Lincoln Thompson hates the smell of crayons. He can’t stand their scentless wax smell. He hated how they crumbled if you pressed too hard and how they never seemed to really fill in the spot that a person wanted filled. 

Of course, that wasn’t the main reason he hated crayons. 

   Larinda Laster was the real reason he hated crayons. 

   He could remember watching her teeth turn red from the red crayon wax that she would chew in the first grade. It seemed to stick instead of melt in her mouth. There were crumbs in her teeth and the crayon seemed to still stand strong in her hand after such a devastating misuse. 

   Lincoln could remember her wide smile as the rest of the class cheered and whooped at her actions.

  “Eat another one, Larinda. Eat another one.” 

   Linc felt a chill go up his spine. 

            Dang, that girl nasty.

    He hadn’t seen her in a good 11 years. He heard about her. At one point, while talking to Drav and the crew, it was mentioned that her teeth were grimy and yellow now. 

   “I guess she started filling in her teeth with that sunshine-colored crayon.” 

   A few people at the reunion went, “Ayyyy…” in hopes that the joke could be taken back, Lincoln guessed. 

   A few giggled, but he simply sat there wondering how bright the crayon is. 

  Today, Drav was in more of an excited state than usual. He had mentioned a few times that he heard that her teeth were blue. While he spoke it was like his shoulders would bounce as he described all the potential rainbow shine that would come out of Larinda’s mouth. 

   Linc found himself praying that the other adults sitting around them wouldn’t really care to pay attention to them as they obviously talked smack about their supposed friend. 

  He couldn’t help but clock the fact that the waitress who had come to the table before gave them the stank face of the year- nose wrinkled and all- as she sat their hushpuppies and peanuts on the table. Just at that moment, Monica had started talking about how Rinda’s breathe smelled like factory metal and mystery mold. 

   “I am kind of scared that if she breathes on me I will have to get checked for fossil fuel poisoning, or some shit.” 

   Linc felt his face turn up, begging her to forgive the harsh conversation. His eyes were apologizing for how stupid these people were and telling her that he was being forced to be here. 

   And on a technicality, he was being forced- Drav wouldn’t do his favor for him if he didn’t show up. And although he hadn’t spoken to these people for years, besides Drav, he didn’t think that it would be this horrible. 

   In elementary school, he was the quiet follower that sat at one of the boys’ tables. He never had much to say. And if he is being honest his card stayed on green because he was sure that the teacher forgot that he was in the class. 

But he had noticed Rinda quite a few times. He could remember thinking how nasty she was for eating the crayons… and how stupid she was for letting the class cheer on the eating. She is even dumber for letting them change the color of her lips. 

    He used to think that she had rather pretty lips. They were thick and a tan color that matched her skin tone- a lightly smoked almond. Her teeth were rather white too. He could remember staring at them as he listened to her giggle at the rest of the class. It was cute at the time, but as Linc listens to it echo in his head now, it sounds a bit manic. 

    Linc replayed the sound in his head over and over while thinking about the brightness of her straight teeth and the thick surrounding of her lips. 

   “Nah, but forreal, what is she doing? Y’all know what she doing for work?” Quisha had taken time away from her wheezing to gasp a bit. 

  “Her goofy tail probably workin’ with CraZart to develop flavors for they markers.” 

   A harumph of laughter erupted at the right end of the table. 

    They continued to mumble and laugh talking about how Crayola wouldn’t hire her because they don’t mess with the product. 

   And just as Latuan was about to interject his own commentary, a sight of Black walked past Linc and made its way to the seat across from him. 

   He could see the black as leggings that shaped its way around wide hips and thick curves. A peak of skin was showing where one would expect to see a covered stomach. Instead, he only saw skin until all of it sat directly in front of him. 

    Then all he could see was hair-- a lot of thick onyx rivers that found a way to be individual strands, but large clumps. It seemed to go beneath the table. Suddenly, Linc couldn’t help but remember that Rinda had a head full of coils that never seemed combed. Sometimes, if he got close enough to her, he could see remnants of crumbled crayons in her hair from where she rubbed after rushing to rub away the crayon from her teeth. 

     Oh,  yeah, I remember. When she was in the reading corner that one time. She was cr-

   Her hair was straight now- for the coils that it would typically be. It framed a full face, bright eyes marked by curled lashes, and the same red lips. 

   The table seemed like it had lost vibration. In fact, the room seemed like it had lost oxygen. 

   “Hey, y’all! I am sorry I was late. I had some clients that were trying to set up last-minute appointments. How y’all doing? ” Rinda spoke, but while staring back at Linc, as if she was lost in him with her eyes. But her smile also seemed to be directed at everyone else. 

   The table seemed to erupt at once in greetings. 

   “Hey, girrrl!”

  “What’s good, Rinda.” 

    Linc felt Drav nudge him with his foot under the table. 

    Linc seemed to have to shake himself out of his trance and risked a glance at Drav.

    You see this, nigga? His eyes cornered themselves in Rinda’s direction. 

