Eternal Sunshine ✓

5. Monday Blues

It was now Monday, yet Steven still struggled to understand what Tasha had said to him at the party.

Granted, she was high, yet still, his mind kept replaying her words over and over again.

"It doesn't matter if you hate me or not. We're always gonna be at odds, especially in a place like Alabama."

She thought that it didn't really matter if he hated her or not, their differences were still immense, especially living in Alabama. He did not want to, but he saw where she was coming from.

He'd seen the way cops treated Malik, the way his mom talked about him, and the fact that people only liked Malik when he wasn't talking about race. Which was the reason why he didn't have many friends, many just saw him play basketball and chanted his name, never really knowing him.

Malik constantly educated his friends on the black experience, and Steven was glad that he had the opportunity to be told about it. Many of the students at Crest did not.

Steven's own mom was problematic, working in the justice department, Steven saw how totally biased and ignorant she was. To her, black was a synonym to crime. His father, on the flip side, seemed to agree on the acceptance of everyone, yet he never corrected his wife.

"Fuck!" Steven was frustrated, how was he gonna convince Tasha that he saw her dark skin, her thick curly hair, and voluptuous body and couldn't help but only see beauty?

He usually didn't spend much time wondering what had first enchanted him about her. He remembered memories of seeing her in his class in middle school, back when he didn't even dare talk to her.

She didn't know, but he spent his eighth grade year in Alabama at Strample Middle School, where Tasha went too. He was always in the shadows then, doing his best not to be noticed by her.

He tried not to think too deeply about the fact that he was literally obsessed with her. A girl who barely even saw him as a friend.

Steven sighed and turned off the shower head, ready to get out of the shower before he was late to school.

After getting dressed in his school uniform, he made his way downstairs, and into his massive kitchen where the family cook was making breakfast.

"Good mornin', Steve. How was your night?" Aria, the cook, was a short, plump, sweet white woman in her fifties, who'd been working for the Morrisons for almost two decades.

Steven gave the woman who'd practically raised him a side hug. "Good morning, Aria. My night was okay." He saw some bacon on the counter and moved away to snatch some.

"Hmm," Aria mumbled knowingly. "Dreamed 'bout that girl of yours, huh?" She could see from his expression that something was bothering him, she could only guess it was Tasha. Only that girl could get to Steven like that.

"Yeah, but that's not the problem..." He didn't know whether he should tell Aria about his love life like that. The only reason she knew about Tasha was because Steven had told her when he was in eighth grade and needed to confide in someone.

"So what is the problem?" Aria's hands were gripping a spatula as she mixed her pancakes made from scratch.

Before he could tell her his troubles, his mom walked into the kitchen. She was dressed in her usual work attire--a black pencil skirt and a simple yet expensive blouse.

"How's my boy doing this morning?" She gave her only son a kiss on the cheek and brushed off his uniform.

Steven tried to smile, act like everything was normal, but he hadn't been able to be his usual self around his mom in a long time. Since ever he could understand how truly ignorant many of her actions and words were.