Beautiful People

Three: Kiss your pretty face

Cyrus' POV

"When have you ever cared?"

"I thought so. You're just like them, Cyrus. No better."

•••••••••
I thought about her words in Math. Mrs Harrison had given us a test paper to practice while she went to see the Principal.

Little did she know how I feel about what I had done.

When we were in grade school, her parents died in the St. Anne's Hospital fire. She didn't have many friends then because she was so smart. Everyone hated the fact she surpassed them except me and her other friend Quinzel.

She used to be confident and not care what the others thought and said. I remember a time when she brought me over to her house and I met her mother.

She made us strawberry scones and asked me questions.

•••••••••
"So Cyrus, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
" A pastor like my grandaddy, " I said with no hesitation.
"Really? I like a boy with ambition. So you'll help my Keia do what's right, right?"
" Yes, ma'am. I won't let her down. "
"Now that's something I need to count on you for," she said seriously , when Keia had gone to the bathroom. "Promise me you'll never ever let my baby down."

I promised.
•••••••••

I broke a promise to a dead person. That's enough to make anyone shiver for forgiveness.

What had I done?

On the day of her parents' funeral, I was nowhere to be seen. My old friends told me that at funerals you have to kiss the body. I was foolish enough to believe them and go fishing instead. The next day, Keia came to my house and asked me why I hadn't come. I told her the cut I got on my leg from a fishing hook hooking me was a dog bite and I had to go to the clinic for a rabies shot.

She believed me until one of my friends mocked her at school saying, "No one likes a teacher's pet. Not even Cyrus, your friend ditched your dumb funeral to hangout with us at the lake."

That was when she officially lost herself. She lost her smile, her laugh, her confidence and resistance to torment.

And it was all my fault.

I ditched her again in high school when her gran died. By then, she was just trying to forgive me and give me a second chance.

I was prepared to go and everything until my dad prohibited me from going. He said her grandmother was involved in some deep street crime and that caused her to be killed. He told me that he never wanted to see me talk to her again. When I tried to sneak out, he whipped me. When I argued he whipped me again, saying I shouldn't get involved in poor people street crime.

It was brutal and he had ways of finding out if I ever told anyone 'our family's secrets'. So I avoided Keia until she hated me. And that brings me to where I am now.

She sat in the front row, her pen dancing on her answer sheet swiftly like this was child's play. On my hand, these equations were vexing me almost as much as my conscience.

I wish there was a way I could make it up to her.

                                                                        ∆
After math, we went to Biology. I shared every single lesson with her.

Mrs Harrison came back and had to talk to her while we shifted lessons. Then I had an ingenious idea.

We got to the labs and the school's hottest girl, Selena Jackson, immediately aimed to sit with me. We had dated for a while then I dumped her after she tripped Keia in the cafeteria last semester. She likes to pretend she doesn't care but here she was in her skimpy white denim shorts and lacy yellow tank top, trying to get paired with me in bio.