Building Trust Through Our Issues

Chapter Eleven (Part I)

Aaliyah POV:

"What you want for your birthday baby?" Demarcus asked me as he walked me to my last class of the day, anatomy.

"Surprise me." I smirked. He rolled his eyes playfully before smacking his lips. "Are you coming over today?" I asked him.

"I'm not sure. My Pops supposed to be coming in town." He said making my eyes widen. Demarcus doesn't really talk about his dad much, but what he does say isn't good. He's always talking about how he's never home but yet he defends him for not being a good father to him.

"I wanna meet him." I said hopeful he'd say yes.

"I don't think that's a good idea Li." He said shaking his head. "I don't want you to be involved with him like that. He's not a bad person, he's just in some heavy shit and I don't want you in that environment." He explained.

"My daddy and my uncles all used to sell drugs. My Uncle Manny still does it. I've been around it all my life." I told him.

"I don't care." He said giving me a blank face. I rolled my eyes at him and tried to walk passed him. "I'm doing this to protect you. No offense Janae, but sometimes you can be dumb as hell and you don't think things through all the time. My Mama was like that too and it got her ass killed. I'm just looking out for you baby." He told me.

"I understand." I sighed dramatically as he wrapped his arm around my waist. "You've never told me no before." I pouted.

"Spoiled girls be like." He laughed.

"Shut up." I said hitting his arm. We both laughed as we approached my classroom. He released me before kissing the top of my head and pushing me inside the room.

"See you later." He called. I had a grin on my face as I made my way to my seat at the back of the classroom.

"Bitch, what you grinning for?" My friend Mimi, asked me making me smirk. I shook my head at her before placing my bag on my desk and then sitting down.

"No reason." I laughed.

"Mmmm. Demarcus fine ass must've done some of his little tricks on you." She sang as she twerked in her seat.

"Stooooop." I giggled.

"Y'all cute though." She smirked.

"It's not even like that. We're just friends." I told her, seriously. My parents told me I couldn't date until I was sixteen and I was trying to follow their rules.

Mama always said that it's best to be friends with someone before getting into a relationship with them. If they're willing to wait then that shows that they respect me enough to go through the friendship process and that I'm worth it.

"Hmm. Whatever you say Li." She said giving me the eye. "When he lays it down make sure you tell me how it is."

"Shut up. You know I don't have sex." I said smacking my lips.

"You won't be saying that fooling around with Marcus. You know how he is." She said giving me a knowing look.

"Yeah, whatever." I said rolling my eyes. She was right, Demarcus did have a bad reputation when it came to girls. I liked him but I wasn't trying to be another one of the girls he fucked and ducked. Especially since I wasn't having sex any time soon.

***

"I'm so damn tired." I complained as I struggled to walk of off the football field. Our cheer coach made us run the whole field twice and do suicides before running the bleachers ten times. I felt like I was about to die.