Nine

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****

When it finally happened that cold January afternoon, he had been so nervous that he'd initially had trouble getting hard. He was constantly hard around her otherwise. Luckily, it happened. He had gone slow with her and was gentle to not hurt her. He'd come almost immediately, but she didn't seem to mind. They'd kissed, him still inside her. "I love you," he'd whispered for the first time, meaning it with everything.

"I love you too."

He wished he could have stayed in that moment forever. He'd taken her two more times that afternoon before they had been caught by her mother. He had wanted to stay to defend her, protect her. Atira was never a whore, he was the whore. She didn't deserve the words that her mother threw at her with so much rage.

Krist was vehemently against violence towards women, but if he could have socked that bitch in her face at that moment, he absolutely would have. Fuck her.

When he reluctantly left her home, he hoped she knew he loved her and that everything was going to be OK. He hated himself for putting her in that situation. Fuck, they could have waited. Had he pressured her into feeling like it was something they'd had to do?

Distraught, he had texted her countless times and called over the remainder of the weekend. He blew up her Facebook messenger. "Please tell me you're OK! If you need me to stay away from you, I will. I love you, Atira. This is all my fault. I'm so sorry!" By Sunday night, her phone was completely off, and Facebook was gone.

Krist had told Kali what had happened and asked her to call her, "Her phone is disconnected," she told him glumly, "And her Facebook is gone. Don't stress, little brother. I'm sure she will be at school tomorrow. Her parents probably think that cutting everything off means she won't see you."

"Yeah, you're probably right," he mumbled.

"It's going to be OK!" Kali insisted.

Despite the fact that Krist had been called a crybaby most of his life, he rarely cried. That night, he lay in his bed, tears rolling down his face.

Atira wasn't in school Monday, nor was she in school Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. When Krist told Kali that Atira had been out of school, she grew concerned. "Her parents don't know who I am. I will go over there and tell them I'm a friend from school and want to make sure she's OK. Maybe they won't even be home, and I can talk to her."

Krist felt optimistic. He just needed to know that Atira was alright, even if she did not want to see him again.

****

When Kali came home, he could see on her face that it was not good news.

"Krist," she began, "She's not there."

"Like, wasn't home or..?"

"Like they had her go live with her aunt. They didn't tell me where or how long, just that they felt Atira would do better there because she is not making good choices here."

Krist wanted to explode. He wanted to hit someone and lash out; instead, he began weeping. Like the little crybaby he was. His older sister cried with him, holding him like a child and rocking. The way she'd held him when he was a scared toddler.

He had never had such heartbreak in his entire life. There was no motivation to do anything. School was not something Krist enjoyed, to begin with, but being there without her made things all that much more unbearable. The dumb ass rumors going around didn't help. Kids were claiming she was pregnant, that Krist had cheated, and that she went crazy with heartbreak. Even Brad had gotten in on the gossip train, telling Linda that Krist got Atira kicked out of her home.

"What is going on, Krist? You have been depressed. Brad said Atira got kicked out of her house? What happened?" There was no point in lying. He told her the truth, "That just seems so irrational," she puzzled, "I wholly understand that, as a parent, that's not something you would want to see, but at the same time, you are teenagers, and it is bound to happen eventually. They should have stewed over it overnight and talked to her in the morning. Are you sure that's all that happened?"

Krist was offended by the question, "What else would have happened? That is it."

Linda sighed, "She's not pregnant, is she?"

"No, that was literally the only time."

"Just making sure," his mother responded, "If she was, I hope you know that we would support her in any way we can, whatever she chose. It's not the end of the world."

"She's not. If she was, I would tell you."

"Would it help if I tried to talk to her mom?"

Krist scowled, "Probably not."

"Would you be upset if I did?"

"No, it's going to be a waste of time though."

Linda had made up her mind that she would try to talk with Alexandria Allen. There had to be some misunderstanding on Krist's end anyway. It didn't make sense that a parent would send a good girl like Atira away just because she'd lost her virginity.

Unfortunately, Krist was correct when he told his mother that trying to reason with her would be a waste of time. Alexandria was unwilling to budge on her decision and even went as far as to tell Linda to work on her parenting. She returned, livid, and unloaded her opinions on the other mother to Bill. Bill, to her amazement, felt Alexandria had made the correct call.

"If your daughter was messing around with someone like Krist, you don't think you would want him as far away from her as possible?"

Linda, too angry to respond, stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.


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