Falling in love wasn’t part of the plan.

Lyric has always been a bit sheltered, even a little odd. Never knowing quite where she fit in. A summer in Queens may just be what she needs to come out of her shell. 

Summer #3

As if she could feel her mother’s worry, Lyric looked over her shoulder and spotted the rented Camry still in the parking lot. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her friends.

“My mother is trippin’. She is still in the parking lot.”

“Your moms be buggin’,” Janae commented. “First she went off about that little bit of makeup we sent you. Now she stuck in the parking lot. What she think we gon’ do to you?”

Lyric grinned at her friend and put her arm around Janae’s shoulder. Over the last three years Lyric truly warmed up to the twins. She didn’t have to fake having the same interests anymore. Once she really got to know them, having different interests didn’t matter because they shared enough of the same likes to be great friends.

“She thinks y’all are a bad influence on me,” Lyric joked.

“We are!” Giselle shouted as she grabbed Lyric’s suitcase and pulled her friend towards the building door. “Girl, we’re about to be in high school! We are going to be bad influences all summer!”

Lyric waved goodbye to her mom, urging her to leave. She didn’t stick around to see how long Kendra stayed in the parking lot. Legend was still at work so Lyric let herself and the girls into the apartment so she could put her stuff up and they could get back outside where the action was.

“Have you seen my brother yet?” Lyric asked. She unzipped her suitcase and started unpacking like Legend expected.

“Yo! Sincere got fine this year!” Denae shouted and fell back on the bed. “His whole squad got cute. My mama said it must be somethin’ in the water in Atlanta.”

“First of all,” Giselle said with a roll of her neck. “My brother has always been cute and you know it. Don’t act like all these bum bitches out here ain’t been checkin’ for Josh. But you are right about Sincere though.” She fanned herself and fell out on the bed next to Denae. “That nigga is taller and finer! When do they get back? I know they ain’t stayin’ in Atlanta all summer now that you’re here.”

“I don’t know,” Lyric answered. “That’s why I asked if you seen him.”

Jenae giggled and grabbed some clothes out of Lyric’s suitcase to make the unpacking go faster.

“You really want to know if Knight is back. Don’t front.”

“Yeah, that’s it,” Giselle agreed. “Lyric loves her some Knight. She couldn’t wait to get back here to see her little boyfriend.”

“Knight is not my boyfriend,” Lyric replied but her denial didn’t hide the blush creeping across her cheeks.

Only Giselle and the twins were privy to the fact that Lyric’s crush on Knight started last summer and had grown immensely since she last saw him. She knew it was wrong to be crushing on her brother’s best friend, especially since he and Sincere were six years older than her. It was just a crush though. It didn’t matter because Knight would never violate Sincere or Legend that way. He didn’t even like her like that. She was and would always be Baby Sin or Lil Sis.