Intertwine

77 - She Said No

I blushed. "That was really really nice of her. I'll say thank you when I see her after school today." I was going round to his place to study and have dinner. Clint had begrudgingly allowed me to go as long as I kept up with the physical training he'd begun to do with me on the side after school everyday.

He sighed, embarrassed. "I'm sorry Ti, you're coming round and everything and I told her it was stupid-"

"No, no, I wanna eat them, I'm sure they'll be lovely and I can't wait for this evening."

His face lit up again. "You mean that?"

"Of course I do!" I grinned. "And I don't exactly get made lunches for school right now, it's all canteen food for me. Papa used to make lunch for me every day, and I kind of miss that." 

"WOAH!" Peter shouted, catching the object that had been sailing in the air towards my face. His hand was closed in a fist, inches from my nose. His reflexes had been instantaneous, and I felt my stomach do a backflip. I hoped for the love of all that was good in the world that it was just from the shock of nearly being hit in the face by something, rather than how attractive his fast reflexes had been.

"What was that?" I asked, watching Peter open his palm to reveal a stone. He looked at me, his brow furrowed, but we weren't confused for long.

"HEY!" A girl shouted from in front of us. She must have been about 18. "Hey you!" She was one of a group of about five teenagers on the sidewalk a few feet from us, all staring at me.

"Me?" I asked, pointing to myself.

"Yeah, go back to where you came from, we don't want you here!" She yelled.

Above my own humiliation and fury I felt Peter's anger rising. I placed a hand on his arm, lowering it from in front of me where it had remained after he had caught the rock she'd thrown. I shook my head at him, and then lowered my face and began to walk hurriedly past them, grabbing his hand as we went to drag him with me.

"I thought New York was normally better than this." He muttered.

"Racism is everywhere Peter, you can't run away from it." I whispered as we passed the group by.

"HEY!" One of the boys who was with the group called. We didn't turn around.

And then my head was being jerked backwards and I fell onto the ground, spots lighting up around the corners of my vision. I looked up at the group of teenagers standing above me and laughing. He'd pulled one of the braids in my hair. He'd pulled my freaking hair like some child in a playground.

"We told you to go back to where you came from." The girl sneered at me.

"Well," I grunted, as Peter rushed forward to help pull me off the ground, "that's only one state away so it's not very far but I doubt I could walk it in the five seconds you gave me."

"Where you really came from." Another girl in the group added.

"Where do you really come from?" I asked her, as Peter helped me up. "Germany? England? Poland? The United States has only been around for a few hundred years, and before that this place was full of indigenous people that were either killed or oppressed. Before that where did you come from? You came from Africa, like we all did." I snapped. Peter looked astonished. He'd never seen me this sassy, or this loud, or this talkative to a stranger. It wasn't really talkative though, it was just my anger. It was basically the same thing I said to every racist I came across.

"How dare you?" The girl who had just spoken stalked towards me. "You're one of the lot who does that terrorist shit, you should be ashamed." She pushed me, and I stumbled back onto the road.