Woke

7.)

Chris:

I'd left Kiara in her dance room and had gone to the bathroom. I promise that was my sole intention, but her house was so nice and curiosity got the better of me.

Walking down the long corridor, I curiously peeped into each room. The center door at the end of the hallway was the master bedroom-- which I assumed belonged to Kiara's mother. It was humongous and looked very clean, but I didn't have much interest in it. The room to the left of that was a weight and exercise room with all kinds of equipment. That made sense, seeing how fit Kiara was. I made a mental note to try and convince her to let me work out there throughout the basketball season, because I didn't want to pay for a gym membership.

I found multiple guest bedrooms and bathrooms, all of which were nice. There was a music room with various instruments, recording studio microphones, and professional sound system equipment that I was impressed with. Given the band class we shared, Kiara being musically inclined wasn't a surprise to me, so I continued on.

I finally found Kiara's room. It was painted gold and black and was the size of a normal master bedroom. Her bed was huge with tan colored canopy drapes. On the walls were numerous posters of famous Black people, ranging from Malcom X to Nicki Minaj. Her curtains were tan to match the canopy drapes, and there were 2 other doors that I assumed connected to her closet and a private bathroom. Her room overall was very nice and a good vibe, but also kind of expected. I was curious about this girl's story. What made her Kiara Washington?

I decided to continue exploring. There was one door beside Kiara's room in a dark corner. It was shut like the others, but something about this door was different. Almost... concealed. I knew this room was significant somehow. I also knew that it was a terrible idea to touch it.

My hand wrapped around the knob. It was ice cold, causing me to retract my hand for a second. My gut was seriously screaming for me to turn around and walk away, but my stupidity was pushing and pushing hard. Swiftly opening the door, I automatically felt the atmosphere shift. I was hesitant to step in, but nonetheless I slowly did. It was dark, other than a single lamp shining. This made the entire scenery look much more ominous. Since there was only one lamp on, I couldn't really see, but above the lamp was a picture frame. It seemed to glow, as I stared at it.

It was a man.

He looked pretty young and actually very handsome. He had smooth, brown skin similar to Kiara's. He was smiling in the photo and I took notice of how a single dimple showed. His brown eyes seemed to sparkle, as if he found whatever he was looking off at amusing.

Something about the man was intriguing, and I wanted to see more. However, the sound of the door slamming against the wall scared me. I turned to face Kiara, and boy did she look pissed.

"What the fuck are you doing in here?"

I flinched at her voice because she wasn't yelling, but her tone was dark and cold.

"I-I was j-just- I-uh-I--"

"I-I uh-I- I was j-ju- oh now you can't speak English?" She crossed her arms and stared icy daggers into my face. If looks could kill, this particular one would have slaughtered me.

"I'm sorry." I softly spoke.

Kiara's jaw clenched and unclenched numerous times, as she attempted to steady her breathing. She closed her eyes, and I saw her lip tremble slightly. I took this as my cue to exit, so I swiftly brushed past her and headed downstairs.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. I scolded myself, as I paced back and forth. I felt like an idiotic asshole. What I did was beyond disrespectful and the worst part about it was that I was well aware of it. I was being so nosy that I went out my way to snoop through Kiara's home. Clearly I found something that was very deep and personal to her, because I'm pretty sure she was about to cry. Now aside from feeling like crap, I was even more intrigued by her. I wanted to know more about her, and that room she so desperately tried to hide.