“You sure? That’s not what some of the other students said.” He folded his arms and pressed his thin lips together.

  “Yes, it was me,” I puffed out. “Go ahead and call my brother,” I mumbled as I put my head down and shifted my weight from left to right.

  I was now following Mr. Yates down the hallway to his office. Once we reached his office, I entered, plopped down in the black chair across from his desk and pouted. While I was sulking and in my feelings, he was dialing my brother’s number.

  I rolled my eyes to the back of my head when he began to tell my brother what happened. I knew that when my brother entered the office, he was going to give me the blues.

  Moments later, my brother’s tall, bulky frame burst through the door. The evil glare he gave me had me sitting up straight on the edge of the black chair. Even though he wasn’t my father, I feared him in a way. I hated for him to be mad at me and I didn’t want to disappoint him. That’s why I had kept me dating Whoodie on the low.

  “Are you losing your fucking mind yo?” he roared, causing me to jump and for Mr. Yates’s eyes to buck a little bit.

  I didn’t respond. I wasn’t in the mood to go back and forth with him because the first thing he was going to do was throw Whoodie up in my face and how he didn’t approve of the shit. That was something I already knew and something he didn’t have to keep fucking repeating because I liked who I liked, and there was nothing that he could do about it.

  Shit, I wasn’t losing my mind, I was just in love. I was in love with a nigga that just fucked up from time to time.

  “So, you don’t hear me? Don’t play with me. I don’t give a fuck about him being in here, us being on the school premises, none of that shit. I will fuck you up in here, Kee. Especially if you think I’m about to let my sister be out here fighting over some bullshit ass nigga.” He was so mad at me right now that his nostrils were flaring out.

  I, on the other hand, was sitting there with this stale ass look on my face.

  “Yeah, you look fucking stupid. Fix ya face.” He mugged me, as I tried to fix my posture and also the crazy look I had on my face.

  As he continued to talk and ramble on, I couldn’t handle the shit he was saying. Getting up, I stormed out of the office, leaving Mr. Yates and Jaxsyn to discuss my punishment.

  I sat on the bench that was placed right against the wall and pulled out my phone. Of course, Whoodie had texted me. Just like most cheating, lying ass niggas, he was telling me that he was sorry and it wouldn’t happen again. All I could do was shake my head as I tried to fight back the tears. Even though his words weakened my heart, I could no longer keep reading them, so I stopped and didn’t bother to respond to him. I needed time.

  Ugh. I exhaled as I locked my phone back, slipped it into my backpack and ran my fingers through my hair. Moments later, my brother came out of the office with a scowl on his face. I was too scared to even say anything to him. I wanted to know what my punishment was but I figured he would tell me when he was ready to.

  Jaxsyn was like a father I never had. When we were little, he always tried to protect me from my mother’s boyfriend. I remembered us getting whoppings for no reason from him, and Jaxsyn would always get it worse on his end because he tried to protect me. He always had my back no matter if I was right or wrong, but I knew that with him having such a dislike for Whoodie, he was going to be extra hard on me.

  “Let’s go.” His tone was deep and stern. I hopped up to my feet and followed behind him with my head down. I felt like a little girl again.

  Once we got to his car, I got in and looked straight ahead. The eerie silence that filled the car was making my stomach hurt. I held my breath, as I counted down the seconds until he let his words take my head off.

  “Don’t lose yourself fucking with that lame ass, out of state ass nigga.” He frowned as his jaw clenched. “You deserve better.” He sighed, shaking his head with disappointment written on his face.

  As we drove off, I was feeling dumb as fuck. I didn’t admit this publicly but my brother was right. When it came to me being with Whoodie, I was settling. I mean in a major way. He didn’t deserve me. Whoodie had the good about him but his disrespect would sometimes outshine the good.

  “You’re going to make me catch a body,” he tossed out there as his grip tightened on the steering wheel. The words came out so calmly that I had no choice but to believe that he was for real. He wasn’t riled up or talking loudly. He was cool like and his face was relaxed.

