Serenity

Twenty Two

"I heard about what happened at school the other day," my mother said as soon as I stepped foot in the house. I let out a sigh, already knowing where this conversation was about to head.

"So you're not gonna say anything?"

"What is there for me to say?" I asked with an attitude.

"What? You don't have an excuse? You're not gonna try to explain your self?" She leaned her weight on her right leg and placed her hand on her hip, looking at me with a scowl.

"There's nothing to explain," I said, beginning to walk upstairs to my room.

"Don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you," she said, causing me to stop in my tracks.

"Ma, I don't feel like arguing with you," I said dryly.

"I don't care what you don't feel like doing. You're going to listen to me," she said as she walked closer to me.

"I'm trying my hardest to get you to live a life that your dad would be proud of, but you're trying your hardest to mess it up! I wish he was still here to put your ass in line!" She yelled as her voice cracked.

I looked at her without saying anything as her eyes began to well with tears.

"Why are you making this so hard, Malik? What is it that you want?"

"I just want to be left alone."

"Do you not understand how big of a sacrifice that was for your coach to make? If anyone finds out about it, he could lose his job."

"That ain't my problem. I didn't ask for his help. Why you care about the nigga so much, anyway?" I asked my mother. Her and Coach Davis had become awfully close for some reason, and it was strange.

"He was friends with your dad," she stated simply. "After he passed-"

"He didn't pass. He was murdered," I said coldly. "Right in front of me."

"Maybe, you should go to counseling. Some kind of therapy," my mom offered.

"So now you think I'm crazy?" I asked offended.

"I didn't say that, Malik. Just listen to me. You watched your dad get killed, and you haven't been right since then. You won't talk to me no matter how hard I try to get you to. Maybe you should talk to someone else. I know you're keeping your feelings bottled up and that's not healthy. Maybe it's the reason why you're acting out. Are you crying out for help?"

"I ain't crying out for no help. I ain't crying out for nothing, and I ain't talking to no stranger about my feelings!"

With that, I stormed off to my room.

...

The next few days were a blur. I skipped a couple days of school and kicked it with my boys Kelvin and them, until they finally forced me to go back to school. I got tired of them acting like they were my parents, but I just did what they said.

"Where you been at?" Trey asked when I made it to first period.

"I was sick," I lied.

"Yeah right," Trey said not even believing me for a second. "You ain't gotta lie, Craig."

"I just wasn't feeling it. What I miss?"

"Nothing much. We've been working on this okay, but our main character has been missing," he said sarcastically referring to me.

I smacked my lips.

"Well shit, Maybe she'll give the role to somebody else."

"I doubt it," Trey said.

I took a nap during the rest of the class, and hurried out when the bell rang. I noticed that Diamanté stayed back late talking to Mrs. Anderson. I don't even know why I was still paying attention to her moves anymore when I said I was done dealing with her.

As I was headed to my next class of the day, I stopped in the middle of the hallway when i heard my name being called.

I turned around to see Diamanté with an annoyed look on her face as she was looking dead at me. Who pissed in her cornflakes?

"What?" I asked.

"Mrs. Anderson wants us to stay after school to work on a few lines since you've been absent the last couple days."

"I'm busy after school." I said which was a lie. I just didn't want to stay and work on this stupid play.

"Well, you tell that to Mrs. Anderson. Maybe you should stop skipping school and you wouldn't have to stay after," she said with a slight eye roll and a hint of attitude in her voice.

"If I wanna skip, Imma do that. Don't worry about me," I snapped back at her.

"Well now, it's affecting me. I might've had plans after school, but now I can't do them because I'm forced to stay after because of you."

"That shit ain't my problem," I said a little too loudly causing other students in the halls to turn their attention to us.

"Get to class!" A teacher yelled in the middle of the hall.

Diamanté shot me a death glare before she walked off, bumping me intentionally in the process.

A/N: Please be patient with me 😭 some of these chapters may be a little boring but I don't want to rush things. Thanks for reading. I appreciate you guys so much! ❤️