Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

The narrator of the story, Cassie, is writing to Tessa, who died in a car crash recently. Cassie notes how little they knew each other, as their entire relationship was six months in gym together bonding over the fact that neither was interested in participating.

Although Cassie does not attend Tessa’s funeral, given how little they knew each other, she does think about what it would be like to talk to Tessa’s mother there. She imagines telling her that her daughter “shook [her] life to its foundation” (99).

Cassie remembers their few conversations in gym class, during one of which Tessa tells Cassie that she assumed she was a lesbian, especially based on the way she looks at Angela in gym class. Cassie is shocked by the cavalier way that Tessa discusses her possible queer identity, thinking of how much it would mean to her life if she was, in fact, a lesbian. She becomes worried that other people think of her as a lesbian, but Tessa simply shrugs.

Cassie reveals that it has been six months since Tessa died, and all she has done is think about her and her features—eyes, nails, and her “red, red lips” that were “silenced and a part of [Cassie] was entirely relieved” (105).