  I sat there with wide eyes, shocked. Turning slowly back around, I replayed what he said in my mind. I wasn’t dumb to the things that he was doing in the streets but hell, I didn’t think that he would ever go as far as killing somebody. Yes, my brother got a lot of respect in our city. People fucked with him the long way and for the most part, there wasn’t a nigga around that would purposely disrespect me. Well, except Whoodie. I guess with him being new to the city, he wasn’t really caught up on what niggas to fuck with and which ones not to fuck with, but I knew that if he didn’t get his shit together soon, my brother was going to put his foot up his ass. I personally wasn’t ready for all the drama that was going to come with that.

  Exhaling, just thinking about all of that was stressing me out. My brother and Whoodie both. I hated that the person I loved, my brother hated.

  However, even though I had listened to my brother loud and clear, and I even agreed with certain things he said, I still found myself texting Whoodie back. Sadly, I had accepted his apology but I still decided that me and him needed a little space until things cooled down between me and my brother.

  It was now four in the morning, and the sound of light taps on my window had awakened me. At first I thought I was tripping, but the taps continued so I raised my head and looked around.

  Rubbing my eyes, I dragged myself out of the bed and made my way over to the window to see what and who it was. Once I reached the window, I pulled the black curtain back, raised the window and there he stood, fiddling in his dreads. To me and most of the girls at school, Whoodie was fine. His shoulder length dreads that were dyed blonde at the tips were only the icing to a perfectly made chocolate cupcake. Along with the dreads he had tattoos, everywhere. Luckily for him, our school didn’t give a fuck about nothing. They were too busy trying to stop drug deals or fights. Dress code, tattoos, or even skipping school was something they didn’t too much worry about.

  Whoodie didn’t have a mouth full of golds, instead, he only decorated his two canine teeth in gold, which shined every time he flashed a smile or talked. His sexy ass accent always did something to me. Each time he said “baby” that shit turned me on and had me jumping in his lap, pussy wet.

  The first day I laid eyes on Whoodie, I was ready to fuck. He just did something to my insides that had me running around in heat, like a female dog.

  No, I didn’t fuck him right after we met, but I would be lying if I said we never had sex. To be exact, I let him fuck for the first time a couple of months ago and ever since then, things had changed. He felt like he owned me and I felt like I couldn’t be without him.

  “Come here.” He looked from between his dreads that were draped in his face, making him to appear dark and soulless.

  “What is it? Is everything ok?” I asked concerned. The way he was looking had me wondering was everything ok. He appeared to have some deep shit on his mind.

  Whoodie took his hand and tossed the few dreads that were falling forward to the back. “I just want to talk.”

  Nodding my head, I stepped back and rushed to my bedroom door. I made sure to lock it just in case my brother tried to peek in, like he did most nights.

  Grabbing my jacket, I then went over to the window, crawled out and stood in front of Whoodie, as I waited for him to tell me what he wanted.

  “Baby…” he began talking, causing my heart to flutter just from that one simple word.

  “Yes.” I pushed my hands in the pockets of my jacket and looked into his deep brown eyes.

  “Wait.” I paused as looked around. “Let’s move over here,” I suggested. I wanted to be as far away as possible from my brother’s window. The slightest sense of Whoodie being in our yard talking to me wasn’t going to do nothing but cause a whirl of drama.

  Together, we eased around the other side of my house. We were now far away from my window and also my brother’s. Where we stood, we were closer to Mrs. Daisey’s yard than ours.

  “So what’s up?” I questioned.

  “I want to talk about yesterday,” he confessed, and I swear that shit blew me. Why in the fuck did he want to talk about this shit at this time of morning?

  “You seriously here at four in the morning, in the cold may I add, wanting to talk about the shit that happened yesterday?” The look on my face was one of confusion and aggravation as my temples throbbed.

  “I said I forgave you, what more do you want from me?” My voice rose because this was a touchy subject. I had been trying to forget what I had witnessed but here he was bringing it back up, like it wasn’t his dumb ass mistake.

