Seventeen year old Safaya Bennett must navigate young adulthood under the stresses of her sins, her crumbling relationship with her twin sister, Rue, and a crippling mental disorder that makes her very dependent on her relationship with Nate Jacobs...
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A Glimpse Into When Saf and Nate Met For The First Time
Eighth grade was supposed to be like every other year with Saf and I.
I guess you could say we had a certain set of privileges granted to us by the school administration. Our parents made a point to speak to each principal we had, explaining to them the severity and legitimacy of my sisters dependency disorder—how I was her anchor to peace and stability.
I never left her side and she never left mine.
It was part of the more tranquil years. Sure we were fighting daily mental battles but at least the trauma of losing our Father and drug use hadn't been on the horizon yet.
Our dad dropped us off at school early, giving us time to unload our new school supplies in our lockers and find our new classes with time to spare. I watched Saf smooth out her cream butterfly printed top as she took a deep breath. Big brown eyes staring ahead as she tried to mentally wrap her head around the idea of another school year.
Summer was always Safaya's favorite time of year.
She would be home all the time, watching tv or hanging out with our dad before she went to bed, only for her to get up and do it all over again. She had a routine. A fixated, day to day, routine that was only disrupted when she was forced to attend school with everyone else. With kids who never tried to understand her and saw her as an outcast because she processed life differently.
But that first day of eighth grade, things would change and completely alter the trajectory of her life.
It was about noon and the day had been going perfectly. Saf and I had every class together listed on our schedule and our classmates allowed us to sit near each other for the past three classes. We just needed to survive a couple more and we'd be fine. It was math class, my absolute least favorite but Saf excelled at it—so sitting near her would prove convenient for me when it came time to take tests and exams.
The teacher stood at the front of the class, counting in her head the amount of students present in her room as three kids were positioned in the back of the class with no room to sit. With her class bursting at the seams, the teacher looked at her roster and waited for a vice principal to arrive. I thought nothing of it and neither did Safaya as we just spoke between ourselves and waited for the issue to be resolved.
"You okay?" I asked her quietly, making her turn around in her seat to face me.
Safaya grinned, a soft nod being thrown my way. "I'm actually having a good day." She said lowly. "Maybe this year things will be different, you know? Changing for the better." She said optimistically, that's how I knew she was in a good mood.
But just like our later lives proved true, the minute we began to feel like life was on track it was instantly thrown off the rails.
"Ms. Bennett?" We heard someone call our last name.
