my parents died when I was really young, so I was with legal guardians during most of my youth." I replied, thinking back to the dark moments of my past, including those from the drought.
"That's unfortunate, I'm sorry that we brought it up." Jamal said.
"It's fine, it was a long time ago and I actually liked my legal guardians anyway. Eventually, I grew up, went to UW Milwaukee for undergrad, UCLA for my PhD and then ended up moving to Chicago and got a job at the Field Museum." I said.
"Impressive. I hear that UCLA is an excellent grad school!" Jamal said.
"Yeah, it is, but it was also challenging in some cases but I expected that when I first came there." I said with a slight smirk on my face.
"Funny thing, the first time we hung out she initially told me she went to UCLA for undergrad and UIC for grad school, but in her defense we went for a long jog that day and she was still exhausted from it, she eventually told me about UW Milwaukee and UCLA later that day…" Edwin said before I pitched in to finish.
"Although at one point I was an intern at UIC, that was during one summer during my undergrad years." I replied.
"Okay, that's cool." Jamal said.
"Yeah, that's cool, although I did outrun her in that jog though." Edwin said playfully, after which I responded with a playful punch to the arm.
"Oh please, I only went a little slower than you and that was solely because I was a little dehydrated. I would have ran faster than you." I said.
"If that's what you say." Edwin playfully said.
" Hey guys, it's almost 4:30, want to start heading for the reunion?" Kendall asked, and we agreed and began to get up and returned our plates to Edwin's kitchen and prepared to leave.
We soon got our stuff and we walked out the door, and as soon as I got out the door, Edwin gestured to me to come closer, which I did and he began to whisper to me.
"I just want to let you know, just in case you start to feel uncomfortable during the reunion, we can leave anytime you want. I'm sorry if this is so sudden, I just want everything to be alright for-" Edwin whispered before I interrupted him with a slight hug.
"Don't worry Edwin, I'll be alright. I have transformed into my hyena form in front of strangers before. I think everything will be just fine. Sure, some people might stare or gawk but I am used to most of that by now." I said to him while releasing the hug, when we heard Kendall call to us.
"Hey guys, I'm sorry to interrupt you guys, but Edwin can you please lead us to your car?" Kendall said.
"Oh yeah, sure, we'll be right there!" Edwin said, after which all of us started heading downstairs.
Then walked outside of Edwin's building into the parking lot, where we began to walk towards Edwin's black car. We soon entered the car, with me sitting in the passenger seat.
"Okay, just to make sure, everyone has umbrellas with them right? Because I heard it is going to rain later tonight." Edwin said.
All of us replied that we had our umbrellas, soon after that Edwin started the car and started to drive. I soon began to become slightly more pensive because I am still trying to determine where I am with Edwin right now. Are we going towards the full-blown relationship path or is it going to fizzle out after only three dates. I really hope that there is a possibility for a relationship with Edwin, but I also thought the same thing about Kion and looked how that turned out. But no, Edwin is different, he doesn't talk all about himself like Kion did nor mistreat me like he did. Edwin actually cares about my well-being, he's open-minded and actually listens to me while I talk. But on the other hand, I feel-like I might still need more time to really learn more about Edwin to see if we are compatible for a relationship. I am hoping that we can begin a romantic relationship at some point, but if or when that will happen….only time will tell.