  Like, I wasn’t even over the shit yet. I was still hurting. I was still trying to convince myself that I wasn’t as dumb as I felt for taking him back so soon.

  I actually caught his dumb ass cheating on me and took him back and here he was wanting to talk about it. I shook my head and placed my hand on my hip as I waited for him to respond.

  “Aye. See, fuck it.” He waved me off and began to walk off.

  It was the typical Whoodie, getting aggravated when you didn’t say what he wanted to hear or handle the situation the way that he wanted you to.

  Ughh. “Fuck it,” I agreed as I shrugged my shoulders and began to walk off. I wasn’t about to nurse his feelings when he was the one in the wrong. Fuck it. Fuck him.

  “Seriously Keisha. Why you gotta act like this?” He had turned back around and was walking towards me.

  Rolling my eyes and blowing out frustratedly, I turned around with him storming towards me with an evil glare.

  Once he was in my personal space, he grabbed me by the face and began to squeeze my jaws tightly as if he was trying to make me spit something out. He began to ramble on and on about our relationship as if I was the problem. As if I was the one fucking over him.

  “I love you Keke, no doubt, yeah.” He leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “But I need you to stop trippin’ on me. Just stop.” He was now getting louder and was squeezing tighter as the tears began to fall because he was hurting me. I hated when the dark side of him came out. It was like one minute he loved me, then the next minute he was acting like a damn crazy person. It was like he became some type of demon. His eyes would darken and it seemed like his soul left him.

  As we stood there in the dark and cold, the light in the room across from us flashed on. My mind went to wondering because last thing I knew was that Mrs. Daisey stayed there by herself now.

  The curtains flew back and there she was. A girl. Whom I had never seen before. The panic and shock in her face, probably matched mine.

  “Whoodie, somebody is looking at us. She might call the cops.” I struggled to get out because he was still holding my mouth tightly.

  He swiftly looked over his shoulders and stared into the window at the girl. Once the girl’s eyes meet Whoodie’s, she quickly shut the curtain back but the light never went off.

  “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He let my jaw go and kissed me in the same spot that he was holding tightly.

  Running off into the night, Whoodie left me standing in the cold. Stunned, I massaged my jaw, as I stood there with a million emotions traveling through my body. He had done it again. He found a way to make me feel embarrassed and weak.

  Tightening my jacket, I scurried back to the back of the house, climbed through the window and got back in bed. While I laid there, I cried. I cried hard as fuck because my love for Whoodie was keeping me in a relationship even though he didn’t deserve me.

  “Get up Kaizlyn, it’s time for school, hunny.” My grandma came barging into my room, talking loud and cheerful.

  “Are you up?” she walked over to the side of my bed and asked, while shaking me.

  With one eye open, I nodded my head. “Yes, I’m up.

  “Alright now. Let’s hurry it up. We can’t be late, I have to register you today.” She patted the side of my bed then walked out.

  Huffing, I stretched my limbs then ran my hands over the top of my head, pushing back all of the lose strands of hair out of my face. I was tired as fuck. The last thing I wanted to do was get up and get ready for school.

  Last night, I was woken up by the sounds of voices outside of my window. Curiosity got the best of me, so I had peeked out of the window to see what it was. It was some girl and dude arguing. I could tell from the look in her eyes that she feared him and she felt embarrassed. I knew it all too well because the last morning I saw my mother alive, she had that same look.

  The view from the altercation had made it hard for me to go back to sleep. It caused memories of my mother to flood my thoughts and then next thing I knew, the water works came. Then when I did finally go to sleep, here came my grandma talking about some school.

  Yawning, I dragged out of the bed, grabbed my toiletry bag and went into the bathroom. I cut the shower on, stripped out of my clothes and took a shower. Once done, I dried off, brushed my teeth then got dressed. Normally, I was concerned with my appearance but I was starting to care less. Especially, since most of my stuff was old. I hadn’t gotten any new clothes in months.