    He didn’t respond. 

    He was without a doubt dumbfounded. 

    She was wearing a crop top that framed her chest too well. Her leather caramel jacket reminded him of a movie that he had seen recently. An oldie. He couldn’t recall. Something from their childhood. 

The waitress made her way to our table. “Y’all think y’all ready?” She spoke while putting her pen to her receipt book. 

   The guys seemed to grumble various ‘yeah’s’ at the table. 

   The girls seemed to flutter “Ummm, yeah, y’all order first.” Speaking to no one in particular. 

   “Oh, y’all hadn’t ordered? I know what I want though.”

   Linc found himself speaking, “Oh, well, you go first.” His fingers gestured towards her.

      Nudge. 

   “Oh, coo’! Umm, let me get a large catfish dinner with potato salad, pinto beans, and coleslaw. Oh, and a sprite.” 

    Linc had witnessed the first bright smile from the waitress that night.

    “Okay, and since you are just getting here, would you like an appetizer or anything?” 

   “Oh, yeah! Could you get me some fried tomatoes?” 

     The waitress nodded. 

     Linc couldn’t help but smile at the big order. He could feel Drav nudging him consistently now. 

    The waitress took her menu and turned to Linc. He couldn’t convince himself to look at her until he finished his order. 

    He noticed she had a small smirk on her face at the end. It removed some of the tensenesses in his shoulders. 

    He sat back in his seat, moved his chair closer to the table, and spread his legs. 

    Rinda had started leaning forward, her elbows on the table. 

   The table began to vibrate again- some with people’s orders and others with secluded chatter.  

    Linc noticed that Rinda looked down at the table with light notice to the conversations that were going on. Some people had found a way to start conversations about their kids, their baby’s fathers and mothers, jobs they hated, and college courses they had or were taking. 

   Rinda’s fingers would sink into river hair-- attempting to move it away from her neck briefly. 

  “So, how have you been?” Linc spoke. His throat broke at the shock of moisture coming in. 

   Rinda heard him thankfully…

   “I am good. How about you, Lincoln? I heard about your business in Cali. I didn’t think that you would be here.” 

   She seemed to speak with all of her words coming together. 

   Linc smirked, sitting forward. 

  “Ah, how did you find about that?”

   She mumbled something about just asking around. 

   Linc rubbed his neck, moved the salt and pepper with his fingertips. He noticed that his middle finger had a callus on it. 

   “Oh, dang, that looks like it hurt.” Her fingers wrapped around his palm and she moved it closer to her. 

    Her fingers didn’t have any calluses. In fact, her hands were soft and her nails were perfectly almond shape with a tan-colored coat that glistened. 

    “There is a hand cream that you use to help with these calluses.” She started to rub the callus. 

     “Matter fact, I got some here.” She pulled out a very slim package from her inner jacket pocket. 

     “You just have that in your pocket all the time?” Linc could hear the laughter in his voice. 

     Rinda didn’t laugh with him. “Boy, yeah! This is basically my lotion. But it works, I use it on my clients all the time. I have a lot of tough work clients where they use their hands quite a bit. It helps ease the muscles in their hands.” 

    “Ahh.” Linc allowed her to add the cream to his calluses which suddenly appeared on his palm, it seemed.

    “Boy, I know this hurts.” She spoke so low, he wasn’t sure he heard her right, but he responded almost immediately. 

    “Nah, it doesn’t hurt. It comes with the territory. I have been working on a big project recently and hitting some all-nighters.” 

    “Mmm.”

     Her hands were so soft. 

    And as they continued on into the night, he noticed that she smelled like pomegranates and oranges. Her hair must be heavy. She had little dark circles under her eye- he knew those too well. 

    And she liked sour cream with her hushpuppies. Her catfish just had to have mustard and Louisanna on it. While biting into it, he noticed the contrast of the white of her teeth to the mustard. 

   Linc barely noticed that the rest of the table had started to discuss the old days again. 

   A few times Rinda would giggle and give her two cents to the conversation, hesitantly. 

   As if she felt guilty. 

  “Linc used to be so quiet.” He heard his name thrown into the mix. 

  “Whatchu mean? He still quiet.” 

   Rinda giggled and nodded with her eyes everted to her food. 

  “He was super quiet.” She mumbled again. 

   No one talked about Rinda. 

  After dinner, as they walked down the restaurant’s exit ramp he got close again. 

  As if she felt him at her back, she whispered something and turned around quickly. 

  Linc had to step back. “Here. I think that this will help you keep your hands from hurting.” 

  He chuckled. “They don’t hurt. Thank you though.” 

  He took the used package. 

  “Of course, if you ever want anymore, just contact me.” She smiled bright. He noticed that the street lamp revealed chocolate brown irises. 

  He chuckled again. “Okay.” 

   She nodded. And he watched her walk to her car- hair staying stagnant on her back. 

   It wasn’t until he ran out of cream that he remembered that he forgot to get her number.

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