Chapter 2: Love at First Sight

We hadn't even finished moving in to our new digs, when I saw the prettiest girl ever in my young life. She was stunning. Strikingly stunning in her flower print summer dress and matching sunlit sandals, her hair fixed in curled pig tails and skin caramel complicated. Tall for her age, she was probably an inch or so shorter than me, but she was still as fine as they come at eleven.

"My name is Gabriel, but my friends call me Gabby," she said, running up to me as I grabbed the last of my belongings off the makeshift moving truck Mom's brother Unc used to help us relocate. "What's your name?"

She was crass, and she was bold and somewhat rude, but I was smitten, excited by her presence.

"My name is Cassius," I countered, "but my friends call me Cass."

"Cassius what?" she asked.

"Whatta ya' mean?" I retorted.

"What's yo' full name?" she demanded.

"Oh," I said dumbfounded, "Cassius Clay Winston."

"How old are you Cassius Clay Winston," she demanded again.

"I'm eleven," I answered. "How old...?"

"I'm twelve and I'm oldest," she interrupted. "That means I run this."

"Run what," I asked.

"This."

"What's this?"

"Our relationship."

"What realtionship?," I wanted to know.

"You my new boyfriend," she informed.

"Yo' what?"

"You heard me," she corrected, "my new boyfriend."

"How? Why? Whatta you saying?"

"I'm saying, I got first dibs on the new kid, so now you my boyfriend."

I was befuddled. Definitely shocked. I was about to continue to figure out Gabriel's angle when Moms pulled rank.

"Cassius!" Moms screamed out from the front door. "Quit messing with that fast tail lil' gal and get yo' butt over here."

Boy was I relieved. Moms had helped save me from a terrifying moment, but to tell the truth, it was more exciting than terrifying. I couldn't quite figure out Gabriel's motives. We hadn't even fully moved in our new home and I instantly became her boyfriend.

"I gotta go help my momma finish moving," I informed Gabriel. "I'on know when I'll see you again."

"Bye," she said, trying as hard as a twelve-year-old can to be sexy. "I'll see you later Cassius Clay Winston."

I didn't know the girl, but I was indeed mesmerized. As I helped the family finish sorting our things I couldn't help but wonder why Gabriel was all on me like that. I didn't mind, I just wondered. I did know I had to tell Sonny.

"Sonny," I said, when my big brother ventured back out to the front steps. "Do you believe in love at first sight?"

"Man, naw," Sonny barked, "why you ask?"

"I'on know," I chickened out, "I just asked."