  Man, I missed my mom, I pouted as I sat on the bed so that I could put on my shoes. My mom made sure to buy me new stuff every week; she made sure that I was dressed in the latest.

  Sighing, I stood to my feet, grabbed my book bag and left out of the room. Entering the living room, my grandma was sitting down on the sofa, eating a piece of toast and drinking a cup of coffee.

  “There’s toast and eggs in there,” she mentioned and looked towards the kitchen.

  “I’m ok,” I let her know. I wasn’t in the mood to eat. I was just ready to get this day over with.

  “Ok, let’s go.” She smiled as she got up and put the cup in the kitchen sink.

  While she walked off towards her room, I walked out the front door and decided to wait for her by the car.

  Once outside, my eyes fluttered towards the same girl from last night. She was standing on the porch in front of the front door of her house. The moment she noticed me, she put her head down and got into the nice car that was parked in their driveway.

  The sound of my grandma’s car unlocking caused me to look away for a split second, and when I turned and looked back in her direction, the guy that helped my grandma with her bags was coming out of the house, with a beanie on his head, pants sagging low, and a Nike black hoodie on, not paying attention to me or any of his surroundings.

  “You ready baby?” My grandma pulled me out of my trance and then we both got in the car. She drove to school with her church music blasting through the speakers.

  “Alright, have a nice day. I’ll be here to pick you up,” my grandma informed me as she gave me a huge smile and a hug before she walked off.

  I stood there with the white piece of paper in my hands. Looking down at the schedule, I had no clue where to even begin. Room 146c was written very small in black ink next to my first period class. Folding the paper up, I put it in my back pocket and began searching for my class.

  While on the search, I noticed once again the girl from last night, posted up against the wall with a scowl on her face. Also, the guy who was also outside of my window with her turned and looked at me. I couldn’t forget that darkened stare if I wanted to. The way he let his eyes roam all over my body gave me the creeps as he licked his lips and nudged his friend standing next to him.

  “Damn ma,” his friend with a fresh fade and light brown eyes mumbled as I made my way past them.

  “Say new girl,” the same dude continued to call out as he ran up behind me and grabbed my arm. “What’s your name?”

  “Why?” I snatched my arm away, rolled my eyes, and looked at him. I made sure to back away from him, a little farther to keep our distance. I didn’t know him or nothing about this school.

  “Oh, you feisty. I like that shit.” He licked his full, pink lips and rubbed his hands together as he checked me out.

  Scrunching up my face, I looked at him as if he was trash before I walked off and continued on about my business. I could tell what type of nigga he was just by the way his pants sagged damn near to his knees, showing off his white boxers, right along with the gold grill that he had in his mouth; he wasn’t my type. The way he stepped to me as if I was some type of hoe was so disgusting. Don’t get me wrong, bad boys could be cute, but it had to be the ones that showed respect, not this fool who was standing in front of me.

  To be honest, talking to a boy was the last thing on my mind. Ugly or not. My heart was still hurting from the way Melo did me. I was still trying to find a way to heal from all of that. Truthfully, I never got a chance to. The death of my mother hit me like a ton of bricks and I just ended up burying the heartache I felt from Melo leaving me.

  “You can walk away but baby girl, my crew don’t take no for an answer,” he shouted from behind me and I quickly kept on walking.

  I personally didn’t care to know anything about his crew. After what I saw last night and just from the people that were in his crew, I knew I didn’t want no dealings with any of them.

  After getting lost through this big ass school, I ended up having to get help with finding my class. Finally standing outside of my first period, I took in a deep breath, reached for the doorknob then entered. I damn near wanted to walk back out when my eyes landed on the same guy who had just tried to talk to me. He was seated in the back of class but thankfully, he hadn’t noticed me yet because he was too busy flirting with this almond-colored chick who had had long, curly extensions.

  “Nice of you to join us. Can I check your schedule?” the very petite teacher asked me as she walked over to me with the biggest smile on her face. She had a hot chocolate skin tone with curly bob cut, that framed her round-shaped face really well.

 

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