He Calls Me Coco (ON HOLD)

Ryan

Go on a date with me

Those words lingered in the air.

Jason agreed to get checked out even after I told him I'll think about it, but the truth was I couldn't date him.

I had to be with Ryan, there was no doubt  about it.

Jason sat in the ambulance outside in the school parking lot. Due to over capacity, students were moved here.

"Cassandra!" I turned around quickly to the familiar voice
"Mom!" She ran into me embracing me tightly, crutch falling to the ground instantly.
"Oh gosh my baby, you okay?" She checked my face, neck and arms before pulling me into her chest again.

"Mom I missed you"
We pulled away
"I've been waiting for hours. I came as soon as I saw the news. The officers wouldn't let me in" she grumbled looking over her shoulder at an officer who eyed us intensely.

"Mom I'm fine. We weren't aloud to leave until the coast was clear"

She sighed caressing my cheek
"My poor baby. You must of been so scared—oh my gosh what happened to your foot" she gaped observing my tightly bandaged ankle.
"Oh it's nothing. I sprained it trying to run away"
"I will kill him. This is your career, are they trying to ruin your life?" She fumed running her fingers through her brown waist length hair. 

The look my mother sported was her average glam. Long unprocessed Brazilian weave, it was died a natural brown that looked Auburn in the sunlight.

Her perfectly arched brows creased together in concern.
"You okay darling?" I nodded staring into her sparkling hazel eyes.

She rubbed my back soothingly with her long oval shaped nails, something she always did when I was little, that were painted a matte black.

Nails and hair were the only thing on her that weren't real, everything else was.

Her wide set hips, perky breasts, full lips and dark skin was everything I got from her. My features resembled my father.

I nodded again wrapping my arms 'round her waist
"So is Ryan here?" I sighed stepping away

5 minutes. She cared for five minutes, that's the longest she's ever gone.

"No he's in the hospital. He was shot in the arm mom" I stated bluntly, hiding the hurt in my voice.

It was better this way, even if I was upset she wouldn't notice.

"WHAT!" She screamed

Many people stared at us including Jason, who was getting his abdomen rewrapped.
"Ma"
"This is horrible! Is he alright? Does he need anything? Have you called his parents? God this will ruin everything"
"He's fine ma" i whispered lowering my gaze

She glared at me shaking my shoulders violently
"THE HELL HE IS! HE IS YOUR ONE CHANCE OF GETTING OUT OF THIS SHIT WHOLE AND YOU RUINED IT"

"Mom please people are staring"
"Shut up" I kept quiet bringing lips into my mouth.
"This shit is ridiculous. ITS YOUR FAULT HE GOT SHOT, IF YOU ONLY SLEPT WITH HIM.."
"MA!" I screamed, tears streaming down my face

I was taken aback by the impact of the slap that struck my face.

"We are going home right now!"

People wore worried, sorrowful, disbelief and grieving expressions.

She dragged me out the lot to her parked Toyota Camry.
Danny, Jane, Jada and I locked eyes.
"I'll call you" Danny mouthed

I nodded not once looking back at Jason.

~•~

We drove in silence to the Mount Cambridge hospital, where he was being held.
"I thought we were going home?" I mumbled looking out the window
"I changed my mind" the conversation ended there and I was grateful.

Once we pulled into the parking lot, she got out walking briskly inside, not giving me a second glance.

I sighed fixing my cheer skirt, I still hadn't had time to change out of my uniform, I felt extremely exposed and vulnerable.

I grabbed my bag pack from the backseat getting out the car, slamming the door behind me.

My mother came out again placing her hand on her hips, glaring.
"You break it you buy it" she hissed storming back inside.

Shaking my head, I bit back more tears entering the building. Immediately I received more stares, disgusted looks and perverted glances.

Suddenly I felt self conscious, I normally didn't let stuff like this hinder my confidence but my mother's presence also made me feel like I was crap, that I needed to fit in and look a certain to be accepted into society.
I hated it, I felt helpless, unwanted, afraid to be alone.
Ryan and I were only dating because she knew his father, they had an agreement that we would get married to save his company. My mother held a huge some of money from the company Ryan's father worked for, when my father died it all went to me.

In my father's will, it stated that the only way the money will be released if I got married. Within three years of the marriage, I can transfer some of the money to my mother. I will be 21 then. By being with Ryan, his company will be saved and my mother will be rich. The money my father earned was for me, my college education. He knew my mother was a gold digging whore after he married her, he didn't want me to grow up without a father so he stayed with her.

Later, when I was 16. My father died of leukemia, he made sure I got the will from his lawyer and not my mother. She hated me ever since, my father loved me more than her and she swore to make my life a living hell.

My father's family agreed to take me in, I would of gone, sure but the only problem was that they lived all the way in Egypt, my father was Egyptian and my mother from Ghana.

My father was a dark skin Egyptian man with strong and sharp facial features, he had killer good looks, my mother told me. That's how she feel fell for him. Even after she was arranged to marry someone else, they did eventually get together. I missed him dearly.

"CASSANDRA!"

I jumped, surprised to see myself still standing in the hallway of the hospital
"Huh?"
"Get your black ass over here. Now!" She hissed pointing to the spot next to her.

"You can continue miss, I apologize"
The receptionist nodded
"He's in room 309. But he's under tons of medications, be careful please"

We headed there after getting the directions we needed, slowly opening the door. Ryan was laying on the bed unconscious and unmoving, my heart sank.
"Oh Ryan"