Zakiya and Rylander.

Angry Girls And Some Happy Sappy Anger Management.

ZAKIYA

I sat on the stairs outside the school, waiting for my mom to pick me up, when someone beeped at me.

"Need a ride home?" Jasmine asked, sticking her beautiful face out of her window.

"Nah... my mom's coming for me," I said, off-handedly.

"You sure?" she asked, her pretty smile quickly turning deadly.

"Yes..." I said, beginning to freak out when she opened her car door and stalked her way towards me.

"Listen up, rag-head," she snapped, so viciously that I was taken aback, "I don't know what you've done to my boyfriend, but I'm warning you, he's mine."

"What the-?"

"He's only interested because you're exotic and you're uptight. He's nice like that- he'd want you to loosen up. So, just because he bought you gloves doesn't mean he's interested. Just because I picked them out for you doesn't mean I'm okay with whatever you want to do with it. You're such a hypocrite-"

"Get out of my face." I snarled.

She recoiled and steeped away from me.

I looked up at her from where I was sitting.

"I'm not interested in Rylander, thank you very much. He's just a friend."

"Do you really expect me to believe that?"

I kept quiet and counted to five. As much as I wanted to, it wouldn't pay to punch her in the nose. Then I looked at her and smiled brightly.

"Yes. Yes, I do. Look, there's my mom. See you tomorrow!"

I picked up my bag and carefully sidestepped her. Pausing, I looked back at her and added.

"Rylander's my friend because he wants to be my friend. Not because of any of your extremely insane theories."

"How sure are you?" she hissed.

I smiled again and walked off.

My mom was at the edge of the parking lot, already dressed in her scrubs.

"Who was that?" she asked, the moment I popped into the front.

"Oh, you know, somebody from school."
"That's obvious," she said, pulling the car into reverse, "But, what's her name?"

I kept quiet for a while.

"She's...she's Shukri's daughter."

My mom nearly ran into the navy sedan on the freeway.

"I didn't know..." she murmured, as she steered her SUV smoothly away.

We sat in silence until we reached the building. Before I left the car, she grabbed onto my wrist.

"You would tell me, if anything happened, right?"

"If what-?"


"Just anything," she said, visibly disturbed. I paused for a while and watched her. Maybe I didn't realize, but the events of six months ago may have hurt her as much as it hurt me. Then I swallowed and nodded. She exhaled heavily.

"Even if I'm disappointed in you for landing yourself in so much trouble... I want you to know you can tell me anything. If anyone hurts you... I will buy a gun and shoot them in the knees."

She said this so vehemently, that I actually believed her.

"Mom, it's okay. Nothing is going on. She offered me a ride- I denied."