Complicated

13. News.

Since the visit, Michelle hasn't been herself. She forcibly wears a smile and everyone can tell there's something wrong, including the ones she lives with. At home, Michelle stays her room, trying to figure out what to do. For starters, she's packing up Jordan's stuff. Kiloni came in in the process. "Mom, what are you doing? Isn't that daddy's stuff?"

"Um.. yea.. it's not looking too good for him."

"Is that why you've been so upset lately?" Michelle paused. "I guess so."

The house had been dreary enough so she kept Jordan's results to herself. "Oh.. Just stay strong. God works in mysterious ways," Kiloni said.

"Your father does too," Michelle thought.

"Thank you, Loni," she kissed her forehead. "So what brings you here? You need anything?" Kiloni was ready to tell her mom about Chresanto all along. "I just came to check on you, that's all. Just to see if everything's okay," Kiloni lied. "Haha, other than your father's situation, I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Michelle hugged her daughter. In the relationship they had, they never hid anything from one another. This was a first.

Football tryouts have been going on for a couple days and the cuts were finally made. Chresanto and Roshon looked at the list together, along with the crowd around it. 24 people tried out and 5 people were cut for the junior varsity team. Shockingly, Roshon was not one of the people who got cut. Neither was Trevante, Ilianeliz or Chresanto. "Oh my God," Roshon said. Chres smiled and nodded at the list, making his way out the crowd. "I knew we would get in."

Roshon rushed out of the group of people to walk with Chres. "Now what?"

"We're JV players. We're gonna celebrate."

"What are we going to do?" Chresanto began to smirk. "Leave that up to me. I'll tell you later." He rushed off to class, leaving Roshon alone. Out of nowhere, Trevante came and leaned his arm on Roshon's shoulder. "Looks like we're gonna be team mates! I'll be sure to treat you like one, just the way you like," he hollered. He leaned off and walked off to class. It had Roshon officially annoyed and a little bit spooked.

As Chres made his way to the halls full of people, he bumped into another friend of his. Jake. "Just the guy I wanted to see," Jake said. "What do you want?"

"Watch that attitude. I want you to stop snitching to my girl."

"She's my friend so I'll tell her what I want."

"Well, what you tell her about me is none of your business so shut up about it or-"

"Or what?" Chresanto said, stepping up to him. "Or I'll deal with you myself.." he replied, shoving him.

"Go ahead." Chresanto dropped his bag on the floor. "I'd like to see this." Jake tossed his bag to the side and tried to sneak a punch for his face. Chresanto caught his fist and gave him a left hook, causing Jake to stumble. Everyone in the halls turned their attention to the two boys fighting. They made room for a clear view of the fight and began recording it from their phones.

Jake spat onto the floor and ran to tackle Chresanto into the lockers. He kept him on the wall by the shoulders and punched him dead in the nose. Before he could punch him again, Chresanto grabbed his shoulders and kneed him in the stomach and uppercutted Jake. Chres shoved him down to the ground. As Jake fell, he grabbed onto Chresanto's shirt, making it to rip open on the front. Hitting the ground, Chresanto got on top of him and punched him senseless until a teacher finally broke it up. Better yet, it was the coach. "Break it up, break it up!" he shouted, pulling Chresanto off of Jake. "Principal's office! NOW!" he demanded at Chres. Gripping Chresanto's arm, he pointed at Jake with his free hand. "And you! Head to the nurse then to the office! You're a bloody mess."

After the fight was over, Chresanto was out of breath with a ripped shirt and bloody nose. As for Jake, he was bruised up, bloody and barely conscious. The coach walked Chres back to the main office. "The hell is wrong with you, boy? You get on the football team and get decent grades and you pull this shit?" Chresanto didn't reply. "Answer me!"

"He started it.."

"How the hell did you get caught up in that?"

"Helping a friend." Coach Valdez's stern look softened up. "Was it worth it?" Chresanto nodded. "I can't believe this but I'm going to forget this happened. I won't penalize you for this. You got a good heart, kid. It's just your head is screwed up. Get it together." Chresanto looked down at the ground and rubbed his arm. "Aight.. Thank you."

"Yea yea yea." Finally at the office, the coach and Chres explained everything. As for punishment, he was immediately sent home and suspended for 7 days, due to the damage on Jake. The coach offered him a ride home but instead, he went to the hospital to visit Jordan. On his way out, he saw Jake walking to the office with another teacher. In his eyes, Chres could tell he was in deep shit.

At the hospital, he checked through the window to see if Jordan was in his room. Slowly opening the door he peeked his head in. "Hey.."

"Chresanto! Hey!" Chres walked in closing the door behind him. "What happened to your shirt?" Jordan asked. "I got into a fight with Jake and got suspended."

"Why the hell would you do that?!"

"He's bad news for Kiloni. He told me to leave her alone about it but I said no. So we fought."

"..did you win?"

"haha, yea. He pretty beat." Jordan let out a deep sigh. "You must really like her.."

"I do.. I really do."

"Let me tell you something.. if you like her as much as you say you do, keep her. Don't drive her away or break her heart or anything. Appreciate her. One thing's for sure, things get tempting and before you know it, she's out.." Jordan thought about Michelle as he said those words.

"What have I done..?" Jordan thought.

"I'll remember that.. thanks."

"No problem."

"You should probably get home before Michelle has a breakdown."

"You're right! I'll visit you soon, alright?"

"Yea yea, just go." Chresanto ran out the room, leaving Jordan to his thoughts. He finally realized his mistakes and it just made him want to die quicker.

Back at school, Jake was still in the office, Courtlen was sleeping in class, Kiloni was finding out about the fight and Abby was at the nurse. Abby laid in one of the bed in the nurse's office. All of sudden, she ran to the bathroom and began to puke. She didn't get why. She had a big breakfast and it's not even 9AM yet. As she thought harder, she realized that her period was more than a week late. She got off the bathroom floor and approached the nurse. "Do you have pregnancy tests?" The nurse's eyes widened as she got up to rummage for the tests. Finally finding one, she gave it to Abby and she ran back to the bathroom. About 10 minutes later, the process was complete and the results were in. Positive.