Prior Knowledge: Falling for my

12.

Brittny

It's been 3 week since me and my mom took that Big step and escaped from my father. Ever since then we've been on hide out away from him on the other side of town. Me and Mom have been searching near and far for a New place to settle down for the moment. We were tired of hopping from one hotel to another. So one Day we were just driving around looking for some vacant apartments.

"So where are we going?" I asked My Mom As We cruised in her car.

"I don't know, Baby" She sighed.

While driving, I noticed We were going through a familiar block. It was decent, and I knew Ive been there before. I then realized where I remembered seeing this place from, when I seen Jacob's apartment building. A smile crept on my Face, but suddenly the car began to slow down. My eyes widened in confusion.

"Ma? Why'd you Stop?"

"This apartment building is beautiful..." she said As her eyes mesmerized the apartment building.

She began un-buckling her seat belt and Getting out of the car.

"Ma? Where Are you going?" I asked her As I was nearly panicking.

"I Wanna See if there's Any vacant apartments..."

Please tell me this wasn't happening...

"By 'vacant'... Do you mean 'For sale'?"

She smiled and said "Yup!"

Oh Shit, Oh shit, Oh shit, OH SHIT. She's thinking about moving into this building! No she can't Do This. This Will Get us caught For sure!

"But Ma, there's plenty of other Beautiful apartments in The City... Why This One?" I asked her in a shaky Voice.

"Well, it seems quiet and safe around here. Why Are you so worried?" She asked me with a 'What are you hiding' Look on her Face.

"Oh, I'm not worried. It's just, There's more places to look. Why here?" I said with a Fake smile. Thank God she fell For it.

"Aww, Baby girl! We have to start somewhere! If the pricing is reasonable, I know you're gonna like it Here!" She smile and began walking towards the building. I sighed and Went walking in behind her.

The Same Beautiful scene Had me mesmerized all over again. The thought of Jacob's soft kisses on me, made me smile and sent chills down my spine. I hadn't seen him since Friday in school, but We haven't had sex since that Sunday night I went to his house for the first time. Since then, I'm still yearning for his touch I was so caught in the moment, that I Didn't realize My Mom staring me down.

"You Good?" She asked me. I quickly snapped myself back and shook my head Yes.

We walked up to the lobby security and asked him where the landlord was. He told us to wait a minute while he go gets him. I watched as my mom made googly eyes with the security guard. He was actually a little cute. Light skinned, short curly Afro. He strangely reminded me of Diggy. He came back with the landlord. I wanted to laugh because the landlord was a short round guy. He was white and he was very well dressed.

"I am Brett Stuckey but you can call me Mr. Stuckey. How may I help you beautiful ladies this morning?" Mr. Stuckey said.

"Well, I was wondering if you have any vacant apartments Available? I was interested in renting One." My Mom said in her business voice. I watched how the security guard bit his bottom lip slowly as he was staring my mom up and down. Ew.

"Yes, Ma'am I have a beautiful 2 bedroom going For 2,000 a month. Does that please Your Need?" Mr. Stuckey said.

My mother scrunched up her nose at the price.

"Can we negotiate it down?" She asked. "I'm on a budget."

"$1,500 is the lowest I'm offering." He stubbornly said.

My mom furrowed her eyes. "$1,200?"

"$1,475..." he bid.

"Okay $1,300... C'mon! Lighten up." she said.

There was a slight silence as if Mr. Stuckey was thinking about his money.

"Okay, you're lucky I like you." he said.

My Mom smiled then said "Can We See it?" Mr. Stuckey also smiled Because He Probably made a bargain.

We Took the elevator To the 24th floor, The floor under Jacob's apartment. The elevator opened and We walked To one of the 3 apartment doors on the floor. It didn't remind me so much of When I went to Jacob's apartment, because he lives on the Floor That's basically the roof. His Apartment had it's own floor, and was probably the most expensive out of this entire building.

Anyways, Mr. Stuckey opened the doors and revealed a nice sized, empty apartment. It was somewhat smaller than Jacob's but it wasn't small at all. I roamed the apartment To find My room. It was a room big enough for any girl to want. It had a terrace and a walk in closet. I ran out the room and My Mom was already handing Mr. Stuckey our First months rent.

"It was great doing business Ms. Dixon. I'll go get the papers." Mr. Stuckey said while shaking My mom's hand and walking out the door. As soon as the door closed, Me and My Mom screamed To the Very top of our lungs and started jumping up and down.

"Now what're we gonna do!?" I asked My Mom. She Looked at me and said "Let's start moving in!"




For another 3 weeks, me and my mother were doing everything in our best ability to make this apartment our dream home. She still worked her behind off, which kept another few extra dollars in our pocket plus some left over money from my Grandmother's inheritance.

There wasn't much that we did to the apartment, but we did have all the basics of what it needed like, furniture. But knowing My Mom, she wants To Go Over board and Get more crazy paintings, and vases to "spice up" the place.

I can't say that things were all daisies and Daffodils. My Dad Did try to make a comeback in our life. He even confronted my mother at her Job a few times. He expressed how he's changed and became a better man. My mom knew he was filling her ears with bullshit, so she didn't even fill into it. My mom came to the conclusion that it was time for a divorce. I can't express how proud of her I was.

As for me, Life at school pretty much hasn't changed besides Roger sticking up for me whenever Diggy said something rude. I appreciate it, but I don't like the feeling of people having to stick up for me like I don't have a mind or mouth of my own. But Diggy has been the least of my worries lately.

Though, he still bullies me verbally, the physical abuse has stopped thanks to Roger telling him to cool it and Jacob throwing him into detention whenever he could. Yeah, Jacob has been lowkey helping me out with my bullying. Isn't that what Boyfriends do?

Yeah, we finally made it official a few weeks ago In school. I don't want to get into details, but He called me into his classroom for me to help him sort out some attendance. We still keep a student/teacher relationship most of the time, which made me think that these were one of those times. I was somewhat right.

I was sitting in the front row of his classroom during lunchtime, helping him out with attendance like I usually do. My eyes were focused on who to mark absent and who to mark present. While my head was down, I didnt notice Jacob walk over to me and slide me a note. I opened it and it read:

"I think Me and you should stop playing games and make it official..."

I thought it was gonna be a kiddy note with a catchy saying and some hearts. It was so persistent and straight forward instead. Right before the bell rang, I grabbed my book bag and slid the note back to him.

"Ok" it simply read. And from then on, things escalated. The only thing I hate about our relationship, is that it's a secret. So we're both practically single to the world. He can be a free man, and same for me. Speaking of being a free man, He's actually putting himself on the market while he's still with me. It hurts that it has to be like this... but I don't know how relationships really work.

Anyways, Right now I have to do the laundry. I threw My Hair in a quick ponytail and put on my grey sweatshirt with stripes, and my black sweats with My grey converse. I walked out of our apartment and headed for the laundry room downstairs. I Took the elevator To the laundry room and put everything into the washing machine, then I Just sat back and listened to my iPod.

I've been sitting For about 5 minutes, then the laundry room door opened. I looked up and I Saw Jacob walk in holding a laundry basket. His Hair was in a pushed back Puff ball and chills started moving throughout My body. I loved when he put his hair like that. It brought out his features more.

He noticed me sitting there and He smiled really wide and walked over To me.

"Hey, what you doing Here?" He asked with the smile Still on His Face.

"Laundry." I simply said. He bit His lip down seductively then yanked me up by My hand to make me stand up.

"Hey, Baby..." He said while feeling on my waist.