Just Perfect

Chapter 8

"I think we should take a break." said Mr. Bozeman as he dusted off his sweat pants from dust from the walls we were cleaning up and I took the liberty to take a seat on one the paint buckets that were to be used later on.

The job I had accepted to do for my brother was volunteer work to fix up an old building and turn it into a conducive youth center. The place was a 3 story building, having 3 large rooms on each floor. It had some space at the back so and we were going to turn that into a playground on one half for the younger kids and a multi-purpose court for the older kids.

Most, if not all, the people working on this project were aspiring college students much like my brother. They were all so jovial while doing their work, teasing each other and laughing, some throwing things at each other in good nature. I wanted to yell at them to stop but Mr. Bozeman didn’t seem to mind so I kept to myself.

Although I did not like being here, I thought it was a great idea, it would benefit the community in the long run.

Today was my first day here and my stomach was doing back flips, my anxiety rearing its ugly head.

"Would you like some water?" a deep masculine voice asked me and I snapped my head to the direction of the voice. I starred at the strange man, wondering why he was talking to me and I got a chance to scan his appearance, He was tall and lean, he looked like something out of a magazine with his chocolate skin, chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and short natural hair and mischievous eyes that made me weary, well.. more weary than i already was. His eyes, though; they were a strange color i couldn't see underneath his glasses.

The man who seemed to be in his early thirties shook a bottle of water in my face and I realized that I hadn't given him an answer, my throat suddenly felt dry so I grabbed the water bottle from him, mumbled a thank you and looked away hoping he would take a hint and leave.

He did not.

Pulling up his on bucket, he placed it a respectable distance from me, but still close enough that we could talk. “Are you also hoping to get a college scholarship, or you find this a fun part time activity?” He asked me. I had to fight the urge not to get up and walk away, making friends has never been my strongest area, so I said nothing, wondering the same about him.

After chuckling he added “don’t worry I know you are here for your brother whose hurt, its okay.” I rolled my eyes but he didn’t catch me.

“What’s your name?” he continued, I still didn’t speak. I wasn’t here for anything other than to work.

“Hey!” the man said having had enough “are you deaf or something?”

I slowly turned my head to look at him, catching a hint humor in his eyes. Everybody here seemed so happy and it annoyed me. He was just like Mr. Bozeman, giving him a straight face to answer his question. 

It seems he got the message as he began to chuckle causing me to narrow my eyes at him. I didn’t see anything amusing at the moment.

“I guess you are mute then?” he mocked. And that seemed to get me talking because then I felt pestered by this man.

“Look,” I began in a bitter tone “it would do your best to keep your opinions to yourself, they are not the least bit funny, your presence to me is troublesome and for the two minutes you’ve been around me you’ve been nothing but an intolerable ass.” 

The man looked taken aback and offended by my words but at the moment I was too irritated to care. Just as I stood to make my dramatic exit, I was stopped by Mr. Bozeman who just began to speak as soon as he saw the man and I having a conversation.

“Miss Chunda, you have met Mr. Ngozo?” I was about to answer but he continued to speak “he is my business partner and he is in charge of giving the students their scholarships, he will be in charge of giving your brother his scholarship as well, once you are done with the work here of course.”

“Which I won’t be doing!” Mr. Ngozo all but barked as he walked away from us.

Crap!