Tiny Steps |Bwwm|

I

|ASHER

Dallas, Tx

Miss Jacobs, my Calculus teacher was sitting down on her chair, tears in her eyes. My classmates rushed out of the classroom, not caring about our teacher's little crisis. I stayed because I liked her. "Miss Jacobs, are you okay?" I asked. She shook her head and answered me.

"Asher, class is ended. You should go home. Don't you have football practice?" She wiped her eyes with a tissue and looked at the clock. "The team is counting on you. You're their tight end." We were in November and football season had started for us already. We didn't make it to the championship game this year which was okay. You couldn't win it all.

"It ended for us." I was happy to be a senior, and also quite happy that high school would soon be over for me. So why are you crying?"

I laid my backpack against her desk and knelt beside her. She turned her chair around so she could face me. I did that a couple of times with her. This wasn't the first time she cried. I knew then there was something seriously wrong with her.

"Found out my marriage was a fraud. He was married to another woman. That bigamist is in jail now so good for me. Yay." She sobbed some more. "He also committed fraud and we lost our house. I have a one-year-old daughter and that makes it worse. Such is life in Texas." Wow, that was bad luck.

"I'm sorry, Miss. Jacobs. What can I do to make you feel better?" It was sad to see her in this state with no one helping her that much.

She moved her hand down her straight hair with these cute curly extensions. Miss Jacob's always had these cute hairstyles. Her expression slid into a frown. "Don't call me Miss Jacobs anymore. Call me Skye. Only when no one is around." She let go of a soft chuckle. Yeah, Skye was her name.

"I'm sorry this is happening to you," I told her.

"I will be okay, Asher. Awe, you're so nice." Skye was Black and was extremely young. She was thirty to be exact. Even though I was eighteen, I couldn't flirt with my teacher or anything because that would still get her in a lot of trouble. But things changed that day. I flirted with her. Miss Jacob would get in so much trouble with the law if that was the case.

"I can't ignore a beautiful woman like you." I held her soft hand. "Everything will get better, darling."

Her lips that was painted in red, relaxed. "Asher, you shouldn't do this. It's not right." She got out of her seat and started packing her stuff. I helped her out with that.

"Skye, I don't have practice. Do you want to get something to eat?"

I wanted to pay for it. My mom and dad were realtors with their businesses while I worked little hours at a body shop on the weekends to pay my bills and stuff. So I had three hundred dollars in my wallet to buy us food so that was good. I didn't want to rely on my parents like that. This was why I would be getting a full scholarship to a college of my choice.

"I'm not too sure. Don't you have a girlfriend?"

"Not anymore. Let me take you to eat."

And talking about my relationship issues.

I had a girlfriend, but she left me for some rich guy at school. He broke up with her and that caused her to want me back. But I didn't take her back. "Asher, I can't. My babysitter-" Her expression slid into a frown. There were lines on her forehead when she looked at me.

"Can we eat at your place then? We can pretend it's a restaurant." I ran my fingers through my short straight black hair and knitted my eyebrows. "You're not interested in a loser White boy like me. Right?"