Finest City Dreams

Chapter 26: Underneath It All

It was day one of anger management class for Charles. He was already running late. Ten minutes later, Charles finally showed up. As Charles entered the class, everyone turned around and looked.

"Mr. Iverson, glad you could join us. Take a seat please!" "Sorry, I'm late." "Try to be on time next time." Charles nodded and took a seat. As soon as he sat down, a couple of young women were checking him out. They both were smiling and winking at Charles. Charles was uncomfortable at the sight of the admiration. He looked away and tried to keep his focus on the instructor Mrs. Bennett. "We will be partnering up to do some exercises together. I've partnered everyone up."

Mrs. Bennett went through everyone's name and who they were partnered with. She got to Charles's name. "Charles Iverson, you will be partnering with April Lemon." Charles looked around to see who his partner was. It was one of the women that had been smiling at him earlier.

Charles shook his head. The young woman sat in the empty seat next to him. "Hi!" Charles tried not to look her in the eye. "Hey!" The woman scooted so close to Charles, he could smell her breath. She tried to touch Charles's arm. Charles moved it away from her. But what she did next would make Charles very uncomfortable. The young woman put her hand on his crotch and tried to grab his junk. "Ooh....ain't nothin' small about you." "Aye, excuse me! Miss, can I switch partners?" Mrs. Bennett had a puzzled look. "Mr. Iverson, what's the problem?" "My partner is doing too much. And I ain't comfortable with it." "No one has ever requested that. But I guess okay." Mrs. Bennett looked around the class. She spotted who she wanted Charles to switch with. "Mr. Miles, you will be switching partners. You're going to be partners with Ms. Lemon." Mrs. Bennett looked at Charles. "Mr. Iverson, you will be partners with Nicole Johnson." Nicole raised her hand so that Charles could see her. "Okay."

Charles made his way over to where Nicole was sitting. "Hey!" Charles shook Nicole's hand. "Hi!"

Charles and Nicole sat in silence for a bit. Charles finally broke the silence. "You don't look like you have any anger issues." Nicole shook her head. "Oh believe me, I do." Charles's eyebrows rose. "Really?" Nicole nodded. "Yeah, I tend to hold everything in and then one day I just snap uncontrollably. It just all comes out. I've destroyed things. I've hurt people." Charles scrunched up his face. "Damn girl! Well I guess you do need this class. "Pretty much. From what I heard, you need it as well." "Yeah I do. A lot of things have been goin' on in my life lately." "Like your cousin getting shot?" "You know about that huh?" "Who doesn't?" "It's okay. I know it's out there."

Charles and Nicole talked for a while. As partners, they needed to know about each other. Soon Mrs. Bennett stopped the class from talking. "I want each person to ask their partners "Where did the anger start?" Nicole asked Charles the question. "So what started your anger issues?" "My anger issues started when I found out that my dad was cheating on my mom. And on top of that, he got the woman pregnant. I have a half sister. Nicole looked at Charles with raised eyebrows. "Wow! So how is the relationship with your dad now?" "My dad is my manager." "What!?" "Yeah, he's really good at managing things. He can manage my schedule, my money, everything. But what really escalated my anger to a dangerous level was the death of my mother." "I'm sorry to hear that." "It's okay."

Nicole looked at Charles with sorrow. "If you don't mind me asking, how did your mother die?" "Brain aneurysm." Oh wow! That would make you mad." "It was sudden. Didn't have a chance to see her one last time or anything. So because of that, I started acting out. Started hanging out with the wrong crowd. Doin' things that were all bad. That's when my dad came back into my life and got on my ass. At first, I wasn't tryin' to hear it. I remember this one moment, when out of nowhere, he had me in a headlock. He was right in my ear. He said to me that I had two things waiting for me if I didn't get it together: Prison or Death. Take your pick! I finally listened." Nicole just shook her head.

"So what about you? Where did your anger start?" Nicole sighed. "My anger started from when I was bullied for having dark skin. I was called every name in the book because of it. From cockroach to blacky." Charles shook his head in disbelief. "I don't understand! You're an attractive young lady." "Well apparently I wasn't attractive enough. So because of that I had anger and trust issues. There were guys that would have this fetish where they only wanted to sleep with a dark skin woman. They never wanted to date." Charles looked down nodding his head. "I remember hearing things like that when I was in high school. I wasn't like that. But I knew dudes that were."

Mrs. Bennett stopped the exercise. The time had gone by so quickly. The first day of anger management class was over. "Everyone, have a nice day. I will see you in a couple of days. Please come and get your homework on your way out." Mrs. Bennett handed everyone some stapled papers as they exited the room. Charles and Nicole both got up from their seats. "Well it was nice getting to know you." "Same to you." They both shook hands. "You real cool." "For being a celebrity, you are as well." Charles and Nicole both walked up to Mrs. Bennett and got their homework. "Here ya go! And remember Mr. Iverson to please be on time." "I will." "Mr. Iverson!" Charles stopped before exiting the doorway and turned around. "Yes!" "Just because you are a celebrity doesn't mean that you'll get treated any different than anyone else in this class." Charles nodded with a smirk. He sarcastically responded back. "Okay." Mrs. Bennett just shook her head while watching Charles exit the room.