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XIV

Gravity -Tyler, The Creator/Brent Faiyaz

RAKIM:

Lithia Springs High School: Mableton, Georgia

"I need help," I said over the phone, "I made a huge ass mistake." Amala was on a trip for a volleyball tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, and I was trying to explain my conversation with Jordan to her over the phone. She only had a small amount of free time away from volleyball, so I had to make it quick.

"What is it that you need help with, exactly?" she replied, sounding exhausted. "I think I made a fatal misunderstanding with Symere's situation." I explained.

"Are you telling me that you think that he's lying?" Amala asked, "Because if that's what your about to preach to me, you can go ahead and hang up."

"No, no, no, no, no, that's not what I'm saying," I continued, "what I'm saying is that I misunderstood the situation; I sort of misdirected my concerns and such."

"Uhmmmm, ok?" Amala questioned, "Explain please?"

"Ok so don't freak out, but you know that dude Jordan that was hanging with Sy on Friday night?" I asked. Amala mhm'ed in response. "So I just found him in the bathroom, upset as hell after he supposedly walked in on Symere and Montero really getting into making out with each other in another bathroom. I wanted to to comfort him because he seemed really upset, and he explained to me about how he was extremely nervous around Symere and nervous about liking another guy because of being criticized for coming out before, and not wanting to hurt Symere, which he unintentionally did while not thinking straight."

Silence prevailed on the other end, until Amala interrupted with: "Wow, uh, that was a story. You're sure that you trust this kid?" I told her I did, and she hesitantly agreed with me, telling me that we would discuss it in more depth once she got back from Tennessee. I dropped Jordan's Snapchat and Instagram usernames, and let her go back to her volleyball.

I opened my Snapchat, and viewed Symere's story. There was a mirror photo of him in Montero in the bathroom posted about 2 hours ago, which did correctly line up with the events I witnessed with Jordan. "If the times line up, it's either an extreme coincidence, or Jordan is telling the truth, and I know that I don't believe in coincidences." I thought to myself. It was this that made me believe Jordan, and trust him more than just in words.

I continued to explore through the numerous snaps and stories, and came across a snap from Jordan, snap name: "$IR CARTIER🤑👽🥵". I laughed at the name, and opened the snap.

$IR CARTIER🤑👽🥵: any word on sy?

I took a photo of my steering wheel, with the parking lot in the background, which I was sitting in, waiting for the traffic to filter out. I captioned my snap:

RAKIM MAYERS🥱: nah, but I saw his story of him in the bathroom with monty, so I know you ain't lyin

I sent the snap, satisfied that I was helping someone out. With that, I shifted ASAP out of park, and began to drive through the roads that connected the parking lot to the main road. The traffic that occupied these narrow exits reminded me of Atlanta freeways in the occupancy rates; nobody moved anywhere, and all the exhaust smoke that arose in the humid Georgia weather pissed off the environmentalist aspect within me.