Pavane for a Lost Boy (Or Rather, How to Survive Loss after Rejection)

Chapter Eighty-Eight

I sat down my pen. Finished. A slow smile creeps up on me as I turned in my AP Econ pre-exam quiz to a grateful Mr. Burke before collecting my things and leaving the classroom. I huffed a sigh, knowing that lunchtime was in a few minutes, but feeling a bit glum that my friends were still in classes with preparations for exams.

"Demario."

I whipped around to see both Zoe and Valerie, both dressed in casual winter clothes, walking towards me before giving me hugs. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"We just stopped by to take you to lunch," Valerie commented as she brushed back a braid from her face. "Zoe and I were finished with our finals at SMU and we just came home for Christmas vacation. That, and we owe you a visit since we missed out on your birthday party yesterday."

Mr. Tucker had explained that his daughters were busy with term papers and exams as they were graduate students and were unable to make it, but did send over an amazing portrait of my late maternal grandparents that one of their classmates did alongside a set of sheet music and skincare products.

"Well, I'm down for a good lunch myself, but I have to be back in time for classes," I told them.

"That's why the Callaways offered to set up a catered lunch in the conference room," Zoe replied. "And Val and I want to talk to you about something."

"Well, then. Let's go."

Fifteen minutes later, we were in the conference room of the main office as the girls (alongside the newly-arrived Nguyen twins,  Gianna, and Jose) sat down to a lunch of steaks, baked potatoes, and gourmet salads from a trendy bistro with glasses of iced tea and brownie cake for dessert. "Demario, I'll cut straight to the chase," Zoe began. "You remember the day of your suicide attempt, right?"

I nodded slowly. "I wasn't feeling my best version of myself back then," I admitted. "Back then, I was newly disowned and left wondering what was happening next. I wasn't street-smart enough to survive; and going into drug-dealing or prostitution wasn't my forte, never mind the fact that Grandma Lottie Mae would haunt me from the dead if I did either."

Valerie bit back a smile, knowing that my grandmother didn't play around with youths involved in the street life. "Well, Zoe and I were checking in on you that day when we found you," she intoned. "Demario, what we saw made our blood run cold..."

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FLASHBACK (The Day of the Attempt, Third-Person POV)...

"I still can't believe that Mrs. Bader just up and cut Demario from her life, not to mention arranging for him to be homeless," Zoe spat angrily as she and her family reconvened at their apartment, groaning at the sounds of rap music playing in the hallways as the remaining members of the Bader-Simmons-Ingram families were whooping and celebrating Demario's misfortune. "I knew that his family were full of snakes and shit, but this is a new kind of low even for them."

"I worry what'll happen to Demario now that he'll be homeless in seven days," Mrs. Bader commented as Valerie joined her in the kitchen while her other daughter and her husband were in the living room. "That poor boy did everything right, even planning his parents and siblings' funeral without any help, but he ended up getting kicked in the mouth."

Mr. Tucker harrumphed loudly, sitting down in his favorite recliner, the TV playing the news. "Lottie Mae made me and everyone else in this aparment complex promise to take good care of her grandson," he said morosely. "No thanks to her daughter, we failed to keep our promise to him. I failed."

"We didn't fail him, Daddy," Valerie hummed, helping her mother with covering some chicken wings in flour. "Vivian blackmailed anyone and everyone she could to ensure that Demario didn't have it easy. And while most of these people aren't as squeaky-clean as others are, she wanted to have an iron-clad grip on Demario's welfare and wanted him miserable. Some of us tried to ease his load, but you know how her crooked-cop brother is. If the Ingrams has their way, they'll jsut hire someone to kill Demario and make it look like he killed himself."