Woke

38.)

Chris:

It was June, and school was finally out. But things between Kiara and I were... terrible.

Despite attempts to limit public knowledge, what happened at the hearing spread through the school like wildfire. Principal Karr was suspended indefinitely, and all of our teachers were put on probation while the school board continued their investigation. Eric, "shockingly," was hailed a hero for exposing the entire project and therefore received no repercussions for releasing our sex tape. If anything, Whitney got it worse because Tiana and Monica jumped her the day after the hearing. Since Mrs. Greene had returned to teach after spring break anyways, Taylor disappeared and we hadn't heard anything about him since.

With Operation: Inclusion now the hot topic of our school, the sex tape became a distant memory. Kiara and I were grateful for that part, but things were far from back to normal. We were being portrayed as a couple who stood strong against racial bias and harassment. Kiara and I were suddenly referred to as the "it" couple of our school, and people were going out of their way to be around us. We were told we should make a YouTube or TikTok account and become a social media couple, we were crowned prom Prince and Princess, and local news outlets were trying to get permission from our parents for us to do interviews together to create a "love conquers all" story. I knew everything made Kiara extremely uncomfortable, and I just outright hated the narrative everyone was trying to push on us.

But there was nothing I hated more than my dynamic with my girlfriend. After our confrontation with Eric in the parking lot, we went a week hardly speaking and not seeing each other at all. It was probably the worst week I'd ever experienced. I knew Kiara was still hurt about what Eric told her, but I didn't know what else I could do to prove to her that none of it was intentional. I just figured she needed space and time. When the silence became too much, she came to my house to apologize. We never actually talked about what happened the day of the hearing, though. We just agreed to put it all behind us, and that we loved each other too much to continue letting it affect us.

Things were fine for maybe a week or two, but it was clear the tension between us was growing. Our usual playful disagreements began to have an air of genuineness to them, until eventually we were always arguing over little things. As the weather grew hot, so did Kiara's temper. It seemed like everything I did would irritate her. I found myself canceling plans more and more often, because the thought of spending time together would exhaust me. It wasn't like I didn't want to see her, but all the arguing and tension was too draining. We could be sitting right beside one another, and I'd still feel miles away from her. I didn't know how much longer I could go on like this.

"What time do you have to be at the new house?" I asked her. We'd been sitting and listening to music in my room for a couple hours at this point. It was awkward, because we were laying together on my bed but we weren't touching. We were just laying flat backed, alternating between being on our phones and staring at the ceiling. Honestly? I had no desire to really touch her. I'd gone from never being able to keep a piece of my body off of her to feeling extremely nonchalant. It sucked, and I knew she noticed too.

"Uhm, the party starts at 7:30, so probably 6ish."

"Oh, okay." I looked at the clock to see it was just after 5:30. Would've been nice to know that earlier.

Kiara and her mom had officially moved in with Edward. About two weeks after our hearing, Edward proposed to Ms. Angela. His house was nearly the size of Eric's, and I knew Kiara was stressed about being alone in another big house. The wedding was going to be small and intimate, so it was happening sometime in September. Tonight was the couple's engagement party of which Kiara and I were about to go to. Edward's house was a little ways across town, so it would take about 20 minutes to get there.