Am I Settling?

2010

As time went on, Sonde thought of Xolani less and was actually deep in like with Krystal. They were together for a year and a half and he really valued her. She became his girl best friend and they understood each other.

The love they had for one another ran deep because they were able to support and be honest with each other.

Krystal's parents were alive but things weren't great. The accident caused her father to be lame in his right leg and he was a bitter drunk after they stopped filling prescription for pain meds. He never beat his wife or kids but he was very mean and verbally abusive.

Too much had been said that was harsh for anyone to hear but Krystal was a growing girl, a harsh world where you were judged for everything.

She was often teased for being light skin, so light she would have been racially ambiguous had she not had such black features. Coarse, kinky coils that went to her shoulders with a wide nose and large lips and a big butt for someone her age identified her as black but her gray green eyes had others claiming she was mixed. She was generationally mixed but nothing recent enough to give her such pale skin and light eyes. She didn't understand why she looked the way she did because both of her parents were brown and chocolate.

Time went on with Sonde still pining for the attention of his mother. He had accepted the fact he would never get her full attention but he still craved it.

Sonde sat in class day dreaming half way through his work. He was bored and honestly didn't think 7th grade would get more boring. How could he focus when it made him want to sleep.

The door of his classroom open and revealed one of the assistant principals with a list and some students. Kids were getting split up all the time so it didn't interest him until he heard the name Badu.

It wasn't a common name and it made his heart quicken.

Could it be, the girl he was forgetting, was here in the same room.

He could lie and say he forgot her but with her this close, all he could think of was how pretty she was and how her laugh once sounded.

Sonde sat at one of the few tables that had an empty seat. He hoped she wouldn't be sat next to him because he knew he would get himself in trouble with staring at her.

Thankfully she was sat next to a boy named Brandon. Although he was trying to ignore her presence he couldn't anymore when he heard her voice. She sounded angry and he, along with the rest of the class, turned to look at her as she spoke.

She was telling Brandon he was rude and he better watch himself before he end up with a trip to the nurse. Brandon laughed her off, he had been jumped numerous times for his smart and reckless mouth.

"You stupid bitch, you think I'm posed to be scared of yo bougie ass? "

"You don't gotta be scared to get your ass beat. " She was calm, too calm, almost as if she was anticipating his next move and was ready to counteract it.

Brandon was a punk and would hit girls if he felt like he'd been disrespected and he surely had been tried.

His hand reached out and punched her in the jaw and her head turned with the punch.

Before Sonde knew it he was across the class and was ready to get in Brandon's ass but she beat him to it.

She had recovered quickly and landed face shots before he started hitting her back. This seemed to enrage her further and she started landing every hit.

Brandon wasn't about to be beat up by no chick who he started fighting her like he was a dude and just as Sonde landed a few hits on him, Brandon screamed out in pain and soon blood was noticed.