About three weeks passed and finally showed. I stopped bringing the paper to school when I almost lost it to a puddle. He was all bruised up, with a purple black eye. I paced back and forth waiting for him to show to the art room. Hours passed till he finally showed. He looked annoyed to see me, or maybe he just didn't want me there.
To be fair I did hound him with questions. After a while he broke his silence and told me "It was my dad." I stopped asking questions but I listened. He said his dad beat him because he missed school but he had to to miss school to recover from the beating. He also said he was just skipping but judging from all the money he had I did believe that to be the only motivation for this incident. I always felt conflicted about it, but I always felt pity for him. He was angry and hurt, so I listened. He ranted about things in a coated language, he would begin to speak candidly then catch himself and choose very specific wording, it was odd.
I tried to decipher it and the most obvious part seemed pushing sales to help the house out ment selling drugs or whatever he does to make money for his home. I tried to tell him, that he can just be a student, and if he's a good one he can make money when he's done. He looked down on my outlook, and I didn't blame him, it seemed naive as I said it out loud.
"I got too much going on for you" Ant said riffling through his pockets for his wallet. This one was a beautiful black pattern with a red, white and black snake zig-zagging across the fold. I think it's Gucci. He takes out a few hundred dollars and motions it towards me "here, I don't think I'll see you here again", he grasps my hand forcing me to palm the money.
"What do you mean?! I didn't want your stupid money, my friend I thought" I pushed the money back on him. He stays, turning away from me.
"So, I'm not playing. I'm not coming back to school." He hesitates and decides not to turn around.
My heart sinks. But I couldn't do anything. School was my way out of this place and I already let him hold me back. Maybe this was fate, he was gonna be his own person and so was I.
The money fell to the ground as he walks out of the class room.
